I found this thread on a DuckDuckGo search for reloading 17 Hornet. Interesting to say the least on where this caliber has gone in the last few years. The UK boys seam to have picked up on the 17. I have watched several vids from there. I was really impressed with the accuracy & especially how quiet the 17 is.
I retired from my roofing business about 2 yrs ago. I have plenty of time to kill so I have gotten back into the varmint hunting pass-time again. I have always been a varmint hunter here in Tennessee. I grew up when you could ride the country roads in rural TN & the farmers would almost beg you to shoot the groundhogs out of the fence rows in freshly cut hay fields.
Since TWRA introduced coyotes back into the population here & a lot of the farmland is being sold & cutup into subdivisions, the whistle pigs have moved to town.
We have a new varmint that has come into the South in the last few years, the Blackhead Buzzard. They are a nuisance to property owners & farmers & are in this area probably by the thousands.
It reminds me of the situation you boys out West have with the prairy dogs.
When they first started inhabiting the TN skies, they fell under the protected species act, & you couldn't shoot'em. They are a predator species of buzzard, they will attack & kill newborn calves, goats, sheep, etc. The State of TN has in the last couple of years raised the ban on killin'em.
I have taken a personal vendetta against them. I patrol several farmers farms & take them out when I can.
Which brings me to this thread. I have chosen a Savage HMR, & a Savage M-25 in 17 Hornet as my choice of weapon for this newly declared war on them. I love my M-25, super accurate & deadly out to 300 yds on a calm day.
I have been a reloader since 1977. Not a professional as some of you probably are, but I can git-er-dun good enough to meet my needs.
Reloading the 17 is gonna be a mite different than what I am used to with my deer guns.
When I got my 17 from gunbroker.com, I also got a couple cases of Hornady 20 gr V-Max ammo. I have just about shoot all my factory stuff up, so I am gittin ready to start reloading my spent cases. After prepping them I have been putting in the primers & have run into a few issues there. About 1 in 20 will not seat to proper depth. About 1 in a 100 is so loose you can almost shake them out.
