Has anyone found any noticable improvement in accuracy after turning hornet case necks?
I know the brass is thin to start with, and some advice says leave it alone but the Winchester brass I have is 2-3 thou thicker on one side than the other, and it seems to make sense to "equalise" things wherever possible. Also I don't see how the Lee collet die I'm using can work to it's potential with uneven thicknesses.

I would fear that neck turning Hornet cases would be a lot like splitting hairs -- it can possibly be done, but there won't be much left to work with. Even if you find an inconsistency of just .002", you'll have to remove more than that to even up the neck wall, leaving you almost nothing. I would fear neck splits on the first firing. But, like cliff diving or trapeze artistry, I haven't tried it so maybe you can make it work.

Give it a try and see what happens. But like Stonecreek said, there's not much to begin with anyway. What rifle are you shooting? Hornets are not known for stellar accuarcy. There are, however, exceptions to the rule. I've owned a few over the years, fun guns.

As an unabashed hornet fan, I too, am interested in neck turning. As Stonecreek says, those cases are so thin already. But, will removing a little material from the thicker side to reduce the error be harmful? What I have found is that it’s not just the neck wall that’s thicker on one side but there are ridges of different thickness.

I would suggest that one benefit of neck turning would be a more consistent bullet grip from case to case.

quote:

...the Winchester brass I have is 2-3 thou thicker on one side than the other....

Neck turning won't fix bad brass.

redcat..........

Yes, I've tried turning .22 Hornet necks and that with a match-grade Heavy-Barreled Anschuss rifle/barrel that normally delivers suberb accuracy with unturned cases and ruining some already consistant RWS .22 Hornet cases in the process.

Tried it three ways, too; just barely cleaning up the case walls; about 50% and the Full-Monty - turning off just enough to make a clean cut around the entire neck (end result was VERY thin case necks).

Didn't amount to Hill-of-Beans accuracy wise other than alot of time spent trying to get everything just so and some .22 Hornet cases with ultra-thin cases walls that got dumped.

IME the time better spent with the .22 Hornet is attempting to fine (in order of accuracy enhancement) 1. Bullet, (the rifle/load prefers), 2. Primers (all over the board, Small Pistol, Rifle, make, manufacture, etc., (again, depends on what your rifle/load likes best) 3. Consistant Powder measuring (with whatever powder the rifle/load prefers).

Also polishing the Die's Expander Ball to a super-fine finish, has helped too. That in conjunction with a Lee FCD has turned in some fine accurate loads also.

quote:

Originally posted by redcatfishjack:
Has anyone found any noticable improvement in accuracy after turning hornet case necks?
I know the brass is thin to start with, and some advice says leave it alone but the Winchester brass I have is 2-3 thou thicker on one side than the other, and it seems to make sense to "equalise" things wherever possible. Also I don't see how the Lee collet die I'm using can work to it's potential with uneven thicknesses.

I could see turning the necks to remove only that 2 to 3 thou thickness, but not touch the rest of the neck. I measured some necks on my Hornet brass and it's only .007 thick, so there isn't a lot of brass to turn.
However, I think there are other important things we can do to improve Hornet accuracy besides trying to turn paper thin necks.
I seat Hornet bullets with a Wilson straight line seater to control bullet alignment and runout. Also, I use small pistol primers and crimp bullets after seating them. Doing these things has provided some very good accuracy in my Ruger 77 Hornet. The last group I shot with it at 50 yards measured 1/4", which is better accuracy than I've ever gotten with a Hornet.
I bought a Browning Huntsman 22 Hornet that I haven't shot yet, and have a Ruger Number 1 B Hornet I'm still working on.

Don

Redcat, it is likely a good idea to pay heed to what Gerry relays. He hapens to live in a country where the Hornet is revered as a match caliber. How they do it is beyond me (I gave up years ago), but the German "hunting match" shooters manage to get incredible accuracy out of their Hornets. Gerry runs with this crowd, so he has been around the block a few times with the Hornet...

If you decide to turn, you are almost bound to run into problems with your Collet die. At the best of time, these give light neck tension. Turn the neck, and you'll have to fix a die problem as well - or possibly invest in a bushing die and multiple bushings.

In my experience, Hornet case material is at best ho-hum. Although there is no guarantee, varying case wall thickness in the neck is likely to be mirrored in case wall thickness in the body. Even if you manage to clean up the necks, a case with as thin walls as the Hornet has is more likely to react to varying case wall thickness. That means, your chance of getting banana shaped cases (slight exaggeration here) is pretty good. That is not going to do wonders for your accuracy either.

At the risk of offending all Hornet lovers (Germans included), I have always wondered about the sanity of trying to achieve good, consistent accuracy from a Hornet. Hey, a .222 Rem is so close, and SOOOO good...

- mike

Thanks for all the responses so far,
The rifle is a CZ 527 and I've got it shooting reasonably well with the 35gn V-Max/Lil'gun load and another load of 45gn Sierra/H110.
Both give groups of around 1" at 100 yards, but both loads give the occasional "flier" that's up to 1.5" outside the centre of the group. I'm no expert shooter but the stray shots "feel" good when the trigger is pulled, so I'm looking for causes that aren't down to operator error. All powder charges are weighed not thrown, loaded rounds are measured using a comparator and are within 2 thou spread. I've moved from the expander neck sizer to the collet type and while going through that measured some neck thicknesses and found the difference.
A guy who's taught me a lot said to leave the necks alone, but there is other advice out on the web saying turn them. I'd intended to just remove the high spots to let the brass stretch/shrink back more uniformly and grip the bullet more consistantly around it's circumferance.
I'll give it a go and hopefully report back.

redcatfishjack
try to use Lee Collet die to size the 22 hornet cases .
I notice an important improvement when I had used

almost my dies are Forester Match grade ones