Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Which .17 powder now that 4320 is gone?

Now that 4320 is supposedly gone the way of the dodo, what is the preferred powder to launch 25 gr. Hornady HP's out of a .17 Remington?

I don't know, but I think I'd be considering Leverevolution or Accurate 2700.

CFE223 is your friend if you want to drive them fast

I've been using AA2700 for years and is happy with it. Have not tried CFE223 but it looks like a good candidate.

Thanks. I'll try some out.

and then there is plain old BLC 2, that is still being made...

along with W 748.....

and then there is plain old BLC 2, that is still being made...

along with W 748.....

and even tho it is not a favorite powder of mine, but H 4895...

or the better of the two... IMR 4895

I went to IMR8208 in my 17, 204, and recently 223. Accuracy is outstanding and velocity in the 204 with 35gr. and 37gr. hoovers around the 3900fps. The Labradar would not read the 17 cal. since ours will only read up to 3950fps. I haven't checked the 223 loads yet. All three rifles are 22" barrels.

Varget followed by W760.

I haven’t burned a kernel of anything else since I discovered CFE223.

DELQUE: Luckily only one of my 17 Remingtons preferred 4320 powder (the other two really like H 4895).
And I have a lifetime supply of IMR 4320 on hand.
If I get another 17 Remington I will give that CFE 223 a try.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I've used IMR 3031 for many decades in my 17Rem. Good velocities and accuracy.

Dingo,

are those cats belonging to a liberal neighbor by chance?

I've got some neighbors who have cats I'd like to do that too....

they frown on it here tho...

I DO like that rifle!

Nah, just feral cats out in the bush.

Dingo,

coyotes take care of that problem where I live...

Talked to a California Fish and Game guy once.... around LA they dissect most of the coyotes killed that they come across to see what
they are eating and surviving on... he was saying 80 to 90% of their diet in San Bernadino County was small domestic pets... cats, poodles, puppies etc.

Seafire - that is a funny one. out of my sako i shoot varget and kinder golds.

mine loves h4895

4320 is still out there I bought some yesterday.

Ya I got some more 4320 also before everything dried up, and I also like it in my 223's.
But several years ago i started messing around with CFE 223 in 17 rem.
CFE 223 is now the powder I use in my 17 rem with 25gr HDY hp's or 25 v-max. This powder has no problem getting to 4000fps + just like 4320. WW 760 isn't bad, it'll do 3900 fps with either 25gr Hornady and shoots good.
Another one to try is Shooters world Match or maybe even better is SW Precision which is a hair slower.
I don't have much interest in some of these other faster burning powders, they won't get to 4100fps.

Here’s a can of IMR4320 that I bought for reloading a 17 Remington Bullberry barrel for my TC G2 Contender carbine. It’s been on the shelf in my reloading room untouched for years until last week. It tipped over when I was relocating it and a cloud of brown dust puffed out and the grains of powder started spilling all over. I have six other cans of odd IMR powders of similar vintage sitting next to it that are all intact. Most were handed down to me 15 years ago from a friend that passed. [img]http://[/img]

Varget, Benchmark, IMR 8208 either of those work well in my 17 Rem

I still have a bit of 4320. That’s all I’ve ever used in 25 years of 17 rem shooting. I’ll try Benchmark.

FWIW I'm getting some good results out of 4064...

For the Hornady 25 gr hp I have always used AA2520 22.7 grains at about 3700fps fur friendly.
If I was shooting the 30 gr Berger's I used AA2700
Powder flows nice, but need to clean the barrel often. It is dirty, but cleaning the barrel is not something that bothers me.

at 24gr per load it's going to take me many years to burn through the 10 lbs of 4320 I have left. I'm certain I'll burn that barrel out first.

Have you tried the Win 6.5 StaBall6.5? That, along with CFE223 show some pretty good velocities and they are easy to pour.

I burn imr 8208 out of mine with 25 gr vmax. It was the first powder I tried after installing the barrel and it shot so good I didn’t feel the need to try anything else.

How the hell do you get it in there? 😉

I have toasted 2 , 17 Remington barrels with 4064.1 Sako and 1 Douglas. I shoot Tac, Benchmark and 748 in my 17 Remington's now.

between a 17 Fireball and time spent with the 223, I might suggest AA 2015 and AR Comp....

Are those you mentioned easier on the barrel erosion? I wouldn't think it would make much difference. Ive toasted a few 223 barrels with TAC and 748....

Educate me, cause I love my .17 and want it to last as long as possible!

Tom I really don't know if the other powders make much difference at all. I gave up on 17's for a while because of the inconsistency of the the available bullets. Hornady 25 grain HP's performance on PD"S and jacks. And the fact that I got tired of the cleaning routine I had to do.

The accuracy and consistent performance of the V-MAX and finding real nice Cooper model 21 for a price I could afford brought me back into the game.

I don't keep track of round count on barrels and simply replace them when they won't shoot as well as I'd like them to.

TAC and 748 are cleaner burning than 4064 in my experience in 17 Remington's and allow longer between cleaning.

Long drawn out way of saying I don't know. Sorry

Ramshot Big Game works great in the .17 Remington, and like CFE223 is a spherical powder so flows really well through the tiny neck.

I use Varget in my .17 Rem and my 17/204. If I had some other choices, I might try something different. But Varget works so well that I got a good stash of it on hand.

Thanks for the input...I couldn't see where there would be a big difference.

Gotta agree with you on the Hornady Vmax...they will definitely shoot better that the Hornady 25 HP, not by much, but definitely a difference. Bergers shoot well too. Im not a fan of the cleaning routine either, but I use mine primarily on predators so theres very few extended sessions with it. ( Though I cant resist on gophers once in awhile...)

Have not tried Big Game...but have great luck, as mentioned with CFE223.

Pw Pro 2000 is pretty close, some say the same as CFE223. These days, you burn what you can find. Leverevolution is pretty close to those burn rates.

I'm a big fan of BG, even got a big jug.

DF

Thanks John, I'm going to have to give Big Game a try someday.

20 gr V max 24 gr H4895 4153 fps work up

At the risk of sounding foolish, I didn’t know that 4320 was being discontinued.

Ramshot TAC also works decent in the 17

Big Game works better.

Mule deer

What bullet and load did you use in your .17 Remington. How was accuracy and what rifle.
I have a .17 barrel from Lilja coming and 4320 is discontinued.

Hal

I flip back and forth between 4320 and IMR8208 with 25gr. bullets. Hard to tell the difference between the 2 powders in accuracy and velocity.

I mostly used 26.0 grains with the 25-grain Berger HP, which got around 4050 fps and 3-shot groups in the half-inch range,

The rifle was an early Remington 700 BDL sporter, which I bought partly to see whether the early rumors about bad barrel fouling were true. The rifle hadn't been shot much, and the bore was in very good shape. It didn't foul when testing with several powders, which led me to suspect the big problem when the cartridge was introduced was the dirty-burning spherical powders of the day.

With Big Game (a very clean-burning modern spherical) I could shoot around 100 rounds without cleaning before groups opened up. I eventually installed Dyna Bore-Coat, and the rifle would go 150+ rounds between cleanings with fine accuracy.

Thanks for the reply.

Hal