Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles OK .17 looneys...

Tom,

A few more comments, after returning from Canadia:

On purpose, I found an early 700 BDL .17 Remington to find out if the fouling stories were true, as I had started to suspect they were mostly due to the dirty-burning spherical powders of the day. Found a second-year rifle with a barrel that I couldn't even tell had been shot in the bore-scope, and shot it around 120 times without cleaning before groups started to open up. Then treated it with Dyna Bore Coat and it would easily go twice that without cleaning.

I like spherical powders in all the .17's because they meter so accurately and flow so nicely through the tiny neck when cranking out ammo for gopher and PDS shooting. Travis apparently has never tried anything other than 4320 in his rifle, but I found Big Game works great in the round. Ramshot hasn't published any data for it in the .17R but my loads have also worked great in Shrapnel's rifle, both for speed and accuracy.

In the .17 FB TAC shoot great and of course burns cleanly. (As you know it is very similar to a temp-resistant and clean-burning 335.) CFE223 also works well, but I've never had any problems with copper-fouling in the FB either, and mine never fouled at all after installing DBC.

As Huntsman stated, the .17 Hornet is THE gopher round of the .17 centerfires, partly because powder goes such a long way, and will also do for most PD shooting as far as most people can consistently hit 'em. Like the .17R and .17FB it's also really easy to find good powder/bullet combos, in that aspect easier than the .22 Hornet. I've found at least 8 powders that work well in the .17 Hornet, far more than really perk in the .22 Hornet. In my rifle A1680 is probably tops, but others are so close it's not a big deal.

17 Remington in an old BDL here. I use 20gr Vmaxes and 25gr Hornady HPs over CFE 223. Accuracy is superb and I have zero fouling issues. I have some old Barnes Original 25gr SPs that I want to stunt shoot a deer with sometime. Know a couple brothers that live down around Kodiak that are 17 fanatics. They've shot many foxes and blacktails with both the 17Rem and the FB. The prefer the 25 Hornady and the plain vanilla 17rem.

John, Kid....thanks guys.....This rifle is probably gonna be the winter project, and you are giving me good intel on the .17s for sure...

I don't have a .17 centerfire, therefore........

Let me sum this up for you so your life is easier:

.17 Remington

IMR4320

Remington 7 1/2.



Get crackin'.



Travis

Sure I have.




Travis

Clark, can I rely on your tutelage should I decide to go the 17 Rem route?

It would mean the world to me....

Oh yeah. I've loaded and shot/owned four of 'em in barrel lengths from 14-24".

No think. Just build.




Travis

I'm overwhelmed...don't know what to say...

Just keep filling your glass and remember:

.17 Remington.

IMR 4320

Remington 7 1/2.




Travis

10-4

As usual, perfect advise.

'Gwe,
I had a .17 delimma myself a couple 3 years ago.
I sought advice here.
I bought a FB CDL and put it in a Ti & .17 Rem BDL that I put in a McMillan.
JB suggested loads and I took his advice. Life was beautiful.
Flava Flav contributed his thoughts and I bought a Thai hooker, a case of Budweiser, 25 grainers and went Telly Savalas on the chrome dome.
Sometimes less is more.
Fireball all the way.
Good luck,
Wageslave

I've had good luck using the CCI 41 primers when 7 1/2s were unavailable too. They have a thick cup for shooting in autos and seem to work just as good as the 7 1/2s in my rifle. Just FYI incase supplies get short again for some reason.

Im not leaning toward the FB....I am not an aficionado of the "short fat' cartridges...


But I honestly feel like I have been given great advise ( usually ,my threads deteriorate at warp speed) and whilst I mill about wondering what to do with my winter...I have been given the gift of food for thought....

Thanks guys!



Are the .17 center fires fur friendly???...I'll bet they are....

Can't fault you for going Thai and beer.
You are already bald.
Use protection.
Love,
Won Hung Low

You're right, the .17Rem is fur friendly, especially when those tiny 25gn pills are driven hard enough.
Even these moggy's suffered zero pelt damage. Not that it really matters with bloody cats though!

20gr Vmax. One .172 hole in the hide.

I blew a leg off a big red fox one time with the 25 grain Hornady HP, but other than that I have found the .17 Rem to be very fur friendly. I have no idea how many coyotes/fox/rock chucks/bunnies/turkeys have been killed by that bone stock BDL .17 Rem of mine.

I use CCI 400s and 23.5 gr of IMR 4895. I have not experimented much (a very little bit with IMR 3031), and for good reason. Sub 1/2 inch groups don't need messed with.

I would caution though, the 20 grain VMAX can fail to penetrate a coyote's shoulder at 10 yards. The 25 grain HP and VMAX though, have been incredible coyote killers.

I don't have much experience with the fireball/Mach IV, but have not been disappointed with the vanilla Remington.





She wears a Leupy 6x42 now

All the .17's tend to be very accurate, even in sporter-weight rifles, I suspect because the tiny hole makes their barrels pretty stiff. All I've owned have averaged .5 or less with more than one load at 100 yards, and that's for 5-shot groups, not 3-shot.

I've "heard somewhere" that Shilen has supplied more than a few .17 barrels to Remington. Or was that .20?

edit: The search function started working again, so I found the older conversation.