I have a wild hair and I'm thinking about one of these. Anyone have any experience with it? Wheres the "go to" place get dies? What kind of velocities are you getting etc....
Thanks guys.
looking forward to following this thread Ingwe...
after making a 17 Fireball, I was thinking the 17/222 might have been the better way to go...
Still thinking about ordering a barrel for a Savage Axxis, I picked up in 350 Legend, for the action...
the 17 FB barrel was like $350 and got that in like 2 weeks out of Douglas in WVa....
Saubier has been the go-to spot for that info, along with Todd Kindler of Sub-Caliber News. Todd has left the building, however.
<saubier.com>
Ingwe & Seafire: About three years ago I bought a nice newish looking set of Redding dies at the Bozeman, Montana gunshow.
They were in the factory container and said "204 Ruger" on the factory label!
Well I got them home and a few days later I carefully removed the homemade gunshow price tag off of the end label and hidden underneath the homemade price tag revealed the dies to be "17/204 Ruger"!
FMB.
Anyway if you know anyone who wants to build a "17/204 Ruger" I have a nice set of dies for one!
Caveat emptor - they say!
Good luck in your search Ingwe.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
My strong advice would be to procure dies BEFORE building the rifle. When I had a .17-22/250 built dies that were listed as available WERE NOT. RCBS is not the company they once were and are not building all they once did. One company that agreed to consider building dies was 18 months out. Lesson learned.
Sounds like a weak and very expensive 17 Rem. I see no advantage.
Sounds like a weak and very expensive 17 Rem. I see no advantage.
I'm leaning more that way....I have good reduced loads I can shoot in my .17 remingtons.
The Fall 2020 edition of Rifle's Varmint Rifles and Cartridges has an article titled ".17-222, Resurrecting a Wildcat" by Art Merrill. It's the cover article with a six page write up and a load table.
check saubier for sure.............
Evnin gents, who am I to say but, you can down load the 17 rem but the little fireball still uses less powder to get the same velocity and therefore is a lot quieter. Shoots pretty flat, (almost) as flat as a 204 all with about 21gr of powder. I said close to, if lined up for mpb range?. I don't know we're ya shoot, but for up here in Canucastan our varmints are getting pushed out by subdivisions and the quieter I can be the better. We have great land to the north but the varmints get bigger. If only I could convince the better half to go north I'd keep the bigger guns but alas not in the cards. Contemplating a stubing on a HR 204 to 17 fireball !!?? Good luck with yours, always fun planning a new project. GWP. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦
Many years ago I handled a custom Sako Vixen in 17-222 at a gun shop
Thanks for the input guys!
The Fireball case works well
Mine is a 20 cal......Vartarg
Well if a Fireball case is better for a 17 cal, than a 222 case necked down...
then I am in luck then.... I built a rifle two summers ago for the 17 Fireball, but with a 26 inch heavy barrel ( as it was cheap and from Earl Brown in Minnesota)..
I have a shorter barrel, 18 inches in a heavy mag profile, that I have to put on a Savage Action...
Roy's got one also, and completed his...way back say 6 months ago...
Seafire: Back in 1995 I began work on a Custom bolt action Varmint Rifle in the predecessor caliber to the 17 Remington Fireball, the 17 MachIV!
I wanted a heavy stainless barreled Rifle and procured a 26 1/2" Shilen heavy barrel and had the Riflesmith carefully put it together on a Remington 700 action with Jewell Trigger and a custom wide forearm fiberglass stock.
The resulting 11 pound 4 ounce Rifle IS one of the most accurate Rifles I own!
I have been using and admiring that Rifle in the Colony Varmint Fields ever since.
It is amazingly efficient and rather flat of trajectory over the ranges I shoot Prairie Dogs, Rock Chucks and Ground Squirrels at (500 yards plus just a tad now and then).
I use the amazingly accurate and lethal Berger 25 grain MEF hollow-point bullets in it - I have a lifetime supply of these on hand as I am not sure Berger still makes this exact 25 grainer.
I hope that the original poster considers this cartridge (or the exact twin -the 17 Remington Fireball!) for its great performance and wonderful efficiency (speeds for small powder charges!) and easier obtaining reloading dies.
I do NOT know if a 221 Remington Fireball case is "better" for a 17 caliber than a 222 Remington case necked down or not!
But I do know I am ecstatic with both my 17 MachIV custom and my Remington 700 VSF in 17 Remington Fireball (with 26" heavy factory barrel).
And this, the 17 MachIV and the 17 Remington Fireball of mine have both (on rare occasion) kill't Coyotes (one shot kills!).
Yeah - I recommend the 17 MachIV for Mr. Ingwe's serious consideration.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
I have a wild hair and I'm thinking about one of these. Anyone have any experience with it? Wheres the "go to" place get dies? What kind of velocities are you getting etc....
Thanks guys.
Old thread ... but 17/222 dies (2 piece) and forming dies (from 222Rem) have been available in Australia from Simplex for donkeys years.
https://simplexreloading.com.au/die-list/It's the Master dies sets you'd want (7/8") not the Super Simplex dies (5/8").
Cheers...
Con