What has been your preferred powder?
Small rifle or small pistol primers?
What grain bullets?
I have two K's but much prefer the standard Hornet which I have 3 of.
I use Rem 6 1/2 in both for primers. Thanks Slim I loaded up on them when they were south of 15 bucks per 1K.
I FL size and seat with Redding dies for the K
I use H110 in the K
I use 40 grain plastic tipped bullets in both
Curious, any particular reason for your preference of the standard Hornet over the K ?
Any interest in letting go of one of your K-hornets? FYI, Sent you a PM but your pm storage needs emptied.
Mark
Mark thanks for the heads up on my in box, I have it cleaned out now. One K is a 12" stainless Encore Bullberry that I ordered from Fred himself around 20 plus years ago. I have a 2 1/2 inch wide forend on it currently with a 3-9 Burris pistol scope. The other one is a rifle built using a genuine 1885 Win action with a custom barrel. That one has a 12x Unertle on it.
I think with the introduction of Lil Gun powder, and plastic tipped bullets the Hornet world changed . Another thing is finding the right dies that match your chamber. I think I have tried them all including Wilson arbor press dies. I guess the reason I prefer the standard Hornet is it is less work and it nudges the K out in the accuracy dept. For the Standard Hornet I use the Slow Poke Slim load 6 1/2 primers and Lil Gun powder. I really never try to push any of my Hornets, if I need more speed I step up to the 221 or 223.
Iowa has changed a lot in the last 70 years . Even the Hornet makes to much noise in most places and the varmint population has exploded. These days I find myself using CCI quiets with a Dead Air Mask more than ever. Or the metro gun.
I'm not ready to sell any equipment yet . I have sons and a 21 year old grandson that has all forms of the outdoors in his DNA.
The first rifle cartridge I ever load was a .22 Hornet, I couldn't afford the cost of factory ammo back in the early '70s. I bought a Lee Loader, a pound of powder, a hundred primers and a box of Sierra 40 grain Hornet bullets. I didn't spend much more on the supplies than I did on the single box of factory ammo I purchased for the princely sum of $13.95. The total cost was less than $25.00 to start my reloading career, not long after that I purchased another Lee Loader in 20ga. The first Contender I ever bought was November 5th 1979 on my 21st birthday, the gun was slightly used and came with a .44 magnum Hotshot barrel and a 10" octagon .30-30 barrel, I immediately ordered a 10" round Hornet barrel IIRC the barrel was around $80.00 out the door. A couple weeks later I killed my first deer with the .30-30 barrel and have had an affair with the Contender ever since, that Hornet barrel was a good shooter and I felt it worked really well on the Contender. Fast forward to today, I just boxed up 100 hand loaded Hornet rounds to fireform to K-Hornet in the 10" barrel I just rechambered. Now if it would just quit raining I could shoot them!
It's better to shoot for the moon and hit the fencepost than to shoot for the fencepost and hit the ground!
Understand that, keep the tradition going. I moved out of Iowa 43 years, still have brothers living in northern Iowa. Started bow hunting when I was 13. No bows with training wheels back then.
first hornet was a ruger 77. It loved 40 gr. Nosler BTs. Modified the rotary clip to accommodate them.
Iowa has sure changed a lot in the last 43 years. My wife and I will both be 77 in a few days both of us are farm kids. We live by Lake McBride and the highly polluted Coralville reservoir so fishing, and bow hunting are pretty much out the back door. Shooting has gotten more challenging due to the noise and the way things have filled in this area the last 15-20 years. Bow hunting is my grandsons passion and he already has his turkey tag. He hunts the farm about a half mile from his house. I can't believe how expensive bows and bow accessories are it makes shooting look like peanuts. The deer population here is totally out of control not even safe to drive day or night they are so thick. A couple of years ago the Iowa City Press Citizen had a front page article the DNR estimated the herd in the city limits at 10,000. They are using White Buffalo a company to thin the herd in the city limits on the QT. I told them if they make a dent in the herd I've got another 10,000 upstream to send them. It got the city animal lovers so stirred up everything has been hushed up. This month the does will start dropping twins and triplets again to add to the problem
The city dwellers will change tune when Mother Nature steps in and they get a disease outbreak.
Or when they eats the wifes rose bushes.Originally Posted by Mjshell
they just ***** , call city and complain, then raise a rukus when solutions that they object to are implemented. Got the h out of dodge 8 years ago cause I couldn't stand it any more.
i like about anything with Hornet in the name, and have had a k-hornet for years.
When i started with the K-hornet years ago, lil gun was not a thing yet...i used 680 at first, & later 1680.
Lil Gun did so well in my regular Hornet that i tried it, and it shot well for years....then i had some un-explained high pressure events that happened in a couple of different guns with several different calibers when using lil gun...and i started getting nervous. I would shoot 50 rounds and 49 would be great, no pressure signs, good chrono speeds...then a blown primer, and obvious pressure signs. My rifle charges ALL get weighed..no volume thrown charges. That has now happened in K-hornets, fireballs, 17ackley hornets, the 25/20...but never yet in any straight-wall magnum pistol, or the regular 22 hornet. Still dont know why, but Lil Gun in bottle-neck cartridges has acted squirrely at times.
dunno if i maybe just had the bead luck of getting different lots of lil gun that were twitchy, and never did figure that out...so i went back to 1680, and was also working with CFE-BLK last fall, then deer season happened and everything else got put on hold.
i like Rem 6-1/2's in my hornets, but have used about every primer at various times...my hornets have shown no preference towards small pistol primers.
When i get to start shooting again, going to again resume some load workups with 1680 & CFE-Blk, in both the k-hornet & 17ackley hornet.
last year, playing in camp...22hornet, 22K-Hornet, 17ackley hornet:
Almost forgot....i've mostly stuck with 40's & 45's for bullet weight...thin skinned bullets like the 50gr hornady SX and sierrra blitz expand well, but my guns never shot them as well.
Thanks for chiming in, Gerald, glad to see you posting. I’ve heard on more than one occasion Lil Gun can be a bit fidgety when it comes to pressures, yet it’s still popular with the Hornet guys. I do intend to try it myself.
I hope you’re doing well. Mark S. mentioned you’d had some work done recently.
yup, was worried the doctors might miss making their yacht payments, so decided to do my part to help them out.
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