I am wanting to reload for my model 70 22 hornet. The rifle was my late fathers and he reloaded for it but i have never reloaded this caliber. I have full length rcbs die set but have been reading where collet dies and neck expander dies are better on the thin brass and that a crimping die is also good to use on it. I am planning on ordering everything from precision reloading but wanted to check here first to see if this sounds like the best route from people that may have experience with this. I have all the other components i need as far as powders and bullets. The rifle has been in my family since new and i want to get it out and shoot it instead of having it sit in the safe. Thanks in advance

I’ve been using our RCBS hornet dies for years. I DO NOT have problems with this die.

Are you having problems with case necks cracking or collapsing, when resizing?

thats what i am trying to avoid.

I full length size mine also, no crimp.

thanks

If your loading flat based bullets your gonna need to flare your case mouths a bit. That being said I recommend getting one of these stepped case mouth and neck expanders from NOE. Much better then the lee universal and expands the neck as well as the mouth so you get a nice flush seating and even neck tension.

I have loaded them for over 30 years. Don't crimp them if you don't need to. Just neck size to hold the bullet, chamfer the inside of the neck, and trim to the length it is supposed to be. If you start experimenting with loads and the brass gets too long the rim will pull off and leave the rest of the case in your chamber. Mild loads like 9 grains of 2400 are good. I haver had necks crack unless I loaded light bullets and tried to make them go faster. The Hornet bullet from Sierra and the normal speed loads with help your brass last but it is not easy to tell when the brass gets thin by the rim unless you make a tool to check it- or toss the brass after a few reloads if it happens to you. It's hard to get a stuck case out of the chamber. You might want to polish the chamber if it has not been done and make sure it is always clean. I have had stuck cases in one rifle a couple times because I loaded the brass one too many times. The chamber was rough and I polished it with Flitz and I have not had that happen since - plus I toss out old brass now. I trim it one time and if it needs it a second time I toss it in the scrap bin.
I use case lube when I re-size the neck and I don't size it in a full length die anymore. Just tight enough to hold the bullet and it will last longer. The more stretching to fill the chamber after full length sizing the brass has to do the shorter the life will be and the more prone to stuck cases it will be since some of those old chambers are not the same as the ones in rifles made today. Mine's not the same. Savage 23D

thank you all. i will be loading sierra .223 hornet bullets for it. i am worried about the case seperation as i would hate to stick a case in a pre 64 model 70 22 hornet. After the intitial sight in and finding the best grouping load the rifle won't get shot a whole bunch so my new hornady brass should last me the rest of my life

Same here loaded probably 1000 or so. Maybe collapsed 20 over the years, that was with flat based bullets.
All I’ve used is RCBS dies for the Hornet.

I don't load for it anymore but I never saw the need to crimp the necks on the Hornet. It has next to no recoil to set the bullets back. If you don't have enough neck tension, take a thou or so off the expander ...in a drill using fine wet and dry sand paper and a drop of oil till you are happy with the tension. If you use a full length die, just bump the shoulder back a couple of thousands and you'll be good to go.

Dont push it. Was never meant to be real speedy. Mine shoots best with a mid range powder charge. I never had any trouble with case life. I dont crimp. I use a set of hornady custom grade dies. full length resize.

People, myself included have loaded flat based bullets for decades without anything other than a standard sizing die set. No need to waste money on accessories that are not needed. Doing something vs. learning from you tube are two different things. Is there a scenario where they may be useful? Probably, but not needed in the vast majority of cases. As stated, chamfer the case mouth inside and out and you are good to go. If the necks continue to split, the likely cause is work hardening of the brass. In that case, buy new, or anneal, if you want to venture into another wormhole altogether….lol

Are regular small rifle primers the best to use in it? I have Lil' gun and a couple other powders to use in it. Not planning on hot rodding the loads. just want something accurate

I use Rem small rifle bench rest because that’s what we have always used. H4227 powder

I use a remington 6 1/2 primer in mine. Its a ruger 77 hornet so I can run 40 grain ballistic tips in it, they have just enough boattail to aid the seating issue.

