Does a chart exist showing the relative strength of small pistol and small rifle primers for use with Hornet and K-Hornet cartridgs??

I doubt it!!

What do you mean by relative strength?
Brooks

I really wouldn't advise on the use of pistol primers in a Hornet if this is where you are thinking. I don't think you are asking for disaster, but I suspect you may find frequent ruptured primers etc. I assume you are thinking of this in a rifle? I offer this warning because I encountered the same thing in a .357 rifle I once owned. Anytime I used pistol primers, most of them came out blown. Apparently two identical loads, the one fired in a rifle is going to develop more pressure and/or heat. At any rate, this gave me primer problems until I finally stopped the practice and just loaded strictly small rifle primers for this gun. The problem I believe is in the thickness or strength of the primer cup. They all look the same, but obviously they are not. Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by Pecos45 (edited 04-04-2002).]

Pecos45,

Not so with the hornet or K-Hornet. That is, there is not a problem in having small pistol primer blow in those small cases.

I have quite a bit of experience with the K-Hornet. That includes a lot of work in developing loads and in reading all the acounts of Hornet performance I could find. I have noted in several recent post about reloading for the Hornet, but it probably deserves repeating here.

One of the typical problems with the Hornet size cases is that if you use too strong a primer, it will literally blow the bullet into the rifling before it gets a fire started in the powder. Consequently, the velocity will show large variability and the accuracy will be terrible. The solution is to use the WEAKEST primer you can find, use the fastest powder you feel comfortable with and if you can, set the bullet to touch the rifling. These three things speed up powder burning, and delays the departure of the bullet. The result is that velocity standard deviations go from 50+ to 5 to 10 f/s and accuracy potential shrinks to somewhere around 1/2 MOA.

My best load with a 18" Contender carbine barrel is CCI small pistol primer, 11.5 grains 2400 and a Nosler 40 grain BT bullet. Result is routine 1/2 MOA @ 2700 f/s.

Good shooting,

Don Shearer

Well i completely agree with Don , i have had exactly the same problems with my Hornet i.e. eratic accuracy , & the same goes for velocity , simply changed the primer to a small pistol primer & boom all problems solved .

Art,
Don is absolutely right. I posted similar info here a while back in response to another shooter's questions about primers for the Hornet and the K-Hornet.
I have a K-Hornet and use Remington 1 1/2 small pistol primers exclusively.
These two critters respond very unfavorably to the over ignition that occurs with hotter primers.
Great Shooting
The Bearman

Art - Accurate Powder Co. recomends a small pistol primer in their reloading manual for the Hornet.In fact,their 1680 powder is one of the best for this cartridge.

Thanks for that info guys ! Nice one !

I use CCI 500 small pistol primers in my 22 hornet.

Speer used to offer loads on their website but when their latest book came out with the load in new book, they took it off.

Small pistol primers are the way to go in the Hornet.

Even Federal loads the small pistol primer in the Hornet.

I load for two Hornets and use Small Pistol Primers exclusively.
Pete

umm guys, this is a 6 year old post that has been resurrected for some reason by Beefa...

check out the original dates in the upper line of each post...

The new Speer manual #14 mentions that they have used small pistol primers for the load recipes in #14 for the Hornet.
It allowed them to show suitable loads with more powders for the Hornet in this manual as opposed to the few powders in their previous #13 manual that used small rifle primers in the load recipes.
It kept the pressures in the correct range and velocity was much better than factory loads.

By far when you think of the operating pressures of the hornet and the case capacity... small pistol magnum primers make mucho snese.

I use almost anything in my K-Hornet and don't see meaningful differences 100 yds downrange. SR & SP primer differ mainly in the thickness (& softness) of the cup. Likewise the Rem 7½ and 6½ SRs differ only in the strength of the cup, the former intended for cases like the .222 and .223. The major differences I see seem to be between brands.

Bud W