I am loading Lil' gun in my 22 hornet and find that about 12.6 grs leaves barely enough room to seat the bullet. The load is compressed but not crushed. None of my other calibers require compressed loads so I'm new to this compressed load business. I hear of guys loading 13+ grs of this powder in this small case. At what point is there too much compression and what are the symptoms? I guess this would apply to any cartridge.

one quick and easy way to reduce your finger count is to try loads you hear other folks talk about without seeing how they stack up against a good reloading book. The hodgdon website should give you a max load. A compressed load in and of itself is no big deal but I have always heard never to try to compress ball type powder.

Re: "At what point is there too much compression and what are the symptoms?" When the compression of the powder fractures it to smaller pieces and/or the compression either pushes the bullet back out when seated or causes the brass to bulge, usually in the shoulder area.

Accurately measure total length after loading, re-measure after 12 hours. If the bullet has't backed out after this time it probably won't. I use compressed loads in .284 Win