was fireforming 22 hornets into k hornet today of interest wincheter and remington brass yield was 100% hornady brass 67%

fwiw, i and a few buddies have found quite a bit of their 17 hornet brass to be somewhat crap.

I assume the problem with the Hornady brass was cracked /split necks ??

no - the cracks were all at the shoulder and by appearance the cases were annealed

Necks shoulders.....if they split it was a poor job of annealing. Fireforming some different wildcats ,I have found it easier to anneal new cases before firing. A couple that come to mind are the 25/303 Epps and the 375/348 Ackley Imp.Your K hornet could fall into that group. Once annealed I almost never lose a case. I even found that with a very old bag of new 6.5 Rem brass a couple necks split on the first firing. Annealed the rest of the bag and they performed like new brass should.

Hornady brass is not up to snuff, they need to start over, not just fireforming but it doesn't last in any of my calibers..its just the wrong mix IMO...Surely they will fix it..

Annealing would surely help when forming K Hornet brass.

In the Hornet I've had best luck with winchester brass. It seems to be a little thicker (a good thing in the Hornet) and lasts a long time. Also the WW rims are a bit thicker, which can help when fire forming or for the first firing.

My Hornet cases usually die by having their heads fall off. RP and Frontier cases fail earlier than the WW in my experience.

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My Hornet cases usually die by having their heads fall off.

Head separations are what full length sizing after every shot will do for you. Use a Lee Collet die and your Hornet brass will last longer that you will.

By the way, I've fireformed a lot of .22 K-Hornets and can't remember losing one due to neck or shoulder splits -- even with Hornady brass. But the Hornady brass I've used was some early stuff which appears was made by Winchester. Later stuff made either by Hornady itself or outsourced may exhibit some lesser qualities.

I have found that I usually get a lot of split necks and shoulders if I try to fire form unaltered hornet brass. Especially if it has been fired in a regular hornet.

I usually neck the cases up with a .270 die, so that the case no longer has any taper in it. Then I reset the shoulder in my 22K Hornet Die, Load and fire in the chamber.

I have found a few benefits to this. 1) I no longer have to have a fireform load and a regular load. Because the case capacity of the necked up and reformed cartridges is very close to the final K Hornet round I just use my regular K Hornet load. 2) I have very split necks/shoulders.

Just my 2 cents

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I usually neck the cases up with a .270 die, so that the case no longer has any taper in it. Then I reset the shoulder in my 22K Hornet Die, Load and fire in the chamber.

The standard factory Hornet is chambered to headspace on the rim, while the K-Hornet is intended to headspace on the shoulder. What you are doing allows the first firing to headspace on the shoulder, which is a good strategy. However, if you would only use a .243 expander, then create a "false shoulder" in the right place with your K-Hornet sizing die, then your cases would suffer much less work hardening than they do when going all the way up to .277", them back to .224". The effect would be the same and you could use the same loads to fireform them.

Since the K-Hornet headspaces on the shoulder, gunsmiths tend to pay little attention to the headspace gap at the rim. An unfired Hornet cartridge has to use the rim to headspace, and if that dimension is excessive then the case will have to stretch a great deal upon firing. This can result in weakened heads (head separations) and contribute to split necks/shoulders. If you're going to fireform Hornets in your K-Hornet then make sure that your rim headpspace is amply tight.

Stonecreek,

I just looked at my notes and I started with the .270 years ago but switched to .25 a few years back. I had forgotten that I switched to the .25.

They both work but I had better results with the .25 caliber expander, based on my notes. Not that far off from the .243 you suggest.

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Originally posted by Brad Hinn:
Stonecreek,

I just looked at my notes and I started with the .270 years ago but switched to .25 a few years back. I had forgotten that I switched to the .25.

They both work but I had better results with the .25 caliber expander, based on my notes. Not that far off from the .243 you suggest.

Yeah, the .257 expander shouldn't overwork the necks and gives you a little more positive shoulder than a .243" expander would. Probably a good compromise.