Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 17 remington fireball

I'm thinking I need a 17FB... I've got about twenty pounds of TAC left over from my short-lived fascination with AR-15's.

They are fun. I've shot pellet guns with more recoil.

Yeah, I think recoil might be even a little lighter than a Hornet--and certainly less than some springer air-guns!

I fell in love with mine the first day at the range. 700 SPS with a Nikon 4.5-14. Shoots like a dream. PD's don't like it near as much as I do. I need to try some HP's though, VMAX goes right through at less than 100.

You mean the V-Maxes don't expand? Or just that they way over-penetrate?

They don't seem to expand. I know they will fly right through a close range but at 100 to 200 I don't get the "flip" that I get with my swift and Barnes VG's, they just kinda fall over.

Hmm.

Two things:

A Swift is a lot more gun. A .17 of any kind isn't going to make them fly like a 50-grain bullet at 4000 or so.

Close range is where bullets expand most, because the impact velocity is much higher. I've been shooting 20-grain V-Maxes in the .17 FB for several years, and have yet to see one not expand, especially at 100 yards or less.

Maybe a bad lot of bullets?

I love catching crows in a big ol' pecan tree in the late summer/fall while the green husks remain on the pecans. Hide underneath and shoot 'em with a 17 mach iv, 20 or 25 grain V-max at a distance of say 20 yds. or less. Sometimes it's like busting a pillow in a pillow fight when you were a kid. Black feathers floating down.

GWB

Cool!

Yeah, ya just can't expect the little .17 Fireball to do what a 22-250 or 220 swift is going to do. The 250 and swift are deliverying way more energy.
My Fireball is my favorite prairie dog medicine. But it just can't get'em to catch air like the bigger cals. do.

19.2 gr of TAC with 20 gr vmax is my choice:

TRnCO,

No, they don't fly, but they die.

duck911,

Nice groups!

What was the velocity in your rifle? Amd have you shot any varmints with it yet?

Butttt....buttt...they aren't logging up any Frequent Flier miles....

Pretty mild loads - ~3950 FPS according to calculations but not over a chrono. I've yet to play with seating depth, just basic reloading (book COAL, full length resizing, etc) for these groups. I think the rifle has more to do with it than me, as I do not claim to be a good rifle shot.

I have plunked a few crows with this rifle (great results) but plan on marmot this year with the rifle. It's the one in the back in this pic:

I'm thinking of chopping 4" off the 24" tube on mine.

duck911,

Nifty rifle! I suspect you'll do make more good scatters with it....

Upon inspection of the carcasses i note small in and out wounds. seems like the bullets fly right through and then he just fall over. Oh well, not that i need them to fly after hitting em with the 17. I have the swift with 36gr varmint grenades at 4300, the fly, usually in pieces. if i want to really get em, i have 87gr for 257 weatherby.

Mule Deer, The load of 19.5 gr Tac and 20 gr Hornady gives me very good accuracy but only 3783 fps. While the same load with the 25 gr Hornady gives just as good accuracy and a vel. of 3692. Increasing the load behind the 20 gr destroys the accuracy. Same powder charge works well with the 20 gr. HP Midway bullet but even lower vel probably due to the shorter bearing surface of the bullet. I may have a slow lot of TAC as it seems I need to use more in other cartridges to achieve velocity. Really like the little 17 Fireball. Have settled on a load using RL7 and either the 20 Hornady or the 20 HP for rodent eradication.

I load H4198 with 25gr V-max and HP. It does really well in my model 7 predator and gives good velocity. I have loaded both of the above mentioned bullets with 19grs of 8208XBR but haven't tried them yet. Hodgdons manual shows 3800+fps at reasonable pressures with this load. It may be a go to powder for the 17 FB. Has anyone else tried 8208 XBR in their 17 FB?