Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .17 Hornet

My only .17 experience has been with the Fireball.

Mostly I like to load boat tails for varmints in my .22s.

I chamfer my cases, but sometimes those flat base bullets tip sideways in the mouth when I run the ram up. Boat tails seems to stay put better. If you had one tip to the side they would still load, just cut part of the plastic tip off. That is if you did not feel the resistance and balance the bullet better.

On my .17 Fireball I am using Hornady dies with the sliding seater. Works a charm with the V maxes.

I have loaded right at 100 working on loads. I did notice right off the bat that none of the cases had been chamfered, that was the first thing I did. I have had no problems.
I was fortunate enough to have been gifted a pile of once fired Hornady brass before I even had thoughts of playing with this case. Most all of them had the crimped primer. I took care of that as well.
I read some where the early brass had some splitting issues. I have been working with a batch of 30 cases. Some of them have been neck sized or partial sized 5-6 times with no sign of any issues.
Has this been taken care of? I didn't notice any comments from anyone here on annealing.
Jeff

I haven't had any problems with split cases, but have a bunch of brass, and the most any have been loaded is 2-3 times.

Some of the early cases used in factory ammo had "shallow" primer pockets, only discovered when somebody tried to reload them and standard small-rifle primers wouldn't seat deeply enough. The pockets weren't just slightly shallow, but a LOT, with only about 3/4 of the primer entering the pocket.

I never encountered this in any of the factory ammo I shot, or in unfired brass, but did run into some after purchasing a batch of once-fired cases off the Campfire Classifieds. About 2/3 had shallow pockets so I "uniformed" them, and they work fine.

What I've since wondered, however, is where Hornady got primers to fit those shallow pockets?

JSHKS

The primary situation I have seen and or experienced cracked necks with the 17HH occurred early in the introduction of this cartridge when 17HH brass was not readily available.

With that situation some were making their own 17HH, formed from 22 Hornet brass. with the more radical forming process some neck and shoulder splitting occurred. With the more radical forming process, annealing b4 first firing was / is highly beneficial.

I was aware of primer pocket concerns with the early ammo. Neck splits was not an issue with the early ammo to my understanding. Annealing job is not often nessisary yet occationaly when done properly may go a long ways to prolonging brass life.

My favorite 17 HH load has been near max A2200 as a preferred propellant under a 25 grain HP or V-max.

I've had issues with gifted once fired Hornady brass in a number of cartridges , i know it was once fired because i was present when it was fired. 44 mag, shallow primer pockets, .308 tight primers pockets so undersized that I could not seat CCI,Win or Rem primers. Of 20 .300 H&H 7 of them had oversized primer pockets primers fell out after seating.

Recently purchased a 77/22 17 H, and will begin with factory ammo.
Couldn't believe its cheaper then loading if you have to purchase new brass.

Here it's $28.00 per box of 25 . $1.12 per round
Bullets are $30.00 per hundred $.30 per round
New Brass is $50.00 per 50 $1.00 per round
Primers are now $7.00 per hundred $.07 per round
$1.37 per round plus powder vs $1.12 per round for factory.

Flyer

Yep, and I've purchased .17 Hornet ammo off the Internet that, with shipping, cost less than $20 a box of 25.

John,

It was after I read this thread you began, that I started comparing the cost of factory ammo vs reloading. Since 1980 when I began loading, I hadn't purchased any factory ammo . The had only factory ammo that I shot has been given to me or that was included as part of a gun deal.

Tim,

Flyer, your cost comparison is tough, I feel for you.
I just bought a box of 50 Federal to give a try,$39. Hornady brass was $31.
The brass prices are one reason I try to take extreme measures to take good care of it. It being the only thing we get back after dropping the hammer on a round. This is the main reason I am working with such a small batch doing initial load work.
I am not going to wait until a split or seperate a case, I am going to anneal after this batch is empty. This may or may not raise more issues.
I got to the point with my IHMSA match brass I annealed after the third sizing. I have some 30-30 brass that has been size at least 30 times now.
Getting my machine set up for the 17 will be a chore its self.

All this shooting makes me hungry, too.....

Don't you just hate "autocorrect"?

Ed

no. because I proofread before hitting submit.

Just love it.
This thing will correct after you hit the submit button.

be that as it may, I'm still hungry....

I've actually found the little 17 fairly easy to load for, including handling those little bullets. I use a Hornady die with the sliding collar in the seater, which makes it much easier. I also chamfer the neck inside and out after trimming.
I use a single stage press as well, which probably makes it a bit easier to feel the seating process; no crushed necks at all and I've probably loaded around 250 rounds so far.
I am reusing about 70 cases at a time and am about to load some of them for the 5th time. Now that I've more of a handle of powder selection I expect better life expectancy from my brass. Using Li'l Gun, I had to pitch some cases after the second load because I'd stretched the primer pockets.
Great cartridge, I love it.

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.

take another step and uniform pockets....

Tag

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good 'smith? I want to re-barrel a Ruger 77/22H to 17 Hornet.

what scopes have you been using on your 17 hornets?

Ed

had a bushnell 5-15 on it for years. It puked and got a 3-9 redfield put on. Didn't like that so tossed an old vortex 6.5-20 on it now. Kinda big and clunky, but works well.....