22 K-Hornet Reloading Question

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I have reloaded shotgun, pistol and rifle ammo for over 30 years, but the only wildcat experience I have is with the 7-30 Waters.

I just bought a new 22 K-Hornet rifle barrel for my T/C Contender. The 22 K-Hornet reloading dies are on order. I have 200 new 22 Hornet cases that I'm going to load. Since these are going to be used in the K-Hornet chamber, will I have to resize them to begin with or just load them and shoot them to fireform the cases? I plan to chamfer the inside of the case necks to make bullet insertion easier. Will the case necks need to be expanded first and if so will the 22 K-Hornet resize/de-capping die work for that or will I have to buy a 22 Hornet resize/de-capping die? :confused:
 
Some .22 K-Hornet advice....

This is a great round....I used one for woodchucks about 10 years ago..It was a 1922 M2 Springfield, converted to .22 K-Hornet...I got a 214 yd., one shot kill on a woodchuck with a 10x scope, no problem....
I used 4227 powder and 40 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips...one thing I did find was that Winchester cases don't have a cannelure groove....I fireformed a bunch of Remingtons (with Cann. groove)., and alot split right on the cann. groove...where the new shoulder is created....Pretty annoying...I had no problems with the Winchester brass.....all necks fireformed sharp with no splits...
I just neck-sized after that....

1911
 
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K-Hornet

The K Hornet is a great improvement over the regular Hornet. I recommend anyone with a Hornet have it converted if for no other reason, the cases last longer and don't stretch much. Case trimming is tiresome with the regular Hornet.
I've always loaded both regular Hornet and K Hornet with K dies as I just neck size anyway.
Back in the old days we used mostly 2400 in Hornet and K Hornet but today if I had a Hornet chambered rifle I'd use 4227 or maybe Lil' Gun.
I got out of the Hornet business about 10 years ago. Sold a Ruger #1 in Hornet and a Contender rifle in K-Hornet. The Contender was more accurate but not by much. Both rifles failed to consistantly shoot inside of 2 inches. My little gun is a .221 Contender rifle now. Much better.
 
I have an Anschutz that is re-chambered to K-Hornet. Bought it for point-blank PD shooting. I tried H-110, H4227 & Lil'Gun powders with it. The H110 can give pressure problems, as can the H4227, but the Lil'Gun seems to be the no-brainer, giving best velocities with relatively low pressures & great accuracy using the 40 V-max. Download the reloading info from the Hogdon website. With H110, accuracy was about 1.5 MOA, but the Lil'Gun load gave better velocity & about .5 MOA accuracy. I'm sold!
Also, I agree that you shouldn't have to do anything special to fireform. In fact, your fireform loads are plenty good enough to shoot varmints with. For fireforming, I prefer H110 because I want the higher pressure to blow the case out on one firing.
The only problem I'm having is that my RCBS resize die overdoes it on the neck sizing, thus working the brass too much. Wish I could find someone who could hone the neck part of the die out to a specified size. Otherwise I guess I'll have to cough up the big bucks for a Redding "S" die. Good luck, this is a fun little cartridge.
 
Thanks to all of you for the replies. My dies are on back-order and it'll be a couple of weeks before I get the stock and forend I ordered. So I've got a little time to research. :)
 
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