20 Hornady Hornet

[Bill K]

Other than wanting something different on the Hornet case, why not just build up an nice 20 VarTarg ?
Dies are a dime a dozen, plain or custom, cases are easy to buy or form from 221 fireball and you can down load it to shoot in the FPS of the hornets or up and really have fun reaching out.
The 20 VT is one fine cartridge. Just a thought to throw out too you.

[SBS]

Originally Posted by Bill K

Other than wanting something different on the Hornet case, why not just build up an nice 20 VarTarg ?
Dies are a dime a dozen, plain or custom, cases are easy to buy or form from 221 fireball and you can down load it to shoot in the FPS of the hornets or up and really have fun reaching out.
The 20 VT is one fine cartridge. Just a thought to throw out too you.

I certainly agree, since I have 2 of the 20 VT's. But, have a Hornet action and not really into the .17's -- have a hard enough time loading the small .20 cal. bullets without fumbling them and the .22 Hornet is pretty slow for moving the dogs very much. Just looking for another option and seemed easy to open up the neck on a .17 Hornady Hornet. Thanks for the replies.

[Bill K]

I have a CZ, heavy barrel in 17HMR and will keep it and shoot it often. I also have went to the CZ American in 17 Fireball, which will cover and take care of all the other 17 calibers I shoot or did, i.e. 17HH, 17 Rem and 17-223.
And I love the 20 calibers. 20VT, 20SCC, 20-223ai, 240 R and a 20 Tac, which cover a good group of 20 calibers. All those I have. Each have a place and are a joy to shoot.

In the OP's case a good 20 VT would serve him just perfect, that is why I brought it up in my post.

[GLWenzl]

Originally Posted by B23

They're 17HH dies. I use Redding type S bushing dies for both of my factory CZ 527 17 Hornets.

I can check this later because I have one of those Redding dies but the potential issue with using a Redding 17HH bushing die, for a 20HH project, would be the transition area up inside the die right before the neck of the brass goes in to the bushing, because it's a 17HH die, even if you're using a larger inside diameter bushing for a 20HH it would probably size it close to 17 caliber regardless of the size of the bushing which would be well under what you'd want for a 20HH.

If that were a problem and you wanted to use a Redding 17HH bushing die I suppose you could always have that portion of the die honed and opened up. Or, you could just use one of those dies and remove the bushing all together then use a mandrel to set neck tension to whatever you wanted.

Hornady 17 Hornet brass isn't fantastic stuff but it's not terrible either. My biggest issue with it is the varying neck thickness from Lot to Lot so I always keep my 17HH brass segregated by neck thickness and use the appropriate bushing so my neck tension stays consistent.

Any of the Hornets, factory or wildcats, are fun little cartridges to shoot. They're rather quiet, especially with a can on them, and because they have nearly no recoil offer a lot of fun for all ages and skill levels. But, they're never going to be a BR cartridge nor are they going to be something anyone will use on small critters at any real distance because they really start losing their steam when you get much past 200 yards. That doesn't mean they won't kill ground squirrels or PD's well past that because they certainly will but the further you shoot stuff with them past those ranges and the bigger the target the less dramatic and effective they are as a killer.

Not saying it will work but I have had great success with using the bushing dies as a cheap alternative to custom-
First tried it with 20BR/Redding 22 BR FL NK dies
Then 17&20 Killer Bee/Hornady custom 17 KB
Last one was 20 Practical/Hornady 223 FL NK die
Might be others I did the same but those three are what I remember off the top of my head.

Good point and it was well thought out by Lonnie before he made up my 17 & 20 KB dies.

Ray, good point and I know what kind of luck you’ve had with reamers! I personally prefer the AH to the HH case for the 20 hornet but if I was doing one today, I’d consider it. Unfortunately since I don’t shoot what I have very much anymore, the 19 or 20 hornet will never happen.

[B23]

Originally Posted by GLWenzl

Not saying it will work but I have had great success with using the bushing dies as a cheap alternative to custom-

You're correct, parent case bushing dies work great when going down is caliber. It's another reason I like straight neck down cartridges. I use parent case Redding bushing dies in quite a few different chamberings, 22-250 for 20-250, 6.5-284 for 6-284, 222 for 20-222, 6.5-06AI for 6-06AI, 6.5 Creed for 6 Creed but they are all for going smaller. If I tried to use them for going up in caliber, even with no bushing installed in the Redding bushing dies, the neck junction will size it to small. Learned this the hard way a few years ago when I thought I could use my Redding 6-284 bushing die for my 6.5-284 but quickly found out even with no bushing installed at all that 6-284 bushing die would size the necks to small. Now, if I would have bought a 6.5-284 bushing die, first, I would have been good to go so when I had my 6 Creedmoor built, even though I didn't have a 6.5 Creedmoor yet, I bought 6.5CM bushing dies.

[GLWenzl]

Originally Posted by B23

You're correct, parent case bushing dies work great when going down is caliber. It's another reason I like straight neck down cartridges. I use parent case Redding bushing dies in quite a few different chamberings, 22-250 for 20-250, 6.5-284 for 6-284, 222 for 20-222, 6.5-06AI for 6-06AI, 6.5 Creed for 6 Creed but they are all for going smaller. If I tried to use them for going up in caliber, even with no bushing installed in the Redding bushing dies, the neck junction will size it to small. Learned this the hard way a few years ago when I thought I could use my Redding 6-284 bushing die for my 6.5-284 but quickly found out even with no bushing installed at all that 6-284 bushing die would size the necks to small. Now, if I would have bought a 6.5-284 bushing die, first, I would have been good to go so when I had my 6 Creedmoor built, even though I didn't have a 6.5 Creedmoor yet, I bought 6.5CM bushing dies.

Good info there. I must have got lucky because my 17 Killer Bee FL NK bushing die works great for my 20 KB (which happens to be what I shoot the more often).