Gents
I have loaded a few cans of lil gun in my hornet and now when I recall, the nice clover leaf groups that I had on different weights and therefore chose as hunting loads are now spreading more or less. In short, cases that give .5" groups one time gives 2" groups the next time. All charges are weighed to well within 4 grains of powder or so. When shot over a chrono, the 11,8gn load had a velocity spread of 197 fps.
The next 10 shot series had a spread of 241 fps.

I think this is a bit much, although the fast and slow shots still hit within 1" of the rest.

Does anyone else have difficulties with Lil´gun?

Sincerely
Daniel

I load for two Hornets using Lil'Gun and have not noticed any inconsistency.
Pete

Huglu:

Your large velocity spreads are similar to those I have experienced with Lil gun. I've had much better luck with WW296 in my Hornet and K-Hornet.

On the other hand, I have never used a powder that did better in heavy bullet, +P loads in a .45 Colt.

quote:

Originally posted by Huglu:
All charges are weighed to well within 4 grains of powder or so.

I'm hoping you mean .4 grains.

I've actually not done that much checking on velocity spread since my groups are running right at .5" out of my Ruger 77Hornet. Longest gopher kill to date was 247 yards, rangefindered. I was happy.

Is your load compressed? Are some of your bullets backing out a bit? Just a thought.

Even .4 grains is a pretty big spread for a Hornet load. I would asy that the primer choice and bullet pull should also be investigated. Perhaps you have a bunch of cases which are not giving consistent neck tension after reloading.

Gents
The 4 grains that I speak about are individual powder grains(particles), where 10 individual lil gun powder grains make up 1 single powder grain of H4350.
Lil gun is spherical and much finer grained than other powders and the scale can not make any difference between these loads. It does respond to +-2 grains/particles of h4350 though.
I do not think that the load is that compressed, it is powder to .22" from the case mouth and the bullets are seated to fit the magazine, which gives an OAL of 1,72"
The load I use mostly is 11,8gn lilgun behind a 45gn S&B FMJ in ww cases. Sako and Norma cases are much smaller, while I can get 14,04 gn lilgun in a ww case I only get 12gn or so in the scandinavian cases. THat is filled to the rim and then weighed.

I do not say that the powder is the only source of error here. The last lot of WW cases really sucked. I have had to reject 14 out of 100 cases before the third time they go bang. On the other hand, the inconcistency in velocities and groupings still go back before I opened the last bag of ww cases.
I had to cut around 40 cases after the first shot from the new bag since they got above the max trim length after just one load. Will switch to remington cases now to see if the quality is better.
If the bullets would pop out, I would not get them out from or in the magazine since it is a very tight fit there now.

Sincerely
Daniel

Neck tension has always been a negative factor in my 2 hornets. If you observe a difference in seating(press handle) effort in the hornet it's really differing neck tension, which by the way can also change over time in your loaded ammo. I anneal and went to smaller ammo lots as a fix. ned

I have two 22 Hornet rifles, a Ruger number 1 and Ruger model 77. I've done a whole lot of testing of different bullets and three different powders. The powders I tested were Lil Gun, H-110 and 296. The most accurate powder in both rifles is H-110, somewhere around 10.0 grains. Lil Gun was not near as accurate as H-110. And I tested several hundred loads in each rifle with bullets ranging in weight from 36 grains to 45, and all weights and types in between, using all three powders with each bullet.
Your rifle may be different, but you might want to try some H-110 to see how it performs.
I believe that H-110 and 296 are the same powder, however the lot of 296 that I have does not deliver the accuracy that the lot of H-110 delivers.

Don

I just went to Lil-Gun and have no complaints . I have been using 13.3gr AA1680 which produces very consistant loads (but not very hot) behind a 40gr Nos. BT .I use Rem small pistol primers and both Rem.and WW cases .

I've used lilgun in my Hornet since Lilgun came out, maybe 7-8 years ago. Best powder I have tried, for accuracy and speed.

I have noticed wild swings in velocity with Lilgun, over 100fps with a 45gr bullet, but it did not hurt the accuracy out to 200yds. The velocity swings were reduced when I went with 50gr or heavier bullets.