Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .17 Remington on fur

Good to know...cause starting load on CFE223 is 4200 fps+ and I didnt want to go that fast, but I love that powder in a couple others!

That's good information Kid. That should work for Grey's then. Very few to no Reds around here anymore, but lots of Greys and Coyotes of course.

Have much more consistency with the old Berger Match 25's and Chan Nagel's 25's on Coyote. The Hornady's work but not as consistent as the others.

I love my .17s. They have been very dependable on fox and cats. Coyotes can be a question on some occasions. I have always been able to retrieve them, but some of the bigger dogs have run a ways on occasion, especially if I shot them on the shoulder instead of behind it.
I went over to the 204, simply because there were more factory load options out there. The 32 grain loads and lighter dont seem much different from my 17 loads. The 40's or a fringe hit look a lot like a 22-250 got into them though.
If you have an accurate 17, keep it and enjoy it!

Well, this is belated, but for what it’s worth I hunted Reynard passionately in the 80’s, starting with the 243 (Way too explosive), moving steadily down through the 22’s (still too destructive for fur) to the 222 (not flat enough for the barren fields of Iowa).

When I got to the 17 Remington, I found it about the best choice for fox to all ranges here and preservative of fur for the most part. Used Remington 25-gr factory loads. Chrono’ed 3700 FPS out of the petite Kimber model 84 — seemed just right.

I’ve shot a dozen or so coyotes with the 20vmax. It was left over pdog ammo and pushed wide open with cfe. They put terrible entrance wounds on coyotes and would blow up on the fur. I’d often have to shoot them again to anchor them. I switched to the 25vmax and it was a much better killer. Shot a few bobcats with it and it poked a little hole going in and they’ve all stayed inside the cats. First one I called in was about 40 yards away broadside.... I figured it was going to blow him to pieces but I was pleasantly surprised.

Good to know as they are readily available.


I managed to scrounge up a few hundred 25 gr, Hornady HP ( now discontinued) cause they came highly recommended for fur. If not, I'll go to the 25 Vmax.

Same bullet I used back in the early 70's and like George said, it worked pretty darn good.

A Kimber 84 in 17 Rem.! That had to be an awesome setup.

I think a Remington Model Seven in 17 REM would be a cool predator rifle.

I's certainly second that suggestion....

I bought one when they first came out. Nice setup except I wished the barrel had been 20" instead of its 18". I sold it and replaced it with this one.

i i use kinder gold, 29 grain from the wood chuck den and a stout load of varget out of my sako.

Is the Wood chuck den still in operation?

All of these (and more, this was the last trip to the buyer that year) were killed with the 17 Remington shooting the Berger Varmint bullets. I skin and stretch my own so I see every shot, and there is no stink on that bullet IMO. I've got a couple thousand of the Hornadys squirreled away, but until Burger quits making this bullet I'm going to keep shooting them. Everyone bitches about the price of the Bergers, but they come 200/box. If I were shooting ground squirrels or something I might think differently, but for fur hunting? They are worth every penny.

OK, this is what I like to see!

Ive got a bunch of Hornady 25 HPs squirreled away as well...but my main question to you is are you using the Berger 20 grainers or do you have some of their 25s stashed away and are using those?

And as long as we are at it, what load do you like?

I'm using the 25 gr Berger Varmint HPs, part 70308? It's whatever one they still make. Everyone says the discontinued match 25 gr were the best, but these work just fine for me. I'm pushing them around 3900fps under 24gr of IMR 4320 from a 24inch barrel. I hunt almost exclusively at night with thermal so my shots are almost always under 200. Most of the fox are inside 75. I almost never get any kind of exit on the fox and if I do it's tiny shrapnel, not a blow out.

Is 24 gr, where you decided to stop or was that your most accurate load? I run the same powder behind a 25gr. but I'm at 24.6gr. I see 4320 is now discontinued.

Excellent! Thank you. Most of my calling is at night as well, shots under 150 yards.....fox, as you said, are usually under 75 yards.

I will check that bullet out!

Awesome picture bassi, thank you for sharing

I shot a 17 Remington with the 25 gr Hornady HP and I blew holes as big as your fist in them. I may have not been shooting the most fur friendly bullet out there, but back in the early to late 90's there were not many bullets to pick from in a 17 caliber.