Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 17 Fireball

For those that need some, Cabelas has fireball brass back in stock.

What I need is the rifle!

Thats good!


I recently bought 5 bags the last time Cabelas had some.


Hope its good stuff.

Yes you do.


Dont be fooled by the "nearly" as good 17 Hornet.

400 FPS is several FPS.


Does the .223 burn less powder than the 220? Yes. Is it nearly as good?

Depends on your definition of "nearly".

2nd the yes you do. She is a sweet round to be sure.

Curiously my intrest in all things firearms has diminished to a great degree this summer. I currently prefer a silenced round that requires no tax stamp. My current favorite round falls under the category of sticks and strings.

I had a 17 Ackley Hornet long before it was a thing. It worked very well for close up coyotes, but the shots had to be right on target, otherwise you were blowing up chunks of running away coyote. Always wanted for a little more umph and a little better bullet.

Jim,

I haven't found the velocity advantage of the .17 Fireball over the .17 Hornet very useful, and have used both plenty.

The best 20-grain bullet load I ever found for my Fireball, a 700 with a 24" barrel, started right around 4100, using Benchmark. The best 20-grain load for my Hornet, a CZ with a 22" barrel, gets 3775 with the maximum listed load of CFEBLK. That 325 fps, not 400. While definitely noticeable on the chronograph, it shrinks to around 230 fps at 300 yards, which is about as far as I shoot varmints with either .17. (Killed PD's out to around 600 when I first started shooting the .17 Fireball a decade ago, just to see what it would do, but found that at over 300 yards a .204 or .223 worked noticeably better.)

The difference in trajectory between the two .17's ain't much either. When sighted-in an inch high at 100 yards, the .17 Hornet with a 20-grain V-Max or Tipped Varmaggedon is about half an inch high at 200 and around -5 at 300. The .17 Fireball sighted-in an inch high at 100 is about an inch high at 200 and -3 low at 300. The difference in wind-drift is about an inch at 300.

With 25-grain V-Maxes at 3750 the .17 Fireball's trajectory is only an inch flatter at 300 than the .17 Hornet's with 20's, and the wind-drift advantage still about an inch.

Along with the perpetual brass shortage of more expensive .17 Fireball brass, that's why I switched to the .17 Hornet. But as always, YMMV.

I was just fooling around MuleDeer!

Figured I could smoke you out with that one.


I have both...a Hornet and a Fireball.

The Hornet gets shot 20:1 over the fireball.

Like you....the wind conditions make the difference moot.

I figured you might be up to something. :-0

Loved my .17 Fireball--but not enough to wrestle with trying to find brass. Have done essentially the same thing when other "essential" components became hard to find. Switched from H4350 to IMR4451, and Federal 215's to CCI 250's. Life got easier!

The Hornet and Fireball are great chick rounds.

Real men invest in the original, the never surpassed, the one, the only... .17 REMINGTON.

Well, I have always been recoil sensitive......

I always shied away from 25 grain bullets for this reason.

Yes, shooting should not be painful.

The .17 Remington is perfect for those who can't handle the recoil of the .204....

Why settle for only one, get all three. Hell, get all four if you include the 204!

I don't do metric.

Ill offer another plug for Sleeping giant brass. !7 FB and much more to be found here. https://sleepinggiantbrass.com/17-Remington-fireball-brass



17 HM2, 17 HMR, 17 Hornet & 17FB along with big brother 17 Rem are all good to be sure. All great chick rounds. Hope the chicks don't mind me using any one of these fine rounds.

While I hate to choose, the 17 FB is my go to all around choice usually topped w a 30 Gr Berger. Gives up a few FPS over the overbore big brother yet I have not missed the extra couple hundred FPS as of yet.

One for sale over on longrangehunting.com

Split neck 222 rems get annealed, sized and trimmed for my 17FB, yeah it takes some time but I don't shoot it much save for fur season. Like Fireball2 I've had less than desirable results when hunting furred up yotes with plastic tipped 20s and 25s. The old Hornady 25 grain HP was one helluva bullet but like all good things, they quit making them to introduce the latest and greatest.

Now a 30 grainer may be the ticket, what it loses in FPS is a good trade for the "knock the crap-outuv-em" gained.

Are you trying to say the 25 gr hp is out of production. Thankfully not. https://www.powdervalleyinc.com/product/hornady-172-17-25-gr-hp-100/


The Hornady 1710 is another great option that I really like from the 17 Hornet. Only thing I have agents the HH is the rimed case. some see the rim as a positive, not me.