22 Hornet Case Capacity

[Craig R McMullen]

I’ve been playing around with the Hornet and had some questions about case capacity. So far I’ve loaded Remington, S&B, and PPU cases. The Remington I can get the max charge of 14.4gr of Lil Gun into the case when using the Barnes 30gr HP. PPU and S&B top out around 13.4-13.6gr Lil Gun.
Has anyone loaded any other cases and found better capacity? From what I’ve seen the Remington has the largest case capacity. Has anyone tried Winchester, Hornady, Federal, ect? If so what were your results?

 

[philip brousseau]

Winchester is less than remington. I have only used remington and Winchester cases.

 

[SmokinJoe]

Remington has the most capacity of any Hornet case.

 

[Jager]

Measured case capacities in .22 Hornet (all cases previously fired, unsized), in grains of water:

Hornady = 15.1
Winchester = 14.2
Nosler = 13.76

 

[SmokinJoe]

I have some Hornady headstamp brass that I bought from Midway a few years ago that was sold as Remington that is the lightest (highest volume) Hornet brass that I own. Perhaps Jager's is the same. My Hornet brass from Hornady factory loads is not as light weight. You really have to check every batch that you buy to make sure you know what you have and get an indication of how to deal with it.
Also, Craig, would recommend that you go to AA1680, Alliant 300MP or Hodgdon H-110, all are much more consistent than Lil'Gun.
From another Hornet thread:
1) Hornady/Remington (sold as Rem by Midway but has Horn headstamp = 45 grs
2) Remington = 46 +/-
3) W-W = 49 - 50
4) Hornady = 50 - 51
5) PPU = 54 - 55
6) S&B = 55 - 56
7) RWS = 56 - 56.5

 

[TAJ45]

Sounds like some good info up there.

 

[Bojo]

Because of the small case volume one should load only same brand and volume cases. Small changes in a few tenths of grain in volume make for serious changes in chamber pressure.

 

[Craig R McMullen]

Thank you guys so much for the reply back. I’m going to have to keep an eye out for some more Remington and Hornady brass.

I wanted to see how case capacity, pressure and velocity spiked or didn’t spike. So I performed a test. I use this method when dialing in a handload. Some of you may be familiar with it, it’s called The Satteree method. If you’ve ever seen or used this method in load development I’d highly recommend looking it up. There are plenty of videos on YouTube explaining it. At any rate here are my results. One group is using Remington cases, the other Sellier & Bellot cases. I increase the powder charge each time by .2 grains, then record the velocities.

 

[Craig R McMullen]

One other thing I noticed when inspecting these cases were that the S&B primer flash holes have a bur punched the wrong direction. I’ve reloaded these exact cases a few times and haven’t had an issue yet, but I don’t like it.

Here is a picture of an S&B flash hole next to a PPU flash hole. If you look close you’ll notice the crown on the S&B. Every case is like this.

 

[SmokinJoe]

Maybe punched from the inside instead of from the outside like most. You could remove that burr easily with a chamfering tool small enough to fit inside the primer pocket. I will have to look at the S&B cases I have to see if they are that way, too.

 

[LCazador]

One other thing I noticed when inspecting these cases were that the S&B primer flash holes have a bur punched the wrong direction. I’ve reloaded these exact cases a few times and haven’t had an issue yet, but I don’t like it.

Here is a picture of an S&B flash hole next to a PPU flash hole. If you look close you’ll notice the crown on the S&B. Every case is like this.

I believe the S&B and the PPU cases are made at the same place and are made from recycled brass in Serbia. I've found irregularities in primer pockets and also in case head diameters, with very irregular case lengths and curved case mouths. Understand that all these imperfections lead to case problems later especially when fired in a rear lug firearm. Also forget about buying ammo and then reloading it because both of these manufacturers make ammo that is not intended to be reloaded. For a long time rear lug firearms were marked " to be used with factory ammo only" because of handloading issues. So be were of issues with max loads in two lug guns. I've used only RWS cases in both my Sako and my Browning for over 40 years now (both are front lug guns). Saved me a lot of headaches for sure. I wonder if there's any RWS brass imported nowadays. I use Win 260 and H110 both are now the same powder. What a great little cartridge the Hornet is!

 

[Craig R McMullen]

I believe the S&B and the PPU cases are made at the same place and are made from recycled brass in Serbia. I've found irregularities in primer pockets and also in case head diameters, with very irregular case lengths and curved case mouths. Understand that all these imperfections lead to case problems later especially when fired in a rear lug firearm. Also forget about buying ammo and then reloading it because both of these manufacturers make ammo that is not intended to be reloaded. For a long time rear lug firearms were marked " to be used with factory ammo only" because of handloading issues. So be were of issues with max loads in two lug guns. I've used only RWS cases in both my Sako and my Browning for over 40 years now (both are front lug guns). Saved me a lot of headaches for sure. I wonder if there's any RWS brass imported nowadays. I use Win 260 and H110 both are now the same powder. What a great little cartridge the Hornet is!

I’m shooting and loading for an old Savage 340 in 22 Hornet. I haven’t any issues with the S&B or PPU cases as of yet. I bought those box’s because it’s all that I could find at the time. I had 50 Remington cases and that’s what I’ve been loading since the capacity is so much more.
I took the rifle to camp and shot for groups today. I’m happy with the results.
The best group was at 13.9gr Lil Gun and had an average velocity of 3380fps with a 30gr Barnes bullet.
Lil Gun and IMR 4227 were the only powders I had or have on hand. I’ve found the IMR 4227 to be quite anemic in the Hornet.

 

[Craig R McMullen]

I believe the S&B and the PPU cases are made at the same place and are made from recycled brass in Serbia. I've found irregularities in primer pockets and also in case head diameters, with very irregular case lengths and curved case mouths. Understand that all these imperfections lead to case problems later especially when fired in a rear lug firearm. Also forget about buying ammo and then reloading it because both of these manufacturers make ammo that is not intended to be reloaded. For a long time rear lug firearms were marked " to be used with factory ammo only" because of handloading issues. So be were of issues with max loads in two lug guns. I've used only RWS cases in both my Sako and my Browning for over 40 years now (both are front lug guns). Saved me a lot of headaches for sure. I wonder if there's any RWS brass imported nowadays. I use Win 260 and H110 both are now the same powder. What a great little cartridge the Hornet is!

I’ve found the PPU brass to be much much nicer than the Sellier and Bellot brass. The PPU is actually fairly consistent. The S&B case heads were crappy straight from the factory. I doubt it’d pass quality control in most circumstances within the U.S.

 

[LCazador]

I’m shooting and loading for an old Savage 340 in 22 Hornet. I haven’t any issues with the S&B or PPU cases as of yet. I bought those box’s because it’s all that I could find at the time. I had 50 Remington cases and that’s what I’ve been loading since the capacity is so much more.
I took the rifle to camp and shot for groups today. I’m happy with the results.
The best group was at 13.9gr Lil Gun and had an average velocity of 3380fps with a 30gr Barnes bullet.
Lil Gun and IMR 4227 were the only powders I had or have on hand. I’ve found the IMR 4227 to be quite anemic in the Hornet.

Good shooting! I use Remington brass with 35g Hornadys in my RPM pistol so I can differentiate between my pistol rounds and my rifle rounds in case things get mixed up.