.17 Hornet, shallow primer pockets

[chris101]

Taken a look through every one of my once fired cases (only 123 of them), 25% seem to be leaking some gas past the primer, its not much, but more than any other calibre I own, or have ever owned. No doubt this constant leaking is wrecking bolt faces. Liongeorge, your rifle has obviously has many more rounds through it than mine, I'd hate to see the state of your bolt face in another 1000 rounds time!

 

I did read on an American forum that early batches of Hornady 20gn .17 ammunition were known to be damaging bolt faces, and that was the reason why they started to crimp in the primers, I'll see if I can find the thread.

[M99]

Taken a look through every one of my once fired cases (only 123 of them), 25% seem to be leaking some gas past the primer, its not much, but more than any other calibre I own, or have ever owned. No doubt this constant leaking is wrecking bolt faces. Liongeorge, your rifle has obviously has many more rounds through it than mine, I'd hate to see the state of your bolt face in another 1000 rounds time!

 

I did read on an American forum that early batches of Hornady 20gn .17 ammunition were known to be damaging bolt faces, and that was the reason why they started to crimp in the primers, I'll see if I can find the thread.

Just buy a real calibre and be done with it :-)

[triggersqueezer]

Just buy a real calibre and be done with it :-)

oy roberts don't dis the hornet or i'll get a ladder and give you a slap

[M99]

oy roberts don't dis the hornet or i'll get a ladder and give you a slap

That was not meant for you - but I guess same goes!!

[triggersqueezer]

That was not meant for you - but I guess same goes!!

i don't know what to say ,i guess i'm not trying to compensate for anything.you shoot a 50 cal right.

[chris101]

50BMG or bigger just annoys the neighbours, I can just about get away with lesser 'girly' calibres without being noticed.

[chris101]

Today, after 5 months, the rifle finally arrived back at the shop with a new bolt. I'll take some pics of the new bolt face having only been exposed to the proof rounds. I'm reluctant to use the awful .17 Hornady factory ammo so looks like I'll be reloading from now on.

[Mick Miller]

How did you get on with the reloading in the end?

My variation is due on the doorstep anytime, in the interim I've done a load of reading on the American forums, particularly the ones dedicated to small calibres, and the general consensus is to use Privi, RwS in 22 hornet and resize.

RWS is fantastic, but expensive and should handle the higher pressures created by the 17 hornet loads. Privi brass is noticeably thinner at the head and should be loaded so that pressures are around the same as for 22 hornet (although plenty appear to just load develop as normal and not encounter any problems with failing brass).

Using a Redding form and trim die #83279 along with the case extension #14 will allow you to form the 22 hornet brass in one pass, then you can then trim the cases to 1.355" and anneal (though several don't and don't mention any problems with splitting) and then fire form.

Once fire formed you can then use the Redding Type S die and a. 192 bushing to neck size the once fired brass which should prolong case life.

This is all a condensed version of info found over on sabier.com. Some of the things they mention using, like the Bulberry Barrel Works tweening die cannot be exported to the UK without considerable cost.

I have some dies arriving in a few weeks (cheers Mark) and some once fired and new hornet brass, so I'm having a play with resizing whilst waiting for the variation to land, I'll let you know how I get on.

Shame to hear about the CZ bolt face (and accuracy issues). The CZ was my choice, I'll be sure to check the bolt face on mine when I pick mine up.

The first run of Hornady factory ammunition was known to have problems with the primer pockets, Hornady have since sorted this but we likely still have a bunch of it over here. I'll see if I can dig out the batch numbers so others can avoid buying the duff stuff. Worth asking your RFD to back any bad stuff they have in stock I guess?