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