Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Recoil from a 17 Fireball

I'm varmint shooting a 20 Fireball (20 Vartarg)...s/shot Savage with heavy Pac Nor barrel....14# or so....what recoil ? 40 gr V max at a modest 3600 fps...makes the p/dogs fly lemma tell ya...

TikkaNut..
I was thinking along the same lines, about getting a straight no tapered barrel for the Savage... at the heavier weight rig, I figure instead of recoil, all you will get is the sound of the round going off.. and that is about it...

Sounds like to me you own the perfect prairie dog and sage rat rig!

The rifle below is a 17Mach IV.Shilen No.5 Rem 722B action.Mcmillian HBR.Lupie 6.5-20x50 LRT.Im running 25g Bergers over 19g Norma N201.CCI BR primer.As I recall it was running about 3800fps.Would do that into a .35 5 shot at 100.Remington did the right thing making the Mach IV the Fireball.About freaking time.Out to about 300 yards or so.Its just deadly.
And the best part is, you get to SEE it all.
More often than not you cant find a mark on the chuck.Once and awhile you will fine a small red dot.Inside clock work is mush.99% of the time the bullet never exits.Which is nice in more built up areas.
Its a sweetheart of a round.

dave

Looks/sounds like a nice rig. My XP has such little recoil it's the only round i use out of my specialty pistols that i can still get a full field of view out of a rifle scope with, even with the 30 grainers.

Any of u guys remember the articles Todd Kindler used to write about the 17's in PS magazine years ago. Used to love reading about his chuck forays back then. How's about Dick Saunders writeups, and Richard Cundiff. Used to love reading about those rigs of theirs on pr. dogs/chucks back in the day. Certainly were a lot of writeups during the years since then, but those were the 1's that stuck with me the most. I can also remember a small segment Bob Hagel wrote about the .17 Rem. in 1 of his books a number of years ago--P.O. Ackley too. Sure is something fascinating about that little bore.

Once we shot the 1st called coyote with my buddy's 700 Rem. 17 Rem. it was a big dead end for our other rigs after that really. Before next fur season started my other hunting buddy and myself had a Rem. 700, and Model 7 in 17 Rem. for coyotes from then on...most of the time.

1 good story that comes to mind about the 17's. My old (now deceased) partner Earl and i were calling a big canyon out in the foothills of Southern CO years ago. We were overlooking it off the rim with Earl maybe 60 yds. to my side. I was using 1 of Major Boddicker's Magnum calls that made the God awfullest sound, but sure sucked in the dogs some. I would occasionally only give out a Ki-Yi pup squeal just once and sit for 10 minutes or so--this call was great for that. About a minute or so after doing so on this stand I hear Earl's gun go off. Surprised the heck out of me, and after the stand was over i went over to him, and he's got this big old grin on his face. Turns out a big old tom bobcat came up to the tree Earl's sitting close to, and Earl sees him stick his head and chest around the edge of the tree, and look at him. Earl picks up the gun, bipod and all, to move it 90 degrees, and points the barrel at the cat's chest and fires. He was shooting a Calhoon of some weight back then, and @ about 5 yards the bullet went in, and didn't exit, believe it or not. It was a nice tom too. I'll never forget it. Had it been a 22-250 or some such other rig there probably wouldn't have been enuf left to skin or sew up. Here's to the 17's!!

Have been thinkin' long and hard about adding a .300/.221 to the mix.... might have to throw in a .17 Fireball, too.....

What good is a 300 whisper?

Let's see.....

What "can" it do?

Figure at the least, it'll be a badazz little rifle to build up for the daughter to deer hunt with in a couple years, when loaded with 125 gr. NBTs at 2200 fps...

And, it'll do double-duty for Daddy with a little tax paid to the federales when loaded with a bit heavier payload and about half as fast.... when I feel like bein' a sneaky bastid and seein' what I "can" get on those quiet weekends on the farm....

I spent a bit of time on the phone with Kindler before I built mine.He was very helpful.Its very much a meat and taters chuck getter for the "up close" stuff.Up close being under 300 yards.
I have proven to myself anyway that you dont need a 22-250 to do under 300 yard work.Noise,blast,pizzed off farmers.Dont need that.
The rifle is a good fit for what Im doing.My longest shot on a chuck was 388 yards.It took me 3 rounds as I never did drops out that far.I would not want to get hit with this thing at any range.Makes me sick just thinking about what that little 25g pill/birdseed does when it comes unglued inside something...ick.
dave

Recoil in a .17 ??? WTF is that???? I thought it was just vibration caused by the fireing pin hitting the primer...

My new .17 Furball is a laser to 275. I was popping PD's consistently out to 275 with factory "gold-plated" ammo. I also had just a few handloads built (lack of brass) with 25gr. Nagel bullets. Both were a treat to behold. My .17 Remington could extend the range to about 350. After that I had trouble with reading wind. That was mostly inexperience on my part as this was the first PD hunt I had been on. The .17's of all flavours and shapes are just amazing. I even know a gent that has kill all manner of big game with a .17.

Glad you are as happy w your 17 FB as am I. Though I hope none of us would like to see the above statement as an encouragement to pull similar stunts themselves.

The 17 FB is what it is and that is a great varmint round out to 300 yards, give or take 50 yards. Though this round has no business with any big game hunting! Period

you know there has to have been at least one Nimrod that has tried to elk hunt with a BB Gun, somewhere!

<laughing>

There's always one....

