Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Loads For 17 Rem and Hornady 25 gr Vmax Needed

Short of buying a new manual to try one new bullet - where can I get loads for this new bullet from Hornady. I just picked up 200 and want to try them. I emailed both Hornady and Hodgdon, but am not holding my breath for a response from them.

TM

TM45:

The Powder Manufacturers will all have max. loading data for their powders and 25 gr. 17 cal. bullets listed on their Web Sites. IMR 4320, RL15, and VARGET powders are all very popular in the 17 Rem with 25 gr. bullets. IMR 3031 & 4895, and Win 760 powders are less popular, but strongly favored by others as well.

The 25 gr. VMAX bullet is reputed to often have stability issues in 1/10 inch twist barrels. What make of 17 Rem. rifle do you have?




rollinghills

Thanks for the heads up on the 25 vmax. It is a long sucker. I've been using 4320 and Berger 25 gr moly hp's in a rem Classic. It's a good load and rifle combo. I thought the vmax would shoot a bit flatter and extend the range.

I have the data for 25 gr bullets but given the vmax's length, didn't just want to substitute.

My 4320 load is max and a bit warm. Mild cratering, 4200 fps, and the occasional mid air bullet blow up. I'm going to tone it down and I'm almost out of these loads so I want to try the vmax.

TM

Just got back from the Remington site. They list 1 in 9 as the twist rate for the BDL. I doubt they changed the Classic and that should be plenty quick for the vmax. I hope...

TM

TM45-- The following load works GREAT in my .17 Remington with its 24" fluted stainless steel super match grade Pac-Nor barrel with a 1 in 9" twist and 3 grooves. My Pac-Nor barrel has a .1945" neck and all of my casings are neck turned. The outer diameter at the neck for my loaded rounds is .1915"--give or take a 10 thousandth!!!

My gunsmith did a fancy scroll design on the barrel.




As always, if you want to try this powder, start with a charge about 5% or so lower than my load and work up slowly.

I am using 22.0 gr. of N-135 with this 25 gr. V-Max bullet and the muzzle velocity is right around 4,080 fps. A load of 21.8 gr. of N-135 also gives me tight groups and average velocities around 4,030 fps.

Another powder I tried with the 25 gr. V-Max was Varget. A load of 24.3 gr. of Varget gave me an average muzzle velocity of 4,030 fps and a 3-shot group that measured .318". The ES and SD numbers were quite large though, but I might do more testing with this powder.

That's some pretty impressive metal work!

Varget I have. Hodgdon lists 24.5 gr as max with Varget and a 25 gr bullet. I'm guessing your chamber is a bit tighter than my sloppy production barrel.

I will give these a go. Have you tried these bullets on any live targets?

TM