I have some Hornet brass than has been loaded at least 6 or 7 times with no signs of separation. I load 13.4 grains of Lig Gun and a 35 gr. VMax or 13.1 gr. and a Nosler 45 gr. Hornet partition bullet. To check for separation I use a piece of spring steel out of the brushes on a street sweeper with a 45 bent on one end and sharpened to a good edge. I stick the bent end into the case mouth all the way to the bottom and drag it up the sharpened edge up the case sides. You will feel early separation if the sharpened edge catches in a crack starting in the wall. I also switched to Lee Collet dies and haven't had to trim the brass yet. The Collet die doesn't overwork the fragile Hornet brass.

I get 5 to 10 reloads per case. I use Lil'Gun, and Federal #100 small pistol primers. What primer are you using?
Although my Hodgdon book lists starting load at 9 grains and maximum load at 10 grains of H110 with a 50 grain bullet, Speer & Hornady both agree on 9.5 grains as maximum. Either way, I never had much luck with H110, and found it a little on the "hot" side... I think W296 is pretty hot, too. My Ruger was OK with H4227 and AA1680, but Lil'Gun is what really made it shoot! I also had best accuracy with 40 grain V-Maxes, Bergers, and Starkes, so I quit trying the 35, 45, & 50 grain bullets.
Regards, George.

Bret, I have an older SPEER manual and on the subject of case head separation it states...A serious symtom of trouble to watch for is a bright ring around the case body, usually just ahead of the solid web section. This is caused by excessive headspace in the gun or by an improperly adjusted sizing die.

I shoot a CZ .22 Hornet with Lil' Gun powder with 40gr. Noslers, and use Winchester brass. My case necks usually develope a small crack after 5 or 6 loads. I only use the full length sizer the first time, and neck size only after that. I have thought about annealing my necks, people say the brass becomes work hardened and the annealing relieves
stress. Brass for the hornet is relatively inexpensive though.

Good luck. Take a look at a manual they have pictures of case head separation.

How many times do you reload your hornet brass? I was at the range today and was shooting 50 grain tnt bullets with 9 grains of H-110 in my ruger hornet, when I ejected the case only the head ejected the rest of the case was stuck in the gun. The Brass is winchester and has been reloaded 3 times. How do you tell if you are having head seperation?

thanks for all the info
Bret