22 Hornet rreloading

[Charlie Plasters, SASS#60943]

Well, I have mainly just been a lurker on here of late due to the ol' arthritis flare up but last week I decided to loadup some 22 Hornet. I got the rifle when my dad passed away some years back - it was originally my grandfathers. There were quite a few boxes of handloads that came with the gun and I discovered I could buy factory stuff pretty cheap so I had never got around to reloading for it - I have plenty of other stuff to reload for. Long story longer: had issues right off with overall length since the Vmax 40 gr needed to be seated so deep that the case mouth was on the taper of the bullet. Tried to figure out what dad had done when he reloaded these and it seems he fudged the bullet out just enough to where it would fit the magazine and cycle and just be touching where the taper starts. OK got that sort of worked out. I had been using primed brass that dad had already prepped but switching to the Sellier and Bellot brass caused a new issue to surface - the small flash hole. It appears that the Redding dies came with a standard decapping pin which dad had ground down to work with the small flash holes. Well the S&B brass must have even smaller than normal small flash holes cause the pin kept getting pulled out of the pin holder being stuck in the case. I got some small pins and filed one down a bit more but after only a couple cases it pulled out. On the email with Redding they suggested a possible fix that did not work so they sent me a new small pin holder for the die with a small pin. got through three cases before it pulled out. So, I got a universal decapping punch from Lee and and filed the tip smaller spinning it in the drill press. Now I can knock the old primers out and drill the flash hole with a 1/16" bit. I have a dillon universal decapping die but they like everyone else I have looked at only make it for standard size flash holes - I ordered a replacement pin assembly from them and will file the tip down so I can use it instead of the punch setup. The inconsistency that I have encountered so far with the flash holes in the S&B brass is pretty extreme with some cases decapping with no problem while others will stick a decapping pin that is .004" undersize. And believe me they are really stuck! It can take a considerable amount of time to get the pin out and possibly ruin the case in the process. I have never carried this rifle in the field too much since the balance point where I would carry it  is right where the magazine sticks out. There was only a front sling swivel and I thought the new synthetic slings just didn't seem right on this rifle; so I recently picked up a Butler Creek leather sling and installed a rear swivel so I am hopping to be carrying it a lot more.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

My father had a Hornet and loved it.

Light, handy, accurate -- very accurate! -- he sold it to raise $$ to build what was then a wildcat, a .22-250 (yes, it's been that long ago!)

He said someone gave him a tin of snuff and he tried it ... he like snuff so well he set the rest of that can on a fence post, stepped back about fifteen feet and centered it with that Hornet.
He said it spread a dusty cone on the snow beneath.