A pard of mine was hunting Bobs a few years back with a .17 Mach4 (easy on the hides) when he stumbled into a long tail. Naturally he didn't want to pass up a poke at a big cat so he took the shot. The cat ran into some brush and my buddy lost his nerve and went home for a larger bore. When he returned he found the cat dead, about 25yds from where he'd shot it.

Can't say I blame him for either decision......

Just got back from Wyoming for deer, antelope and PDs. I just got a Cooper in 17FB, and used it for the first time. Shot about 40 factory rounds. Took about 6-8 misses at 225yds or more before I figured out I was shooting over them. I then held directly on, and had excellent success. It really shoots flat

One other surprise was that the factory ammo bullets did not seem to expand very much. The kills were quick, but no red mist or levitation of the PDs.

I plan to reload with Hornady 20 grain V-Max bullets using my empty factory brass. Have contacted Remington about the expected availability of brass, but have not heard from them yet.

I think I'm going to like my 17FB a lot. We'll see.

Steve

I need more ammo , the Cabelas store in Sidney Nebr. was out of 17 Fireball ammo last week. I got two boxes when I got the rifle ,bad mistake. They are to call me when they get in three boxes. When I get 100 enpty cases I ll start reloading. I shot a few prairie dogs yesterday . The little 20 Gr bullet puts them down but no red mist like the 50 Gr bullet from a 22-250.

Hunterapp is sure "right on" with his observation that we are LUCKY to have so many choices in factory offered cartridges for our Varmint Hunting!
My newish Remington 700 VSF in caliber 17 Remington Fireball has me grinning from ear to ear in appreciation of its accuracy and its lethality on all manner of Varmints.
I had a custom Varminter in 17 MachIV built back in 1995 and have been enamored with 17 centerfires ever since then!
The "GOOD NEWS" I have in the 17 Remington Fireball arena is this: I have heard, from a reliable source, that Remington will have 17 Remington Fireball brass available for sale in 2,008!
I can't wait!
I was paying $1.30 a SHOT whilst I was running factory ammo down the tube of my wonderful 700 VSF!
And I am sure my beloved father was turning over in his grave as I was paying that much for those Varmint cartridges!
He and his brothers often told me of their early years "Varmint Hunting" in eastern Oregon in the 1920's and 1930's. They would use their lone (shared) 22 rimfire Rifle to harvest Ground Squirrels! Back then they had a bounty on the Sage Rats of $.01 (one cent) per tail! Seeings a box of 22 L.R. ammo was $.24 cents (twenty four cents - per 50 rounds) they actually at times made a profit from their careful and close-up shooting of these Varmints!
If you could consider a maximum of around $.26 (twenty six cents per box of ammo!) as "profit"! They (my father and his brothers) seemed to be impressed with that amount anyway!
Times have changed I guess.
Can't resist - have to tell another "father and uncles story"! It seems my father and two of his brothers were out at the Baker City, Oregon "dump" one early morning (shooting rats IIRC) and they came upon the remains of ten freshly destroyed slot machines (one armed bandits). I am guessing the year was 1929 or so. Anyway they were mesmerized by the colorful wheels and the gears and such when one of the group started taking the destroyed machines apart a little more! It seems the internal mechanisms all held about 5 more nickels that were in the "internals" of the slot machines. The coin reservoirs had long since been emptied but there were 5 nickels in each of the ten or so slot machines and they garnered them all!
All went well with the new found "riches" until my grandmother caught wind of "lots of nickels" in her home and she had to resort to "whipping" the motley crew to find out the source of this "significant" amount of coinage ($2.50 worth?)!
It seems law enforcement had "raided" an establishment there in Baker County and had confiscated and destroyed the slot machines and threw them in the dump unaware there was some more money inside the "evil" (illegal?) machines
My two sons throw around twenty dollar bills these days like they grow on trees!
Yeah, times have changed!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Just got a response from Remington on my question concerning when 17 Fireball brass would be available. The response was " not before 2008"

And they added that new brass was not usually available for a new cartridge until 12-24 months afterwards.

I thought the answer was a little pissy. First of all, they told me when it would NOT be available (2007), not when it would be, which was my question. So, we still do not know.

Secondly, their 12-24 month comment implied that I should have known better when I bought my rifle. I had told them in my query that if I had known brass was not available, I would not have bought the rifle. Does anyone recall Ruger 204 brass not being available for one to two years after introduction?

I'm going to contact Remington again, and will post their response.

17 Remington Fireball. A great little cartridge from a big arrogant company.

Steve

Well, Fireball cases can always be made from 222, or 223 or 222 Rem Mag, or 204 Brass... depends on how bad one wants to wait for it to be available...

as for myself, I am just going to order a barrel for a Savage and with the news I hear.. no need to be in any real rush for it to get here...

Hey VG...

Good to see ya here!!!!

cheers
seafire

I have shot 50 some prairie dogs with the Rem factory 20 Gr ammo. Two were in the 275 yard range. After reduceing the trigger pull down to three pounds and free floating the barrel the Rem 700 Limited w/ a Leupold 6-18 X AO scope puts five rounds into a 3/4 inch group at 100 Yds. To get 100 rounds of factory ammo it cost $120 ,what a rip off. But it shur is fun to shoot the little 17 Fireball. I now have 80 empty cases that I have neck sized, trimed the cases to 1.406 inches, debured the in and out side of the neck,deburred the flash hole,and cleaned up the primer pocket with a primer pocket uniformer. Next week I may get around to working up some 20 Gr bullet test loads and shooting the last box of factory ammo.