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Old 11-15-2020, 04:20 PM
JSH JSH is offline
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Default 17hh

I find accurate rifles interesting, almost to the point of being boring. Yet on the other hand I am a sucker for a “problem child”.

Rifle is a CZ varmint 17 Hornet.
I was initially gifted a fairly large amount of brass some years back. Gent was not a hand loader, but he was of the age group not to throw things away. In this lot was a sizeqble amount of once fired 17HH brass.
Forward a few years and the above rifle caught my eye.
I always like to see what a new rig will do with factory ammo to compare my hand loads. It has shot factory ammo very well, not great or super, yet acceptable.
I read and listened here and else where to opinions on powders and loads. I made several choices and loaded up a number of lots to try. Chrono readings and results on paper, I picked the most promising and went forward.
Almost every range session there were numerous flyers. I mean a group of 1/4”-1/2”@100 one or more would suddenly just move, yet group else where. I took full responsibility and decided it was me and probably my bag set up.

This past year I was tinkering with the 4198 load and noticed there was a fair bit of difference in how much case capacity it took up. Came to the point some were at the bottom of the neck, others would over fill.
Dumped all of them as I thought there may be some media hung up in the case, nothing.....I then weighed several and case weights were and obvious 5-7 grains apart. This is also easily seen when weighing loaded ammo.
Just got done going through all of my handloads and marking them light or heavy.

Just thought I would give others this if they were so inclined to have yet another winter project. Pretty easy with a digital scale.
Jeff
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Old 11-15-2020, 07:44 PM
Daryl Daryl is offline
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Seems to me, I read somewhere, that a difference in weight of 4gr. ='ld 1 gr. capacity. That seems a bit much to me, perhaps 10gr. weight would equal 1 gr. capacity - but, what matters, is 5-7gr. is TOO much to expect consistent results. That's like the difference in a larger case between R-P and WW & expecting them to shoot the same.
Good post, JSH.
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Old 11-15-2020, 07:59 PM
JSH JSH is offline
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I will note that I even went as far as to look at the stamp with a loupe and saw now difference in lettering or anything to sort them. All Hornady brass.

Weather and wind settles down I am planning on a session to see if this sorts out the flyers. Can’t help but think it should make a big difference.

I plan on putting a slight notch in the rim to sort by eye. I did this with other rimmed brass years ago on another project.
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Old 11-15-2020, 09:39 PM
TinMan TinMan is offline
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As I recall, back when The 17HH was first brought out, there some early issues with case quality and problems with rim flatness. It all may be the difference between early and later brass.

I was looking to build a 17AH back then, and found a nice used CZ 22 Hornet to convert until I shot it. It shot factory 22 Hornet ammo right at 0.4" for five shots at 100 yds. It stayed 22 Hornet and never built the 17AH.
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Old 11-18-2020, 01:49 AM
M595NUT M595NUT is offline
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Hornady brass. Enough said. Love their bullets but QC on brass is another story IMO. Experienced your issue with Hornady brass in 204 once. Started weighing separately and was disappointed in the lack of weight consistency. Like an 18 grain spread between 75 pieces.

Using around 28 grains of powder with 18 grains brass variance is a large percentage of case capacity. Your example of 5-7 grains variance on a case that uses +/-11 grains of powder puts you in similar situation.
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Old 11-18-2020, 02:16 AM
Bill K Bill K is offline
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[quote=M595NUT;293332]Hornady brass. Enough said. Love their bullets but QC on brass is another story IMO. Experienced your issue with Hornady brass in 204 once. Started weighing separately and was disappointed in the lack of weight consistency. Like an 18 grain spread between 75 pieces.

And yet, I have been using Hornady brass for several years now and it has work just fine in several of my rifles, from large calibers to some small one's. Bullets I use Hornady, Barnes and Nosler mostly. Combos do the job on critters from deer down to ground squirrels.
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Old 11-18-2020, 02:21 PM
TRnCO TRnCO is offline
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This might be my issue. I've been experiencing a blown primer from time to time. Go from no pressure signs, to a blown primer and the shot is way out of the group, has had me scratching my head. Blaming a possible difference in brass capacity hadn't crossed my mind.
I'll be weighing a bunch of brass in the near future now, to see, if possibly, this is what I have an issue with as well.
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Old 11-18-2020, 02:34 PM
Bill K Bill K is offline
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Reading this thread and some saying the difference in the internal size of the brass, makes me wonder about the reloading procedure.
What ever happened to the one tip/instruction from most all reloading books about checking each level in the case, after you throw the charge in and before seating a bullet ?
Don't some bypass that tip and see the difference in the level and wonder, Hey did I throw too much or too little into that case and recheck it ?
Seems that would tell you something is not equal in your reloading practice and you should check further before seating a bullet and going out and firing that round. Just a thought.
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Old 11-18-2020, 05:58 PM
Daryl Daryl is offline
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I have some .308 and .243 Hornady brass that has been super - very close weights, case to case - usually within 1 gr.
It's only a few years old, so fairly recent mfg'r..
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Old 11-18-2020, 06:15 PM
Dean2 Dean2 is offline
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Some Hornady brass is great, 375 Ruger, some is pure crap, 17 HH. With such a small case lack of consistency in case capacity is going to have a very detrimental effect. Even worse than the variance in case weight is the actual internal capacity of different batches. I returned a couple of thousand rounds of factory loads with the dished rims/heads. I returned a bunch of unloaded brass for widely variable primer pocket sizes; I finally just started using reformed Privi or WW brass to make cases. Gun became a WHOLE lot more consistent with the formed brass than it ever was using Hornady brass. Only way to sort Hornady HH brass is to actually measure the internal capacities, otherwise it is easier to switch than fight. I actually went back to the 17 FB because of the brass issues with the 17 H. Reminds me, I should flog that CZ soon, despite the fact I am a big CZ fan.
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