Progressive loading 22 Hornet/ 17 Hornet.

[Double D]

Right now when I need some Hornet ammo for gopher hunting, I run out to the shop and load up 50-100 rounds and go shooting.

Works pretty good when you live in Montana and the Gopher patch is just down road. Things are about to change and I will selling the house and moving to Oklahoma. That means ab expedition to Montana once a year for gophers and prairie dogs. Bulk loading will become a necessity.

I already had a Dillon Machine (550) set up loading .223. Got that angle covered.

Has anyone every set up and ran a Dillon for 22 Hornet and/or 17 Hornet who would be willing to share their experience? Problems, warnings, tips, shortcuts?

[TinMan]

I have been using my Dillon 550B for rifle rounds for roughly 20 years, and that includes four 22 Hornet rifles. I keep separate brass for each rifle, as I have found each rifle's chambers and neck sizes are different enough to make different separate brass worthwhile for accurate varmint work, like <0.5 MOA. I use only W-W Hornet brass that has been flash hole prepped and neck size only on a single stage press using a Hornady 22 Hornet NS die. I use a Hornady 22 Hornady seating die with a Micrometer stem for seating bullets.

After neck sizing, I then load the prepped and neck sized cases progressively on the Dillon using a slightly modified procedure. I do not size the brass on the Dillon 550B's first stage. I only seat a primer in the first position and then rotating the brass to the second positon, and the rest is the standard progressive operation.

There have been several threads over the years on Saubier for reloading choices brass, primers, powders and bullets for 22 Hornet. Find what your rifle likes, and enjoy it. Hope this helps.

[montdoug]

Sounds like Tinman covered the topic well already but my 2-cents, "especially" on the .17's would be fear of bridging.
As anal as I tend to run, I'd probably size and reprime and skip the first position on that Dillon and then flare the neck as little as possible and drop a charge using some kind of real fine ball powder. While the case was at the top of the charge stroke I'd probably tap the measure with a pencil a couple a times to make sure the powder all dropped into the case before seating the bullet.
Down side to ball powders is as we all know, that some of em are temp sensitive and that ain't good in small cases .
The real version of what I'd do on after thought, is set the .22 Hornet die up and use Lil'Gun in it cause it meters like a dream and shoots like crazy in every .22 Hornet and .22 K-Hornet I've ever shot it in. Then I'd neck-size, prime and charge the .17 Hornets in lots of 50 in a loading block so I could visually compare em before seating bullets. As mentioned above I'm a bit anal when it comes to things like sitting on street corners with tin cups full a pencils and white canes and all that . Sorry, just the cautious sort, probably to a fault.

[TinMan]

montdoug, to minimize any powder bridging in my Dillon, I have modified my Dillon powder funnels using a tapered hand reamer meant for plumbing repairs. Used in my drill press, it changes the included angle in the Dillon funnels to about 20-25 degrees. I have had no problems loading 17 Rem and 17M4 as long I use ball powders. In fact, I have modified all my Dillon funnels up to 30 caliber.

This is like the reamer I have, but back then, it was about half the current price.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/i...ductId=1292885

[GLWenzl]

I have loaded everything from the 17 Squirrel to dropping powder in a longer 17 Remington on a Hornady progressive press with excellent results.

10-15 years ago I would of thought that it was impossible to accurately reload off a progressive press. I only purchased the progressive for case forming but was shocked to see that I could reload as accurately off it as my single stage.

There was a learning curve but it really paid off in times where I needed to load 200-500 rounds for a PD outing.

Powder bridging has new been an issue for me... Thanks mostly to Ramshot powders.

[Intel6]

I load .22 Hornet/.17 Ackley Hornet/.218 Mashburn Bee on my 550 using the AT500 powder die and funnel. It takes the Dillon powder funnel and makes it a fixed funned with a small funnel on top. I use it in conjunction with my RCBS chargemaster so I am weighing every charge but still loading somewhat progressively.

Neal in AZ

[Dean2]

I load 17 FB, 17 HH, 22 H, 221 FB and 204 on my Dillon 550. I neck size and prime on the first station and the rest are the normal Dillon functions. I use Lil"Gun in the 22 H and 17 HH and Benchmark or 8208 in the 17 FB or 204.

I have never had any trouble with powder bridging and I have not modified any of the funnels. If it did bridge you will know right away because you will end up with spilled powder. The bridged powder will either drop when the case starts to move out of the way or will drop when the next case moves into position. The next case cannot hold a double charge of any of the powders I load, not even 10% more would cause an overflow. Like I said however, out of thousands of rounds I have never had a powder bridge on any cartridge.

( I leave a powder measure/funnel and head set up for each different cartridge so I don't have to adjust anything when I switch over, except the base and buttons. Use the right funnel and the small powder bar to ensure accurate weights. Mine will throw within .1 and out to 350 yards the Dillon loaded rounds shoot as good a groups as single loaded ones. There is an old thread I wrote about loading the 204 on a Dillon.) http://www.saubier.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18562

[TinMan]

Good point, Dean2. The only time I have ever had any powder bridging was using IMR4831 in my .243. That was the driver for taper reaming my Dillon funnels. I agree, the Dillon measure will routinely throw charges within 0.1grain with ball and short stick powders.

[Double D]

Thanks Gents for your feed back, much as i thought and much appreciated.

Thanks for the reminder about bridging. I forgot about that. A very long time ago to deal with bridging in powder measures the advice was to take a file and change the shape of the throat of the drop tube from from round to oval. Wonder if it will work with the Dilon drop tube.

Are there any issues with bridging with 1680 or 2200?

[TinMan]

They feed like water.....