My K hornet is finally on it"s way. Should have it within a week.
There"s a big powder shortage around here, everyone is waiting for the arrival of a shipment of supplies. I have N110 and Bullseye. I have 35 gr ballistic tips, and 45gr soft points. Anyone got experience with the K hornet, or even the regular Hornet? How about Bullseye? I found one on the net where a guy was using 4 gr Bullseye and a 30 gr bullet.
Any reccomendations?(I know I need L"il Gun!)
good shooting

I would definitely give Lil Gun a try...it's tops in my K Hornet...also, AA1680.

Look to use the LiL Gun and or AA 1680. The rest is a waste of time. Try some 50 grain bullets with the LiL Gun... then you will smile!

10 years with this caliber, WW #296 my No. #1 choice, with the K, you have to watch not setting the shoulder back, maybe order a neck size die. 40-45 gr. VMax or Nosler BT my bullet choice.....r in s.

Bullseye is what we would have called 'shotgun' powder. Very fast! Be careful of double charges. I used a reduced load of 'Unique' to get hornet velocities in my 223. I chose a load that would still be safe with a double charge but would overflow with a tripple. If I am not mistaken, a double charge of Bullseye would still fit in the case but be way over the top. You might not get enough velocity with a heavier bullet to stabilize it, using Bullseye. (I am shooting 60gr Hornady SP's in my hornet on top of Li'Gun, although I've changed to the 55gr SP's as they are cheaper and more readily available - and slightly flatter shooting, but, not by much).

In my opinion using Bullseye would be a very serious mistake in the Hornet, even with 30 grain bullets. With 35, 40 or 45 grain slugs it would be like playing on foot in rush-hour freeway traffic when drunk out of your mind.

Bullseye is much faster burning than most shotgun powders, let alone rifle powders. You'll note the load you picked up off the internet uses 4 grains of powder...and that's in a case which will hold about 12 grains of it. That means you could get a double or even triple charge without it overflowing the case to grab your attention.

I suspect max with 40 or 45 grain bullets would be more like about 3.0-3.2 grains, so you could then get a triple load that wouldn't even be real high into the neck of the case.

Bullseye pressures skyrocket once you go even a hair past maximum. I have seen .44 Mags with both the topstrap and the tops of three adjacent chambers lifted off by an overload of Bullseye in the centre chamber, and the receivers of some Hornets are not anywhere near as strongly built. Some have only one locking lug, and some early JGAs have no locking lugs at all except for the root of the bolt handle.

I believe it would be some kind of sin to load up some hot Bullseye loads and have them somehow end up being used in one of those rifles sometime in the future after you are not present. Certainly if it turned out to be one of your young relatives....

Finally, I seriously doubt you would be safely able to get velocities of over about MAYBE 1,300-1,400 fps when using Bullseye in the Hornet. I don't know for sure, because I sure as heck have never tried it in that cartridge, and never will.

As others have suggested, I would recommend up to 14 grains (which is a completely full case) of AA-1680. That will give you close to 3,000 or more fps even with 40 grain bullets, and probably as good accuracy as you'll ever be able to find with any powder (it gives reliable half-inch groups in my Martini Hornet).

I do a lot of down loadings.. but I'd support what everyone says on this one.. Bullseye is just too darn fast.. unless you really know what you are doing and have been doing it for a long time..

even in Lyman's cast bullet manual.. for the Hornet.. all the powders they are using, are slower than Bullseye and they are recommending a max of 4 grains with them...

Bullseye would be too hot at 4 grains... you're looking at a messed up rifle trying it..

What your looking at with those powders is 22 LR to 22 Mag performance is all..

Looks like I"m stuck with Vit N110.
It"s not great in my mate"s hornet, might be better in the K.
Thanks for all the input.
good shooting

We have here generally very good results with N110 for the Hornet, both from insert barrels as well as for competition rifles.

Give it a try from your rifle, it's better suited than Bullseye.

DUK,
What bullets/loads are you using?

quote:

Originally posted by brass thief:
DUK,
What bullets/loads are you using?

I follow the recommendation from Vihta, 8.8 grain N110 and a 45 grain Sierra SP bullet, 2371 fps, the data are available on their web site, according to Quick Load this is a fairly mild load but it shoots well.

According again to QL, for the K-Hornet up to 10.3 grain N110 with the same 45 grain bullet are still under max. pressure with 2961 bar/42949 psi and should result in 2713 fps at muzzle for a 600 mm barrel.

Use at your own risk, I have not tried that.

Sam, I have a stash of RL7 if you want to try some?

Thanks Brian,
If the rifle comes in the next week I might trouble you for some Rel 7, and try both that and N110. I"m running out of time though!
good shooting.

Sam, I also have some Benchmark and H322, We'll get you going one way or another.