changing a scope on my NEF in 17 HMR tonight... and it got me thinking... for my needs, a heavy barrel NEF chambered in 17 Hornet as a truck gun would certain fit my needs...

I've looked at both the Savage offerings and the Ruger.. and was not overly impressed with the fit and finish on either, nor was I impressed with the prices...

However picking up an NEF with a Synthetic stock, and then get me another 17 HMR barrel and have a local gunsmith friend rechamber it to 17 Hornet, would not be a bad route to go..

one of those and then a good price on a Ruger Blued 22 Hornet with a wood stock and then have a 17 Hornet barrel custom fit on it, certainly seems a way to get a more attractive rifle in 17 Hornet...

or wait until CZ puts one out in their 527....

will contact NEF tomorrow... and check out the potential of one being in the works...

or considering one in a Savage short action ( Model 10 ), where you can get a 22 Hornet bolt face from Cascade over here in Central Point...

I'm waiting on the 527 myself.

I've got one in a 22 hornet. Dandy little rifle. No complaints except the cumbersome mag.

I held one of the Savage M 25 synthetic waking varmint models and didn't have to wear shades or hold my nose while fondling it. My only drawback was the magazine on it stuck out like the one on my CZ 527's. Even so it looked like a pretty good truck gun. Short, stiff barrel, and good trigger. Heading back that way next weekend and it just might follow me home.

Same here, and I don't mind the magazines, even. I have three 527s, and I've adapted......... I called my "CZ guy" today, just to check on when they'd have some. He didn't know for sure. I've got the components started on their way to the house, though.

For those that 'desire' a ruger, there is one at a local shop. Priced at $719. They'll ship.... the Firing Line in Aurora CO

I get your complaint about not being impressed with the price on the Ruger, but youare seriously are happy with the "fit and finish" on an NEF firearm or a Ruger 77??? Man, you must see things a lot different than my eyes see!

I have an NEF or two in 17 HMR and 22 Mag...with synthetic stocks on them...

they might not be overly pretty, but they start to become pretty in how they make a great truck gun...

I have a 77/17 and a 77/22...one in 17 HMR and the other in 22 Mag with a Wood stock and blued receiver...

comparing both of those to the 17 Hornet Ruger I saw, Quality definitely goes to the older Rugers...

I'd love to have a platform just like my Ruger 17HMR, but in a single shot chambered in 17 Fireball...

How is the 77/17 hornet different from the other 77/17 77/22 hornet?

The one I handled over at our Local Sportsman's Warehouse, didn't even compare to the Quality compared to the older Rugers I own..

the one I handled in 17 Hornet, was more like what you'd consider of a cheap Chinese knock off of the Ruger...

I was really waiting to get ahold of one of the new Rugers...
Huntsman22's looks awesome in the pics and I really like the stock...

but I was highly disappointed, sadly...I was looking forward to getting one...

now I am considering another route...my best desired route would be an older Blued Hornet, or Gray Laminate Stocked heavy barrel one, and then put a Barrel from Green Mountain chambered in 17 HMR and rechamber it to 17 hornet...

also thinking of the possibility of a Savage short action I have, with getting a 22 Hornet bolt face from Pacific T&G over here in White City... a 17 caliber barrel and have one chambered that way...

heavier than the current packages, but I'd use it as a varmint rifle shooting sage rats off the hood of the old 4 Runner...

My latest tractor rifle, 17 Hornady Hornet- Contender with a MGM barrel finished .650 at the muzzle. Carbine forearm.

I used 17 Ackley Hornets for many years and had three of them at the same time. A Cooper Model 38 Classic, and both a custom TC Contender carbine 20" and 14". Really great rigs that shot a lot of varmints and predators over the years for me. When the 17HMR was to come out, a couple of months before I had a custom protype TC carbine that was used to do the field testing on fleah with for Hornady. With its special chamber it was amazing and never matched by any other it shot with. Two more 17HMR's were added, and when they first came out 3 17HM2's as well. Anyway, over a couple of years the Hummer's sort of replaced the 17AH's. Not much effective range was lost even on predators, saved a lot of brass form/reloading time for me those years when my useage was very high with the smaller 17's, as much as 10K/year. Still have one 17HMR, 2 17HM2's and a lifetime of ammo for them... all three 17AH's are gone. Something I thought would never happen as they were among my most loved cartridges ever. I just found that I could do almost anything with the 17HMR good enough that I didn't use the AH's anymore.

