I’m just getting started w/ the .17s myself, and lucked in to a Remington 700 in .17FB from the factory. I haven’t shot it yet (soon!), but my plan is to shoot it with the factory barrel first. If it’ll hold at least MOA, I’ll shoot it as-is for a little bit. Otherwise I’ll get it sent off for another barrel as soon as I can.
You absolutely want to try that factory barrel I had a 700 SPS blued sporter. 5 shot groups were around 3/8ths of an inch and after about 100 rounds with a couple cleanings it more or less quit copper fouling. My load was 20 grains of H335 under a 20 grain VMAX, remington brass, remington 7-1/2 primer, for whatever that's worth. It was hell on ground squirrels.
Tom