So many folks these days are making reloading way more complicated, labor intensive, and expensive than it needs to be. There are rabbit holes that might make sense for benchrest competitors to run down, but standard full length dies do everything a hunter needs. I have at least 5 rifles that will consistently shoot sub MOA 5 shot groups and I just use full length dies from RCBS, Redding, or Hornady. I have other rifles that don't shoot quite as well, but case neck trimming, bushing dies, special neck expanders, etc, are not going to make those rifles sub-MOA shooters.

How’s that rifle treating you??

Sounds like i already have everything i need then. Thanks to all replies

So on the subject of .22hornet just some stuff I've lea d in the last 300 or so I've reloaded for my little gun.
Main causes I had when it came to crushed case necks and the like is either in sizing or bullet seating. Honestly the main deal when it came to sizes was the cast not being centered in the shell holder when ran it into the die. With larger cases it didn't happen as much because the mouths are bigger and the brass is beefier , you actually watch with some like a .308 , if it's not centered perfectly as long as the decapping pin get in they kinda "walk" over and get centered . .22 hornet can't really do that with the thin brass and small case mouth mor tomes then not if is not centered good enough the case will get a little size ways as you raise it up ans crush the neck. Just tanking a little extra time hold your case to the back of the shell holder is about all you need.
I would also lube them a little more thoroughly then bigger cases too. I found the hornady one shot spray line does a great job of quickly and easily getting in all the cases. Noticed my lube pad didn't work as well. Think it's because of the rimmed cases.
Now some people swear by neck sizing for hornet but ..eghhh, you going to have to full length size again eventually so I'd honestly just not mess with it. Though if you do apparently the lee collet dies are the absolute best bang for your buck.
Dirty dies will also screw you up so with the hornet so just clean you sizing die out every few reloading sessions. Doesn't take much maybe 2-3 min max but does help. Especially if you in a high humidity environments like me and you can get a lil rust in there without cleaning. Rust and grime cause friction with casual in needed stress on an already fragile case.

Now here the deal with case mouth or neck expansion. If your going to be using boattail bullets , I really wouldn't worry much at all past a good champer boatails basically self centered.... Flat base bullets how ever.... Yeah seating fault base bullet shas caused me the most issues out of everything really. You can definitely get away with a nice deep champher but honestly just like with loading cast bullets( which is 70% of what my hornet lives on) and any other flat bases bullet some kind of neck /mouth expansion just plain makes life easier. And with the price/ scarcity of hornet brass nowadays the whole $25 youl spend on a expanded due set up it worth it imo.
The lee is dirt cheap at like $15 max usually. And their stupid simple to use. All it is is a die with a little cone ( one for small calibers one for big calibers. That opens up the mouth of the case so you fat based bullet can get a better start. Take a soda can and sit in in a kitchen funnel and you'll get the idea. Works pretty good but noted you could still get some bullet getting seated a little cockeyed because the expansion isn't super deep.
Now easy fix for this is the expander plug from NOE kind athe same concept just does it deeper along with opening up the neck of the case a set about too. So you get a nice deep expansion that lets you bullet seat nice easy and centered every time again extra $24-$30 all together saves you some hard aches.
As far as crimping..... I just haven't seen much bed for it. I Mena I guess if your riding around on horse back or doing some navy seal stuff...other then that unless you just have super loose bullets I don't see the point most times...


O now one thing I would definitely watch out though is the bore of your barrel. Some older hornets shot a .223 bullet while newer ones shoot the .224 that other .22cals use