Cooper 17 Ackley Hornet


Bullberry 17HMR Carbine

Ladobe: An interesting transition you have made - maybe there is a lesson there for me.
I was just at the Ruger online site they sent to me and the MSRP for the Ruger 77/17 Hornet heavy barrel model I wanted is $969.00 - which means I am looking in the $700.00+ range to get one my way.
Hmm....
Hmm....
What to do?
I better do some more thinking before I step up for one of the new Rugers.
Thanks for your thoughts/experiences.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

What's interesting about it? Some folks don't wanna spend their time reloading......

My experience is different from ladobes, in that with the commercialized hornady version of the hornet, factory brass is available so I can skip the brass forming BS and expensive dies. I've also noticed a big difference in the way stuff dies, between the hmr and hornet.

Well, with 17AH brass forming I eventually learned it did not take expensive form dies, did not need annealing, just a simple double ended neck die that sold for $30 at the time enough to get standard Hornet brass shooting 17AH. IOw after that simple die they are ready to load and hunt with. Not fully formed but easily accurate enough shot the first time to fireform them while hunting.

As I said range is the differance. I fully agree that hydrostatic shock plays a huge roll in knock down and out power on game. Shot placement can make up for some of the difference between them though. I cleanly took even coyotes and all the way down to small ground diggers with the 17HMR's at ranges sometimes most folks wouldn't seriously even try using them at. Note I said "sometimes", when the situation dictated it doing ADC for landowners. I knew what they could do, knew their ballistics and energy at ranges, but otherwise limited my shots to the ranges they were the most effective at for whatever the game shot was.

My #2 17HMR, a pretty solid 1/4-3/8 MOA rifle with all the upgrades I did to it before it was first shot.

Hey, Ladobe, nice rifles as always and welcome..nice to hear from you...

I've had/have some nice 17 HMR's including a custom barreled Ruger 77/17 that was a tack driver. Currently I am down to a CZ.
I think highly the 17 HMR but the performance gap between the 17 gr. V-max @ 2600fps by 17 HMR compared to the 3600 fps with a 20 gr. V-max in the Hornet is HUGE.
With a solid hit woodchucks just turn off with the Hornet. With the 17 HMR you better be on your A game to keep them from getting in the hole, particularly as range increases.

I have the same rifle Ladobe, but unlike you, I'd never part with mine.



There is (IMO) some merit to Huntsmans attraction to redi-made ammo and brass as I don't relish the time spent forming brass since my hands have become so arthritic. Fortunately it lasts a good long time though.
Never did jump on the HMR bandwagon but I really can't say why since there's obviously a reason for it's popularity. Wouldn't trade my AH for a box full of em though. Handles like a dream, recoils like a rimfire, and kills like a centerfire. What a great walking varminter! I can only see the 17HH's popularity growing once CZ and hopefully others get on board.

I really like the 17hmr. It is a great step up from my sons 22lr. He doesn't have one yet, but has been bugging me for a "17 mag". I think he is going to get a 17hh instead. Ammo isn't that much more and he can help me reload too. Win win.

I only hope for a decent package. I would love a sporter 77/17, the heavy barrel is going to be too cumbersome for a 9yo. And if I could have my way, it would be a sporter stainless/synthetic with a boat paddle stock.

Letting the Cooper go when I finally did was economic, I had serious medical bills to pay. Easier to do as it went to an old friend who would use it as his go to for fox hunting, it would never be lonely again. Otherwise it probably would have been buried with me as my favoite 17AH, and one of the most favored rifles I ever owned.

Yea,,, Mike up in AK bought it IIRC.
Couldn't have gone to a better "Foxaholic"!
I got mine in a similar manner (from REM over on Saubier) but unfortunatly he's now passed.
That's the main reason that I'd never sell mine.
Course the accuracy and classic feel have allot to do with it too..

Sure glad to see that you're doing well.
Keep smacking them rats buddy.

Remember a lot of good folks I left behind when I stopped running Jim's site because of him.

No rat smacking here anymore... my hunting days are over. Spent a lot of this past summer smacking the AZ Bark Scorpions that invaded my home though. Even bought a 50 shot repeater BUGASALT for next years attack. LOL

Yea,,, I quit that site a while back too, although it had nothing to do with Jim.
Don't matter though cause I ain't looking fro gossip.
Just glad to see that your doing well.

