I have a .22 hornet and a CZ rifle. Together these spell fun. In the never ending quest for consistancy, I ordered a lee factory crimp die for the hornet.

I already use small pistol primers in an attempt to keep the initial ignition stablized.

I am pretty much shooting 13.0 of LIL GUN for everything (30 bergers though 40 gr Sierra).

I am now thinking that a small crimp might increase the containment and therefore further stablize the ignition consistancy.

Anybody crimping their .22 hornet?

Just for fun.... RC

I'm far from a Hornet expert, but I also use a factory crimp die on my handloads in this caliber. The case material of the Hornet is just so thin it seems hard to ensure consistent neck tension without a crimp.

- mike

never crimped a hornet

I tried crimping in the past, on standard and K's. Didn't seem to make any difference one way or the other.

I have never crimped my Hornet but it is a real shooter so it never crossed my mind.

I do love the H-LilGun powder it is simply the best powder I have ever run in my Hornet.

RC, got the same combo but I use H110. Never needed a crimp and never had a problem feeding and some have been long (scraping the front on the mag)

A crimp won't do anything to improve performance or accuracy. Improving performance with SP primers is a persistent myth, but I've never found any benefit from using them. However, they seem to work okay.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
A crimp won't do anything to improve performance or accuracy. Improving performance with SP primers is a persistent myth, but I've never found any benefit from using them. However, they seem to work okay.

+1

Thanks to all that replied. From the groups response, I should have asked BEFORE I ordered the crimp die. I will probably set up a couple of 5 shot sets of loads crimped and uncrimped. I will shoot them over the old chrono and see if their is anything significant. I have to agree that my current combo is working well. Just playing with things waiting for full spring (and the GH's to reappear). Have a great week. rc

Many factory Hornet chambers have oversize necks, a holdover from the old 22 WCF chamber dimensions. Some shooters have found great benefit from using a very slight crimp that will form a slight but uniform bulge at the case mouth, serving to better center the cartridge's neck in the chamber.

Your regular bullet-seating die has a semi-roll-crimp function that might serve for this, maybe better than the factory crimp die. Might be worth a try just for grins & giggles; my old friend Ben Shelor used to get better Hornet and Bee results this way.
Regards, Joe

I had reload a lot in this caliber and a lot of rifles . Now I have a winchester 70 pre 64 that leave astonished for their accuracy.
I had test 78 different loads with combination of 12 bullets , 3 different powders and 4 brands of primers. Main accuracy groups for 78 loads is .679 !!!!!!!!
I had tried many dies and now I am loading with Forester . BUT I could get an improvement in accuracy , consitency and brass life with LEE COLLET DIES.
NEVER CRIMP THE HORNET.
Try Lee collets and tell me.

I use a Lee Crimp die for my Hornet loads.
I get good accuracy too.

quote:

Originally posted by Raul Urrestarazu:
I had reload a lot in this caliber and a lot of rifles . Now I have a winchester 70 pre 64 that leave astonished for their accuracy.
I had test 78 different loads with combination of 12 bullets , 3 different powders and 4 brands of primers. Main accuracy groups for 78 loads is .679 !!!!!!!!
I had tried many dies and now I am loading with Forester . BUT I could get an improvement in accuracy , consitency and brass life with LEE COLLET DIES.
NEVER CRIMP THE HORNET.
Try Lee collets and tell me.

+1 for the collet die and the Hornet.

+1 for not crimping, too. It may not hurt if done right but it won't help.

I shoot a sako hornet and use the last of my win680 and now using AA 1680 never crimp a bullet using a 46 hp, a friend took a prarie dog at a measured (with Leica Geovid rangefinder binos)at 247 yds, with about a 15 mph cross wind, seems to be pretty accurate to me.

I use break open action guns, T/C Contender-pistol and BRNO-rifle, no need to crim.

I've been reloading mine and have never bothered crimping... My gun is also a cz and I'm getting some fantastic results with it.






This group was done at 100 yards. I've never even bothered crimping because I'm already really happy with my results, but that's not to say you can't try it and see what happens. I just wanted to point out that the cz's can be extremely accurate without having to crimp.