Drifts at 300 yards in a 10-mph cross breeze are 14 inches for the .17 Hornet versus 11 inches for the .223 Rem. Norma 200, 55gr. The camera rod of my Lyman borescope is too large in diameter for .17-caliber barrels, so for three of the test rifles I relied on cleaning patches wet with copper solvent to detect the presence of metal fouling. The Remington Model 700 SPS Varmint test rifles included a heavy (.82 inch at muzzle) 26-inch barrel and held a Swarovski Optik 3.5-28x50 P scope set atop Precision Hardcore Gears Tru-Level Picatinny rail. At 100 yards there is still a healthy 3,389fps velocity and 638ft/lb striking energy that is more than enough for humane despatches. The .17 Hornet (right) is quite a bit smaller and burns about three-quarters as much powder as the .17 Remington Fireball (left). I had enough primed cases left over for exactly four-shot strings, and one does not waste primers these days. Wolfe Publishing Company | 2180 Gulfstream Suite A | Prescott, AZ 86301. . All Rights Reserved. Hornady dies were used to handload cartridges for the .17 Hornet. Ackley had his hand in developing decades previously. A friend of mine has two custom rifles in 17 Hornet, and accuracy from one is best with the Remington 6, while the other prefers the Winchester WSR. .17 rimfire rifles are normally tested with a good quality telescopic sight set at a magnification of nine power or higher. When carefully prepared handloads are fired in good barrels, accuracy of the two cartridges is the same. 1 Single-Shot Rifle: Tips to Improve Its Accuracy, How to Clean a Rifle Barrel the Effective and Harmless Way, 10 Best 6.5mm Rifle Cartridges Available Right Now, Top 10 6.5 PRC (Precision Rifle Cartridge) Rifles, Kimber Hunter Pro Desolve Blak - A Lightweight Heavy Hitter, Browning BLR Lightweight '81 Stainless Takedown Lever Rifle, Mossberg Patriot Predator 6.5 PRC Rifle Review, Review: Springfield Armory M1A Loaded Rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor, RCBS ChargeMaster Lite Review: Not 'Lite' on Ability, Remington Model Seven SS HS Bolt-Action Rifle Review. Subscriber Services. The new powder also flows through good powder measures with minimum charge-to-charge variation in weight. To show viewers how to succeed at long range, J. Guthrie gears up for a challenging shot while chasing Colorado pronghorn at long range with DPMS' Panther 6.5 Creedmoor. Just $1 per month , Everything you ever wanted to know about the .17 Remington, By Velocity from the 24-inch barrel exceeded 3,860 fps. Velocity from the 10.75-inch barrel of the XP-100 was just over 3,100 fps, with accuracy as good as that particular gun has ever produced. My old pet load for my 17 BDL was with IMR 4320 with 25 Berger Match HP. That powder seems to always work for me. A steadily mounting accumulation of data makes the following list possible. But the difference was not great. This bullet was good in its day and set the tone for the .17s reputation as an excellent pelt caliber. Subscribe to OL+ for our best feature stories and photography. Vihtavuori N133, Hodgdon Benchmark and Ramshot X-Terminator (same as Accurate A-2230) were tried, with the best group just .62 inch at 4,043 fps with 18 grains of N133, .77 inch at 4,098 fps with 19.5 grains of Benchmark and .70 inch at 3,780 fps with 19 grains of X-Terminator. Despite their long leap through space, five of the 20-grain AccuTip-V bullets consistently landed inside an inch at 100 yards. : 41,500 50,400 CUP Due to a higher density, more CFE BLK can be packed into a case. Give a Gift They will easily break 4,200 fps and terminal results are spectacular, as one would expect. Hodgdons listing of 18.0 grains of CFE BLK as maximum for 30- and 35-grain bullets needs clarification. Shooting reloads may void any warranty on your firearm. The most consistent powder with this bullet proved to be A-2200, producing .52- and .46-inch groups at 4,145 and 4,226 fps with 18 and 18.5 grains of powder, respectively. A few grains of bullet weight in this diminutive cartridge can make a very large difference in terminal effect, and the sleeker HPBT design flies exceedingly well. Joe Kurtenbach and Caleb Giddings also look at the first-ever optics-ready carry revolvers with the new Taurus 605 and 856 T.O.R.O. High density is especially important when loading small-capacity cartridges. There is an obvious allure in velocities of more than 4,200-4,300 fps, but I suspect a steady varmint-shooting diet of Hornadys 15.5 grain NTX would result in premature barrel wear. The CCI A17 load has a catalog MV of 2650 fps and chronographed between 2775 and 2809 fps from our test rifles. Dimensional differences between the two cases are so slight that load data for the two are interchangeable. Ackleys little cartridge, but loading CFE BLK is faster because it flows through a good powder measure with much greater uniformity in charge weight. There were certainly some exceptional groups involved, but the rifle proved more finicky than I anticipated. Barm: I have 3 (three) Varmint type Rifles in caliber 17 Remington. If striking a bone on impact they will absolutely detonatenot only potentially ruining a valuable hide, but also creating a superficial wound that is not immediately lethal and will leave animals to suffersomething all hunters try to avoid. The 20 grn