Hornday 22 Hornet Varm Express Issue/help

[hydeslinger]

I am shooting a #1 in a K-Hornet. I have read that Hornday makes really good brass. My #1 shoots really well when fire forming, so I have been purchasing the Hornady Varmint Express as my chosen load to fire form into the K-Hornet.

I sat down last week because I have about 200 rounds of fresh made K-Hornet. I opened up my Redding neck sizer and started neck sizing and punching the primer and sizing. I have mixed RP, WW, and Hornday (with Hornday making up the bulk of my K-Hornet brass).

Here is the issue:
The flash hole on the Hornday brass is VERY small, so small it was pulling the de-primer pin right out of the die. I though that was weird, I thought it was a die issue. I called Redding and they sent me their smallest pin, used in their PPC dies. Yesterday I installed the new pins, and low and behold it pulled the pin again on the first one.

I called Hornady Tech assistance and the gentleman said that since the ammo was manufactured as factory "ammo", and is not intended to be reloaded, there was nothing they could do for me. In this case, he could only provide assistance if the items were sold as reloading components.

I have about 150 rounds of Hornday fire formed K-Hornet that I cannot get the primer out of.
Suggestions on how to get the primer out??
Will the super small hole cause erratic pressure issues?
The primer hole is off center and not consistent, will that cause issues?
Has anyone ever heard of "New Factory" ammo not being suitable for reloading??

 

[rcmodel]

The small Redding pins should measure .057".
Check and make sure they sent you the right ones.

I have made my own out of cut sections of spring steel music wire from the hardware store.

Once you get them out, drill all the holes with a 1/16" (.0625") drill bit.
Or a primer flash hole uniformer if you want to spend more money.

Off-center is not good, but there is not much you can do about that except keep a supply of extra depriming pins on hand when you break them.

Another good use for cheap 1/16" music wire!

rc

 

[cfullgraf]

If you have a spare decapping rod from an un-used die, you could chuck the rod with a decapping pin in a drill and sand the pin down to fit the flash hole. Then you could tap out the primer manually.

If the flash hole is off center, that will not lend itself to press depriming.

There are very small drills available. For cases where the flash hole is on center, you could drill out the flash hole to match "normal" 22 Hornet cases. The info on the flash hole diameter should be reasonable available somewhere on the net.

Sinclair makes flash hole deburring tools that might drill out the flash hole. They may make a flash hole uniforming tool.

Small drill bits would be available from model supply houses such as Micro-Mark and other sources.

Alot of work. Might be easier to buy other cases.

P.S. As rcmodel said, flash holes are .0625", drills available at your local hardware store. Even easier.