Has anyone tried the CCI 550 Magnum Primer in a Hornet before and if so what was the results , the powder we use arround here is more of a Magnum handgun powder , ie. 44 Magnum. On the tin it says "slow burning extruded for magnum revolvers" any thoughts on using these primers for the hornet.

I've read that some will recommend mag small rifle primers with Hodgdon's Lil'Gun powder, but most reloaders will tell ya to stick with mild small rifle primers and many other will tell ya to try small pistol primers.

The gun will tell ya what it likes.

In my own limited experience, CCI400 primers (a relatively mild small rifle primer) have worked rather nicely with Lil'Gun.

Good luck,

Tim

------------------
What we detest most in others is what we fear most in ourselves.

Rudie,
I have a .22 K Hornet. I have tried many different load combinations. I have found that primer selection seems to be, in my rifle, more important than the powder.
We have a group of people here in MT that shoot a good bit of the various Hornet chamberings. One interesting piece of info that they passed on to me was the use of Remington 1 1/2 Small Pistol primers. I tried these primers with super results.
I use AA 1680 in my K Hornet. With around 14.5 grains of this powder, a 50gr bullet, Win Cases and Rem 1 1/2 primers I am getting over 2900fps with super accuracy.
The problem that one apparently has in these little cartridges is one of OVER ignition. In my gun, the 550 mag primers gave pressure problems with less velocity than the much cooler Rem 1 1/2 Small Pistol primers.
Also, I have never had a pierced or leaking primer with the Rem 1 1/2 even though the cup is much thinner and softer than the hotter primers.
Hope this helps.
Great Shooting
The Bearman

Mine likes Federal small pistol primers best. I've tried Remington, Winchester, Federal, and CCI small rifle primers, and Federal & CCI small pistol primers. This includes Federal's Match primers. I haven't tried Remington & Winchester small pistol primers yet, though.
13.1 grains of Lil'Gun behind a 40 grain V-Max or Berger 22/40 MEF usually produces 3/4" or smaller groups (5 shots) with the Federal 100's.
Regards, George.

How about R-P's 6-1/2 primer? I tried it after reading a Ken Waters story about the Hornet's being sensitive to primers. The gun I was working with did just okay with the standard 7-1/2's, and switching to the 6-1/2's made a great accuracy improvement.

R-WEST

------------------
"the spotlight of truth will cause the cockroaches of deceit to run for cover every time"
Rush Limbaugh

Rudie,

Indeed, as is noted in the several posts, selection of the primer for the K-Hornet is the key to good performance. I shoot a K-Hornet in an 18" Contender Carbine. Load development became some considerable effort. After some experimentation and selected reading, I finally diagnosed where the problems originate.

If you use too strong a primer in that diminutive case, it will literally blow the bullet into the rifling before it gets a fire started in the powder. The bullet then sits there in the rifling waiting for the pressure to get high enough to blow it on out of the barrel. The result is extreemly high velocity variability (SD's around 50+ f/s)and terrible accuracy.

My solution to this problem was to first, speed up the powder burning rate via a very fast powder. Second, I did two more things to slow down the departure of the bullet, one, use a small pistol primer (the weakest one I could find) and second, set the bullet to contact the rifling.

My load is CCI samll pistol primer, 11.5 grains of Alliant 2400 powder, and a Nosler 40 gr. Ballistic Tip Bullet set to contact the rifling. The result is 1/2 MOA 5-shot groups at 2700 f/s and velocity standard deviations around 8 f/s.

Hope this will help.

Don Shearer

Reading a recent article on neck diameter, bullet grip etc after sizing makes me think that maybe this factor (brass neck dia after sizing) may be worth researching in the Hornet.

It seems that perhaps sizing the neck dia down a tad may aid neck tension and possibly accuracy.

Of course, the Hornet's notoriously thin brass may hinder such attempts. It's pretty easy to collapse the necks when seating bullets if the the neck dia is on the smallish side.

Food for thought.

Tim

------------------
What we detest most in others is what we fear most in ourselves.