K-Hornet fireforming

[cooper]

On the earlier thread I mentioned I would report the results of fireforming in my Contender 22 K-hornet barrel.

The barrel came yesterday.  I made 2 sets of fireforming loads  - one set had the neck/shoulder area annealed (before loading, of course!), and the other set was un-annealed.  This Remington brass was once-fired in a regular Hornet.

I used loads with 40 and 45 gr bullets, and 296, 4227, Lil Gun, and Accurate 1680.

All of it worked fine.  The shoulder was nicely formed and there were no splits whatsoever.  No need to go through the work of annealing if it makes no difference.

The only slight difference was in the case length.  The regular Hornet cases were 1.40" long.  After fireforming, the annealed cases came out 1.39" long, while the un-annealed cases were a bit shorter at 1.38". 

[BJ]

I realize shooting to fire-form is part of the fun.  However, there are times when I cannot get to a range.  I found the following on another site:
Find the case capacity of the parent case, load 13% of that capacity in a fast pistol powder, add Cream of Wheat to fill and top with a wax plug.
I then took a 5 gal plastic bucket and stuffed it with old rags. insert the barrel in the rags and fire away.  You can fire-form all day in your garage, basement or even gun room.  You do need a source of ventilation and to turn and/or add more rags after awhile.  I have fire-formed several different wildcats with this method and it works great.  You do need a means to control head-space with rimless cases, but rimmed (K-Hornet) are no problem.  In forming several hundred cases, I have lost only 2 or 3, most while forming 30-30 to .375 Win. 

[cooper]

BJ, I am going to give that a try.  I figured I would need some loads to sight in, etc. and I could use some fireforming loads to do that, but after that, there is no need to "waste" a bullet if there is an easier way.  Plus like you said, I can do it in the garage at any time.

[Catfish]

The only time I use corn meal to fire form is when I`m blowing out the case to a larger cal. and do not have a neck expander. For just blowing out shoulders I find a good accurate load and hunt with them. I`ve killed alot of groundhogs with fire form ammo.