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