SCJ429 wrote:gunnnie wrote:Well actually the 17 Ackley Hornet was quite common 20+yrs ago. Certainly more so than it is these days.
I thought that Hornady brought out the 17 Hornet in 2010. Before that the 17 Hornet AI was a rare thing to see. Anything shooting a 17 cal was uncommon bar the occasional fox shooter. Perhaps my memory has steered me wrong.
Well, yes you are right in saying the 17 Hornady Hornet was released in 2010, where as PO Ackley bought out the 17 Ackley Hornet in the 50's. Granted it wasn't as common as say a 222 or a 22Hornet for that matter, but with the excellant BRNO ZKW465 rifles around, the die was struck. The ZKW mini-Mauser action was a perfect candidate for re-barrelling to the 17 wildcat Hornet.
I remember reading articles from shooting mags back in the 60's & 70's about the benefits of this new wonder 17 cartridge. The Martini custom 17AH I have was made in the late 70's, early 80's so the original owner was telling me. He also had a BRNO made up in one and preferred the bolt action, so the Martini sat in the safe until I bought it off him in '98.
Yes a lot of fox shooters ran the 17Rem also, especially when skins were very good money. A mate's F-i-L was a rabbit shooter in northern SA & I remember him telling me that he run a 17AH made up on a Sportco Hornet bolt action, as a fox rifle while using a BRNO Mod2 in 22rf for rabbits. He said a lot of the blokes in his area used 17AH's as fox guns back round 1960-70.
As has been mentioned the 17Rem was a tad destructive on the skin if you didn't plant the pill smack in the chest front on. The slower 17AH wasn't anywhere near as bad, plus it had the benefit of almost no recoil & minimal report compared to the bigger 17. Hornet brass was readily available, Simplex were producing dies, formers etc to make the rounds & with the popular release of the 17Rem, a great projectile. The Remington 25gn Core-lokt projectile was the ducks nuts in the little wildcat.