22 K-Hornet Brass Troubles???

In my other post about fireforming Improved brass it seemed to be the concencus that load and shoot was the way to go, and that worked great in my 243AI. But the K-Hornet is having issues. I loaded up some new/virgin Hornet brass with a Seirra 45gr Hornet bullet over 9.8grs of H110 and a Rem 6 1/2 primer seated to 1.750 with no crimp. I fired 20 rounds total. 3 of those rounds the brass completely seperated in the middle of the case. about half of the ones the came out fine have the primers backed out. The other half the primers are still flush and showing no signs of preasure. The primers that bakced out are still rounded and are not flattened at all, just backed out. This barrel was installed by Wild West Guns of Alaska (so I was told by the previous owner who had the rechamber done) so i can't imagine that a very well know place like that would have headspaced it wrong, but anything is possible. This gun is a Savage Model 40 rechambered to the K-Hornet, so of course there is no barrel nut or anything that i can adjust headspace. Any thoughts guys? I just don't want to ruin 10% of my brass evey time I shoot. All 20 of the shots fired were pretty accurate, sub MOA. Going by my book and responses I got on my other post that load should be plenty mild but .....

I am just not sure where to go from here, or what else to check. I may post some pics of the brass tomorrow if that will help. Thanks in advance.

Hmmm...I would actually recommend the forums on Saubier.com ....there is LOTS of small caliber/wildcatters over there.

But....Hornet brass is thin.

Are you loading so the bullet is jammed into the throat? I would...and see if that cures your problem.

Can you post pictures of a good K'd case? Wonder if you have a chamber issue.

I give the jammed thing a try and make sure, I thought I was out to the lands, but I would say they were not jammed in there. Measuring off the brass with my calipers everything seems to be to spec. but I'll double check. I am using winchester brass if that makes a difference. I am definatly gonna neck size only once i get this figured out as to help with stretch and such. I'll go check out that other site you mentioned tomorrow and try to get some pics up of the good and bad brass. Would do it now, but I gotta get some sleep. i gotta be up at 230am to get ready for duck hunting in the morning.

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Re: Fire forming AI Brass???
« Reply #11 on: Yesterday at 04:36:18 PM » Quote

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Boots . . . Just put a Standard Hornet Round in the chamber and SHOOT it . . fire forms perfectly . . Been there - done that !! It is a Rimed Case and head spaces off the Rim. Be careful with the Hornet Brass, it is really thin and will cave in easily . . If the bullet isn't exactly straight, it will cave in the necks of the brass also. I found H110 and IMR 4227 to be the best of the bunch for the 35 gr. Sierra bullet in that rifle. Both powders shoot about the same in mine. Neat little caliber for critters out to 100 yards . . Light and quiet.

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Phantom, again thank you for the reply, in this thread I explained that what you said is just about what I did. You can read above for the specific details to my problem. I just moved your quote and stuff over to this post out of respect for the rules of the site, and to help the Moderators out with their jobs since they have been having troubles with threads getting topics switched midstream and hi-jacked etc.
I love this site and the members have been great, and I am jsut doing my part. ;)

Off hand I would say you have a bad re-chambering job. I doubt anyone pulled the barrel and re-installed it on a model 40 (certainly possible but...).

Would guess a hand ream job.

As was suggested, jam bullet hard into the lands (may need to drop the charge a bit) and try again. If that doesn't work I would be talking to the seller!

Thanks Eric, thats in the plans. I am thinking the barrel was removed just because the factory stamping is outta position. I don't know for sure. Gonna jam them in there good and see what happens. How much do you think I should back off, maybe down to 8.8grs?

I would definatly say that barrel has been removed, upon closer in spection the savage warning label is facing down into the stock and the caliber designation is facing nearly up. still could be bad chamber, i dunno.

I loaded some of the "formed" brass and some new brass seated way out there so I could feel the bullet being pushed onto the lands pretty good, backed off the powder charge, so we will see what happens. i am hoping to try them this weekend.

I noticed that right in the area that the brass was breaking, on the once fired stuff that surrvived there were scratch marks from sliding into the chamber. I think the feed ramp was deigned to function correctly with the more slender Hornet round rather than the improved version and I can feel a drag as the brass enters the chamber from the ramp. If I start the round into the chamber myself the drag is eliminated so I think all the new loads I will hand feed in and see if that helps or cures the issue.