Brass you wont see everyday

[skeet1]

I Have had this brass for 20 some years and have used it in several of the Hornets I have had through the years. Thought I would show you some photos and why I think they are unusual. The brass is stamped with military type head stamp WCC 60 and RA 58. I don't know how much of this brass is still around but I believe that it was made for the military .410/.22 Hornet survival rifle. If this is not the what it was for you might let us know.

[Bent Ramrod]

That's what it was for. In the '70's into the '80's, there was a lot of mil surplus Hornet ammunition around, mostly WCC, but some of it Remington (with R-P headstamp) It came in plain white boxes of 50 with the usual military lot and interfix numbers on it, or (more likely) was just loose in a bin in the gun store. Most of what I saw had an approximately 40 grain spitzer bullet, full metal jacketed, with a slight boat tail, and were loaded with a fine ball powder. Some, however, had soft points like regular Hornet ammunition. The boxes of that variety had a warning that this ammunition was for survival hunting only, not for antipersonnel use. At that time, the Hornet had just begun its revival, and ammunition was not always easy to find, so Hornet lovers were delighted to have this stuff at surplus prices.

The FMP Hornet ammo wasn't too accurate in my rifles, but I took a lot of it apart, weighed in somewhat less of the powder charge, and used regular commercial Speer, Sierra or Hornady bullets and the reloaded ammunition shot quite well. The only other place I ever saw that fine ball powder was in some .30 Carbine rounds I took apart. I guess it wasn't available commercially. It wasn't flattened, and all the granules were the same size.

[frankenfab]

I wonder if the powder was WC820?

[SWANEEDB]

I think that over and under 410/22 hornet was a pilot issue for survival, had a very short barrel and not intended for civilian use, a friend had one new in the box, it went out fishing with us and over the side it went, he thought it was just too hot to hang unto.

[skeet1]

frankenfab,
I don't know if it was WC 820 originally or not but that is what i'm putting in them now.

Ken

[sprinkintime]

You can see this mil brass come up often at Gun Brokers

Sprink

[Dale53]

I spent some time with various Hornet rifles "back in the day". I actually like it's performance window and it worked VERY well with cast bullets (Lyman 225415). I was an avid squirrel hunter and 3.0 grs of Unique behind that bullet gave me what I wanted. It was a far better killer than the .22 Rimfire (unless you used high speed hollow points) but didn't tear up meat like the hollow points did. It was definitely a good choice for edible small game.

I used those military cases (in those days hardly anyone had much spendable income) and they were welcome additions to the fold.

I finally dropped the .22 Hornet as a varmint caliber. When using full loads, a fraction of a grain of powder that proved "too much" and the brass was ruined because of expanded primer pockets. The window between adequate performance and "too much" just became too frustrating for me.

I found a properly re-chambered (to .221 Fireball) Ruger #3 with custom wood and got rid of my .22 Hornets. The .221 gave approximately Hornet performance but with MUCH better brass. It was a lot of work but you could reform cheap and available .223 brass for perfectly good cases and they lasted MUCH better than Hornets. If you section a Hornet case, you can see why the primer pockets expand with the slightest provocation. There is almost NO metal between the sides of the primer pocket and the case head. It's almost as if it's "made to fail". I have never been one to try to push the envelope regarding velocity (if I need a bigger hammer, I GET a bigger hammer) and that is what I found so frustrating.

As a cast bullet rifle, however, the brass lasts nearly forever and DOES work well in the edible small game role.

But, that is just me...

FWIW
Dale53

[leadman]

I had a Contender 10" in 22 Hornet that was very hard on brass. I also had a nice 21" tapered Contender barrel in 22LR. Had Gary Reeder in flagstaff rechamber it to 22 K Hornet. Like night and day difference. The 10" went down the road.
I would recommend this improved cartridge to anyone with a standard Hornet as the brass lasts much longer and it seemed to take some of the "oops" out of the 1/2 grain too much powder.
I have seen some of this brass many years ago at gun shops and was interested in the survival rifle but never bought one of the civilian versions. With the snakes around the lakes here it would be a good boat gun, if you did not drop it overboard.

[dtknowles]

I bought two boxes of the WCC stuff that had pointed FMJ's at a gunshow many years ago. Out of those 100 pieces of brass I have less than 40 now. At the time I did not bother annealing my .22 hornet brass, it was not hard to come by. I would buy factory ammo, shoot it and reload the brass. I have never lost a piece of brass to loose primer pockets it was always neck splits. I anneal quite often now and lose less these days. I shot a lot of full power loads with IMR4227 and now with Lil Gun but you can't get enough of either one of those into those cases to get over pressures (that will loosen primer pockets) with the light bullets I use. My #3 prefers 35 to 45 grain bullets.

Tim