Oh,,, and good luck with those Scorpions. That sounds nasty.
I know that when we had a fire up behind my place a few years ago, I was covered up with Rattlesnakes all summer. Got to the point where I was sure they were under the bed if ya know what I mean. LOL

Doing fine thanks, one day at a time. I get Mojave's here, but outside only. While a much more serious threat with their Type A venom and serious aggression not one I pay much attention to other tham when I go out in bare feet. I've lived with rattlers all my life. But I've stepped on several of these scorpions the last 3-4 years bare foot and brushed them with bare skin on walls, and got away with it. I got nailed by one 30+ years ago when in top physical condition, and it was worst than the Western Diamondback that bit me in my late teens. with my age, poor health now, up most nights all night in the dark and almost never wearing shoes they are a bigger threat than the snakes.

Yea,,, outsides best where snakes are concerned. LOL
We have Prairie Rattlers here. They don't get that big but there's plenty of em.
Never been bit but a few dogs have. Didn't kill any of em, but it sure made em wish they were dead for a few days.

I don't kill them either, have killed very few in my entire life (including not killing the one that bit me, was entirely my fault). Only those my ex wife, son or I could not safely get out of the strike zone of without trying to step over them due to the circumstance. Off the cuff countable on one hand. Have been backed up unbelievable distances by the Mojave's though when they would not call of their aggressive "attack" simply because I didn't want to kill them. Our other three species here are just the opposite, they want and take any opportunity to get away. Have been dry hit by diamondbacks and sidewinders many times as a reminder to give them the chance to go on their way.

Having built more than a few of the new 17 Hornets on the Ruger Hornet platform there is much more to the conversion to get it to run right and be accurate than just rebarreling one. I wish that was all there was to it. Forget the Blued walnut version. It's like Ruger is having these built in a cave somewhere. The metal is dovetail shapped so bedding is a nightmare and the barrel channels are all off to the port side near 1/8 of an inch which requires reinletting the whole stock to get the barrel anywhere near centered.

The Stainless laminated version is a lot better platform to start with. It's still plagued with nasty tool marks and irregularities. The bolt fit needs fixed to get zero headspace, the magazine needs machined internally to get them to work right. They work best bedded and free floated. The extractor needs a little attention to get them reliable and the rings will about kink a scope. After that and a few other things are striaghtened out, we and are regularly getting well under sub moa.

Once done, they are a nifty little rifle.

Hiredgun,

I know the Ruger 77/22 Hornets were, if they have not remained pretty much the same even to this day, a hit or miss thing from day one as 22 Hornets. Was very common that they had to be reworked to shoot descent, and it gave them a bad name. While I have been a Ruger fan from my very first in the late 50's/early 60's, that is why they were not even considered for my 17 Ackley Hornets. With the three 17AH's I already had in hand that were semi custom or custom, I also bought a Browning 1885 Low Wall 22 Hornet with the plan to also turn it into a 17AH. Dang thing shot so good on long range diggers as is that I changed my mind and left it a 22 Hornet - later sold it to a friend. I also think many of the older 22 Hornets I had decades ago would hve made great donors for either of the 17 Hornets because they shot so good as they were. The 17 Hornet cartridge is so spectacular by default it wouldn't have taken much to convert those into excellent 17 Hornet shooters I'd think.

I used to have a friend up to about 10 years ago that redid the 77/22 Hornets, but his real thing was building lots of custom 10/22 and 77/22 22RF's back then. His rifles, bumped scopes and craftmanship was amazing. Great guy who came to see me with many of them tow to fondle once, but I lost track of him over the years. I did have pictures of many of them, but they were lost in a computer crash long ago. I also had him modify two magazines for me for my 17VS 17HMR, cut down from 7 to 5 capacity. Anyway, like you he figured out how to make many Rugers better.

My mid 80's 77/22 that has always been a favorite is now a switch barrel 22LR/17HM2, but I haven't shot it with the GM 17 barrel..... yet.

A couple of guys I've talked to who have the Savage Model 25 Walking Varminter in 17 Hornet absolutely love it. Both say it's a real tack driver.

I may be testing one soon in the new Realtree Extra pattern camo stock.

Actually all of the 17 wildcats are "tack drivers". There would be even more cheaper 17 cal options for shooters if they ever get more of them commercialized. With the 17 Hornet (17 Ackley Hornet) and 17 Fireball (17 Mach IV) now it would great if they did one midway from the Fireball to the 17 Rem, and the 17DT or 17 Athena to surpass it.