Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 17 remington fireball

I am looking for load recommendations for my Fireball. I like the 20's and i have a full box of them. Any help would be appreciated. I am heading for a shoot prarie dog shoot in WYO sooon!!

Greg, I sent ya a PM with a load that works well for me.

Sir,

The Hodgdon Annual in magazine form, that is published each year has loads for the 17 Remington Fireball for 20, 25 and 30 gr. bullets.

The Hornady Loading Manual, 8th edition has loads for both the Mach IV and Fireball.

My go to load for the 17 Fireball is 18 gr. of Reloader 10X, 20 GR Hornady V-Max, Federal 205M primers, 1.810 OAL



Here are some of the better results I�ve had. All groups were fired from a rest, @ 100 yds, Pearland Shooters Club.











Best

GWB

Greggohrc: My Remington 700 VSF shot several groups (5 shots at 100 yards) in the .533" to .586" range back when all I could get for this Rifle was Remington factory ammo - these groups were fired with Remington factory ammo using the 20 grain Accu-Tip (Hornady's?).
Anyway my all factory stock Remington really shot this factory 20 grain ammo well.
I wish I could be more help for you right now though - all of my 17 Remingtons and my 17 Remington Fireball (as well as a custom 17 MachIV) use the wonderful Berger 25 grainers.
So when you get some time in the future be sure to try these great bulletsin your 17 Remington Fireball.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

A few more pics with Reloader 10x and 25 gr. Hornady VMax.
Note: I load the Fireball and Mach IV @ the same load densities. I used to use form dies for the Mach IV and resize 221 fireball. Now I just use factory fireball brass. As was the case with the previous groups, these were shot off the bench @ 100 yds., PSC.









I'm not a hot rodder, but it seemed to me that the 18.6 gr. load was too hot.

GWB

19.5grs of TAC behind 20gr Vmax

Gee, that's the same load I use!

It matches the factory 20-grain load (which is the 20 V-Max with a green tip) in accuracy and velocity, but TAC burns quite a bit cleaner than the stuff Remington uses--and also includes an anti-coppering agent, handy when shooting lots of rounds at small rodents. In my 700 sporter it puts five shots into around .6" at 100 yards.

I wonder where I got it....

The 17 Fireball is great fun, but I do dislike loading the little bastard.

That is why I sold mine. Just as soon have 17HMR.

It's hard to load for?


Travis

Opinions Vary,



But I'd say its not much harder than other small caliber chamberings. Having the right tools and attitude sometimes can make a difference. Not having an aversion to boat tail bullets can make life easier also.

Best

GWB

I've loaded for the .17 Rem for a long time. I was just curious if the Fireball had any unique problems.


Travis

Stick powders can be somewhat of a pain. Fine ball powders not so much. The fireball is shorter than the 17 Rem. I guess if you had large/thick fingers it could be more difficult. Perhaps then an extended shell holder. Then there is always a Wilson die setup and an arbor press. I'm a low volume shooter with medium size hands and fingers and slow don't really bother me.
Lately I've become enamored with the 17 Hebee. The 20 Vartarg ain't no slouch either.

Best

GWB

A BR/sleeved seater die pays off in spades for the 17's and a good 17 funnel helps too if you want to use other stuff besides ball powder.

No problems, just small for my nimble fingers.

When I was testing out the 17 Fireball that a friend had picked up and was searching for "the right" powder... let me tell you how fun it is to try and use IMR 3031 or IMR 4198 in a 17 Fireball at the load bench..

I was really enamored with this little bugger, until I got to the range and was amazed at how much a slight little breeze threw those 20 grain V Max bullets all over the target...

I still might eventually build one, as I have the dies and a funnel set for it.. but I am in no rush to, based on working with the cartridge at the range..

I still think the ideal rig would be a Ruger 77/17 Heavy barrel setup, or that size and in a single shot...

of course I may just be describing a Cooper..

Maybe something like this?



Cooper Model 21, Varminter, 17 Mach IV

GWB

I was running 20gr of Benchmark with C.E. Nagles T-000 25grHP, I was smoking ground squirrel and Coyotes out to 400yds with no issues. Also running the same load with 25gr VMax's. Adam

Thanks a lot GW!!!

Now how am I going to take care of this stiffy with family around???

Seafire,

You might be surprised at wind-drift with the .17 Fireball. I load the 20-grain V-Max to just under 4000 (which duplicates factory ammo in my rifle) and wind-drift is VERY similar to a .223 with a 50-grain plastic-tip at 3300 out to 400 yards. This shows up in ballistics programs, but I've experienced it in the real world on prairie dog towns for several years now.

Beyond 400 the little bullet loses a lot of ambition, but most of us can't hit prairie dogs consistently beyond about 350 anyway, except in ideal conditions.

What I really like about the .17 FB is being able to sight-in 1" high at 100 and just hold dead-on out to 250 or a little more--and be able to watch the action through the scope. Recoil isn't any more than a .22 Hornet.

Aside from keeping the barrel clean and accuracy, one of the reasons I quickly settled on TAC is ease of metering into those little-bitty necks!