loading little bitty things

[iceman755]

does anyone here have experience with loading very small caliber stuff I'm looking at getting a few barrels for a contender thinking I want a 17 fireball and a 14 Hornet. I know brass dies and bullets are very hard to come by for these but I'm interested in the challenge anybody have any pointers they could share

 

[climbtothebeet]

yuck, i cant even stand to load .380 cause them little guys are so small, i drop the brass and bullets every 3 i load.

 

[Blitzfike]

I load 25acp, but it is a straight wall case so pretty easy. I haven't loaded anything smaller than 22 caliber, but with the proper die set shouldn't be any problem. 22 Hornet sometimes requires a little more care than its bigger cousins, but really no big deal with what I've done. I think doing brass conversions is where you will get the most case loss. I have both inside and outside neck turning and reaming hardware, and with some case diameter reductions I have to turn the necks to the proper thickness. I would assume that going from a larger caliber down to 17 or 14 will require removing a certain amount of the heck thickness after forming. Keep us posted on what you do please.. Jim

 

[Old Fart]

For me it would be those tiny bullets.
I'm getting to where I don't like reloading anything smaller than 7mm.

 

[iceman755]

Well reeds ammo has a starter kit for 14 ackley hornet for like 450 $ would ne a cheap way to start! Some load data ive found puts 15gr bullets at around 3700fps out of a 12in bbl. That's prettt neat imho. Not like id be trying to snipe ground hogs at 300yards with it. Ive got plenty of experience with wind drift out of my 204.

 

[Blitzfike]

barrel erosion gets to be a large factor in extremely small high velocity cartridges. Any idea how many rounds down the tube is normal before erosion renders it gone?

 

[swampratt]

I would think that would depend on how many consecutive shots you make.
I hear keep it to 3 rounds and let it cool..maybe a bore cooler set up would be in order.

 

[iceman755]

All barrels get hot the more you shoot don't mistake that. But heats not an issue here there's only 8-12 grains of powder in the cases and it's a single shot pistol so opportunity for heat to build will be very little

 

[Okie4570]

All barrels get hot the more you shoot don't mistake that. But heats not an issue here there's only 8-12 grains of powder in the cases and it's a single shot pistol so opportunity for heat to build will be very little

You are correct. I went through a sub caliber phase a few years ago, never fully committed to making it happen though. Reed's is in OKC, have you heard of them?
http://shop.reedsammo.com/Sub-Caliber-Products-17-14-12-10-caliber_c84.htm

http://www.14caliber.com/

 

[iceman755]

Yes I've actually been emailing Ron for the last 3 weeks about it I really got interested in the hornet due to availability of the brass. I don't mind going the work (try forming jet brass) but it's just nice to have a good supply handy. Load data shows 10 and 15gr in the 3700-4200 range so I'm pretty pumped about that