Tested primers, left to right: Winchester Small Rifl e, Winchester Small Pistol Magnum, Winchester Small Pistol, Federal Small Rifl e Match (205M), Federal Small Pistol Magnum (200), Federal Small Pistol (100), CCI Small Rifl e Benchrest (BR-4), CCI Small Pistol Magnum (550), CCI Small Pistol (500), Remington Small Rifl e (6½), Remington Small Pistol (1½). Remington makes the 5½ especially for the 357 Magnum, which might be a useful Hornet choice but I could not fi nd any to test.
PROPELLANTS NOT TESTED We now have about ten reason-
ably good propellant choices for Hornet loads. These include both ball-type and extruded numbers. It would have been infeasible to robustly test all, so I settled on testing three proven Hornet perform- ers and one new propellant that should be a good Hornet choice. My choice of the former three refl ects personal expe- rience and prejudice; others might well have chosen other propellants to test. I suspect that, generally, all ball-
type propellants will be apt to work best with the primers that worked best with the three ball-types tested in this study. Similarly, I suspect that, generally, all extruded propellants will be apt to work best with the primers that worked best with the extruded type tested in this study. However, I am not thrilled with either prediction because propellants vary in many ways and those variations could well defeat my best predictive powders in some instances and in any given instance with some combination of loading variables.
Perhaps the most obvious issue
is that several extruded propellants that are appropriate to the Hornet are double-based, and those are very apt to respond quite differently to the primer than does the tested single-based ex- truded propellant. I simply could not test everything!
GUN An accurate rifl e and scope system
is necessary to discern load-to-load ac- curacy variations. The CZ 527 American certainly is suffi ciently accurate for that task. However, I fi red only two fi ve-shot groups with each combination and I am fallible — many times, I fouled a group due to poor gun control on the bags or loss of concentration. Certainly, some good groups are likely to have been fl ukes and, for sure, many bad groups refl ect shooter error or undetected wind changes or some other unaccounted variable.
Moreover, because I made no ef-
fort to tune loads to the gun — to match barrel time for best accuracy, as is nec- essary — at best, measured accuracy is
merely a refl ection of barrel time. Those loads that happened to generate a rela- tively consistent barrel time that hap- pened to fall within an accuracy sweet spot for the test gun shot smaller groups. Those loads that happened to generate consistent barrel times that happened to be between accuracy sweet spots shot much larger groups. Similarly, loads that generated relatively inconsistent barrel times but happened to generate a range of barrel times centered near an accuracy sweet spot shot relatively small groups. Tuning any given load to change
barrel time will alter resulting accuracy. The most accurate combinations will have the most consistent barrel times that also fall closest to the center of an accuracy sweet spot. This test did not address this issue in any way, other than perhaps accidentally. Therefore, please, ignore reported accuracy results other than as a means of identifying specifi c loads that are useful and those that are not useful. Ballistic uniformity is the important result of this test. EXPERIMENT
I used same-lot, once-fi red Rem-
ington cases. I resized those using the Lee Collet die with the mandrel polished to 0.222-inch. I primed sets of 44 cases with each
of 11 types of primers. These included every small pistol and standard small rifle primer that is readily available (except the Remington 5½, which I could not get).
22 Hornet (R-P Cases), CZ 527, Primer Comparison Study Moly-Plated, 30-Grain Barnes Varmint Grenade at 1.78-Inch OAL (0.020 Jump) Propellant And Charge (grains)
Primer Rem-1½
Rem-6½ CCI-500 CCI-550 CCI-BR4 Fed-100 Fed-200 Fed-205 WSP
WSPM WSR
300-MP 15.0 3502/27 | 0.8
3495/30 | 0.7 3528/36 | 1.3 3508/29 | 1.0 3513/29 | 0.4 3547/22 | 0.9 3493/31 | 1.2 3495/34 | 2.2 3557/24 | 1.4 3478/20 | 1.2 3516/34 | 1.4
Mean Prop. 3512/29 | 1.1 Std. Dev.
20 | 4 | 0.4 Page 114 July — September 2011
Velocity/Standard Deviation | 100-Yard, 5-Shot Accuracy Lil’ Gun 13.8
H110 14.9
3043/35 | 1.4 3110/53 | 1.1 3081/43 | 1.6 3078/65 | 0.7 3078/40 | 1.3 3096/47 | 1.7 3097/15 | 0.7 3092/69 | 0.8 3129/52 | 0.8 3033/43 | 0.7 2993/20 | 0.5 3075/44 | 1.0 31 | 12 | 0.4
3530/29 | 0.8 3496/25 | 0.7 3485/22 | 1.0 3465/21 | 0.5 3486/29 | 0.6 3471/13 | 0.8 3478/14 | 1.0 3506/22 | 1.4 3526/24 | 1.1 3451/15 | 0.6 3466/14 | 0.7 3487/21 | 0.8 22 | 5 | 0.2
IMR 4227(C) 12.8 Mean primer 3156/25 | 1.7
3149/29 | 1.2 3135/35 | 0.6 3125/25 | 0.6 3129/14 | 1.1 3138/ 9 | 0.8 3152/22 | 0.9 3125/14 | 0.6 3110/31 | 0.4 3176/23 | 0.8 3080/16 | 1.1 3134/22 | 0.8 20 | 7 | 0.3
3308 | 29 | 1.2 3313 | 34 | 0.9 3307 | 34 | 0.8 3293 | 28 | 0.7 3301 | 28 | 0.9 3313 | 23 | 1.1 3305 | 21 | 1.0 3304 | 35 | 1.3 3331 | 33 | 0.9 3285 | 25 | 0.8 3264 | 21 | 0.9
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