17 rem

[flutch]

Anyone got any experience with the 17 Remington? Not the fireball.

Previous thread had me looking, is there any advantage to these? How do the .17 pills travel at those speeds etc

[bladeracer]

Anyone got any experience with the 17 Remington? Not the fireball.

Previous thread had me looking, is there any advantage to these? How do the .17 pills travel at those speeds etc

Not myself, but 35 years ago I knew a pair of fox shooters with a .17Rem, that thing was a laser alongside my .222Rem.
That experience was why I just had to get the .204 this time around

[flutch]

Yeah roger that, looking at .17 cos would probably be easier to get licensed alongside my 223 and figured if I was gonna go .17 I should go the fastest saami spec one I can haha

[GQshayne]

I have recently bought an old Tikka M55 in 17 Rem as a project. I have done a thread on it if you have a look for it. Bit of info in there.

One consideration was to convert to a .204 as the old .17 is a bit old hat nowadays. Or so I thought, but doing some googling found a bunch of very happy 17 Rem users. I think some of the old "issues" that us older blokes remember from the 70's and 80's are much reduced with modern powders, projectiles, and cleaning products. Testing of my old rifle using W760 and 25gn Vmax's produced a sub moa group in less than ideal conditions for testing.

[bladeracer]

Yeah roger that, looking at .17 cos would probably be easier to get licensed alongside my 223 and figured if I was gonna go .17 I should go the fastest saami spec one I can haha

The main issues I can recall from back then, were the constant bore cleaning, and short barrel life. They weren't reloaders.

[flutch]

Yeah righto lads, wonder how I would go sizing down 223 brass for the job

[Maxjon]

Yeah regret selling mine! It was a real one too, same Tikka M55, another poster has spoke of. I cleaned mine every 20 shots, and reloaded for it. Never failed me. 3 inch groups at 300 were common, without wind. Love how you see the varmint die in the scope!

[GQshayne]

Yeah righto lads, wonder how I would go sizing down 223 brass for the job

A quick google suggested not so easy, as the cases will be too short. .204 Ruger was suggested as a better alternative.

This would be a good option, they come up for sale now and again. Wait a while and you will get some cheaper ones I reckon.

https://ssaagunsales.com/listing/23100

[flutch]

Yeah roger, WA laws are rooted that these would be considered live ammo, otherwise would snap em up now incase of the itch to buy a 17 rem gets too much haha

[TassieTiger]

This means absolutely nothing...but It just doesn’t look right...like a v8 in a fuken mini.

[duncan61]

Remember with a 25 or 30 gn pill there is a lot of bullet in the case.Have a look at a 220 Swift

[flutch]

Remember with a 25 or 30 gn pill there is a lot of bullet in the case.Have a look at a 220 Swift

Would consider it except my 223 shoots same hole every time and I'm in deep with rounds for it so chances of getting another .224 calibre gun isn't likely

[flutch]

This means absolutely nothing...but It just doesn’t look right...like a v8 in a fuken mini.

If it was at all possible I'd look at getting one of these

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/201 ... h-5-speed/

[straightshooter]

Yeah righto lads, wonder how I would go sizing down 223 brass for the job

Yes it's easily doable but the cases will be a little short which will result in accelerated throat wear. Not too desirable in a caliber with a reputation for being a 'barrel burner'. A better case for reforming is a 222 Magnum but these days they seem rarer than 17 Rem.
In either case you will very carefully need to anneal the neck only and not the shoulder as otherwise you will lose a lot of cases with collapsed shoulders. The 223 case will be slightly trickier to form.
I use BM2 in mine but experience cratering well before reaching published maximum loads. I suspect I might do better with 2208.
17 Rem also has a reputation for being finicky to load to safe pressures.
I have given up chasing every last skerrick of velocity. Performance with the lesser loads is perfectly acceptable to the extent I have never bothered to chrongraph these loads.

[GQshayne]

When I was researching the calibre, I found a lot of dedicated users in the USA. On the subject of max velocity, there seemed to be agreement on the fact that keeping the velocity to 4000 fps or less helped with barrel life, and copper fouling.

Hodgdon CFE223 was also a popular powder - accurate, and apparently designed specifically for this case size, and to reduce fouling (hence the designation). I could not get any at the time, so I went to W760, but if that is no longer available I will go back to getting the CFE223.