The first thing about the Hornet that comes to mind is be mindful of the fact that Hornady uses an extra small flash hole in their Hornet brass. I use a Redding decapping die to knock spent primers out of ALL my brass before I send it through my tumbler, wet or dry. I learned the hard way after bending one pin and pulling a couple out of the end of the rod. I spun a pin down, punched the primers out, and opened the flash holes up with the appropriate drill using my little precision drill press. I can now use the standard pins. I have a buddy that likes the factory Hornady ammo but doesn't want to mess with the undersized flash holes so he just gives me the empties. I gave up on neck expanding anything a long time ago. I full length size to bump the shoulder back .002. I want every round to chamber smoothly every time, no exceptions. I then use a Lyman M die to expand the neck and give the case mouth a very slight flair. The last step is to use a Lee factory crimp die to just remove the flair, but not apply a crimp. My bullet of choice is the 35 grain V-Max flat base. I seat to touch the rifling in my Ruger 77. I have never crushed a Hornet case. I use an RCBS die set. It is my opinion that using the expander ball on the decapping rod is a major cause of case length growth by drawing the thin neck section out when the expander is pulled out. So, I just eliminate it and use the M die.

I never had any trouble with primers using the Hornady resizing die. Pops em out just fine. never knew the flash hole was smaller and never had any problems lighting the powder using winchester small rifle primers. You do need to be careful seating flat base bullets or boat tails either one. Round has to be all the way into the shell holder. Mine really likes the 45 grain bullets hornady makes sold as hornet bullets. tried nosler 40 grainer ballistic tips. They are ok but in my rifle those hornady bullets out perform them. IMR 4227.

The new brass i have are hornady. I will have to check the flash holes. I have several boxes of hornady and speer .224 diameter hornet bullets as well as .223 diameter sierras. I also have several boxes of old winchester ammo for it.

Sako22, it would be interesting to slug the bore of your rifle to see if it's .223 or .224. I have tried the 40 grain Noslers in my gun. They were just okay. The best groups were touching the rifling but that made them way too long to fit in the magazine. Bedsides, as I said my gun really likes the 35 grain V-Max again right up to the rifling, and they fit the mag. I haven't tried the 45 grain Hornet bullets yet. I haven't found any around here. I do have a box of 35 grain tipped copper bullets that I got from Midway as seconds. I can't find anything wrong with them. They all check out weight wise and dimension. I believe they are sintered copper. If they are they should be quite destructive on impact. Your couple boxes of the old Winchester are a bit of a prize. I found a box at a local shop, they wanted $90 for it. It was the old white box. Seems to be the going price for it if you can find it. Wasn't clear to me if they were .223 or .224 diameter slugs.

Danny, I'm using 296 and starting to try Lil'gun. For primers CCI small rifle and playing with CCI small pistol. I do have a fair supply of 4227 as I use it in my 357 Maximum so I should give it a whirl. I haven't formed an opinion yet on the small pistol primers yet. They work but nothing stands out.

Crowheart, H110 and 296 are the same powder. Today it's labeled 110 tomorrow it might be 296. The only difference I have seen is lot to lot which for the average guy is negligible.

Yep. A good friend recently retired from Hodgdon. Told me the only difference in the two is the label. I like it for 357 mag and 410. The 4227 has been working so good I have not tried it in hornet.

From what i have read the old model 70 22 hornet had a .223 bore. I have not slugged it to confirm tho. I have both diameter bullets to try in it

My uncle had one of the old pre 64 Winchester model 70 rifles. He said it was one of his favorite. His was the larger diameter or more modern sized bullet. That's a good one to hand down. It would not be surprised if it lasted a couple generations. Sierra 1210 Hornet bullet is what I settled on. It's light skinned for the Hornet velocity and performs great on squirrels and other critters. It makes a 1'' hole through a coyote. I experimented with just bout everything at one time or another I keep going back to the old 9 grains of 2400 and the old Hornet bullet that my dad shot in the 1950's. I tried some of the really light Berger bullets, 35 grain v-max all the way to 50 grain bullets that didn't stabilize worth a hoot. None of them shot as well and as easy as the old Hornet bullet form Sierra. You'll do fine. It's an easy loading cartridge and it's cheap to shoot. It can be very accurate too. I have take game way beyond what I should have been able to take with it. I have tried 296, H110, 2400, clays, red dot, little gun, IMR 4198. They would all work but the old Alliant2400 was always the most accurate in mine. There are tons of loads out there for it.

Got a picture of the rifle?

I don't have a picture of it right now. I can take one tonight although i can't post a pic on here. It is a very clean and nice rifle