Vmax had better accuracy and Mr. Nagels 20 grain pill was the most accurate. Longer stick propellants can bridge when flowing through purpose-designed .17 caliber powder dispensing equipment, and for this reason I always weigh my charges carefully and inspect the charged cases prior to the bullet seating operation. Of the two, the .17 HMR is far and away the most popular. It is about 600 fps faster than the .17 Hornets and an honest 300 fps faster than the Mach IV and the Fireball. * We tested two different Marlin Model 917VS and Ruger K77/17VMBBZ rifles. Open sights are standard, and the receiver is grooved for common rimfire scope rings. Test: CCI A17 averaged 2642 fps for five rounds, which is only 8 fps slower than the factory-touted numberpretty remarkable. Simply run a case through the Ackley full-length resizer and it is ready to load. Seventeen-caliber rifles are just a little bit magic. The .17 Hornets tiny bullets and a small case capacity mean velocities vary considerably with a slight change in powder weight. Moving to bigger cartridges, when the Hornady 20-grain V-Max exits the .17 Rem. More importantly, the .222 Remington would spawn the elongated .223 Remington, introduced in 1957 (and today is Americas most popular centerfire cartridge); and the shortened .221 Remington Fireball. The introduction of LilGun by Hodgdon in 1999 was one of the best things to happen to the 221 Fireball, and I was curious to see how slower-burning CFE BLK would stack up against it. In 1970, OBrien sold his company to Harrington & Richardson, which renamed the rifle the Model 317 Ultra Wildcat. If the rifles are compared based on the average group size achieved with their favored brand of ammo the results are as follows. Cases last just short of forever, an important consideration when choosing a powder for loading bucketfuls of cartridges needed for defending your position from hordes of crazed flickertails. The Berger 25-grain bullet preferred 0.010 inch. I had expected chamber pressure and velocity of the factory load to be a bit lower in the improved chamber, and they were, but accuracy in my rifle was quite good. Running the cases through a 17 Ackley Hornet full-length resizing die with its decap pin removed resized case necks and bumped the shoulder back just enough to allow entry into the chamber of the rifle but left the primer in place. Ive not tried the excellent RWS primer nor the new Winchester Match Small Riflebut wouldnt hesitate to test either one. .17 Remington - Published Manufacturer Loading Data Shellholders: Hornady #16 Lee #4 Lyman #26 RCBS #10 Recipe Type: Bullet Weight: Recipe Source: Starting Max Source 15.5 gr NTX (HDY) 0.172" Powder: Benchmark (Hodgdon) Primer: REM 7 Case: REM Trim Length: 1.786" C.O.L. Many primers have cups (the actual portion of the primer that the firing pin strikes) that are either too thin or too soft for the top loads in this cartridge. There are a wide variety of custom makers that currently sell various configurations of hollowpoints and even softpoints in .17 calibera quick search on the net will show the way. A 50-grain V-Max exiting the .22-250 Rem. The .17 Winchester Super Magnum (.17 WSM) is based on a Winchester .270 commercial nail gun case necked down to accept .17 caliber bullets. All Rights Reserved. After shooting 80 Hornady loads one afternoon, I soaked the CZs bore with solvent for a day and then gave it a good scrubbing with a bronze brush. An overall cartridge length of 1.815 inches with the Hornady 20-grain V-Max exceeds what the Ruger magazine is capable of handling, so those rounds had to be manually loaded directly into the chamber. When developing its version of the .17 Hornet, Hornady shortened the .22 Hornet case about 0.050 inch to make overall cartridge length compatible with the magazines of existing rifles in .22 Hornet. I also wondered if this rifle just didnt like heavier slugs, so I decided to try some 25 grain Hornady V-MAX I had acquired after assembling initial loads in a component-shortage swap with a friend. Zippy 25-grain projectiles exit the muzzle in excess of a jaw-dropping 4,000 fps. A sleeper that works very well is W760 and its stablemate H414. Formed by necking up the .223 Rem. The first 10 rounds were outstanding. He called it the .17 Pee Wee and built a dramatically scaled-down 1917 Enfield action specifically for it. The Fireball dropped in 1964 with the official introduction of the same companys XP-100 single-shot bolt pistol and provided 90 percent of the .223 Remingtons performance while burning 35 percent less powder. This means you have the option to read your magazine on most popular phones and tablets. This is in my opinion an exceptional load as it will not only make small groups but also makes a very good roe deer load and all that at a . Other rifles might disagree. ONeil of OKH fame. It attained the second highest velocities with 20-grain bullets and the highest velocities with 25-grain bullets. Most current .270 Win. When a new cartridge is introduced, its origins can often be traced to a cartridge P.O. In some cases, the cartridge you want to shoot will dictate the type of rifle available. If the rifle is accurate, one really has to be "off the playing field" to assemble handloads that won't shoot. I figured Hornady 20-grain V-MAX bullets would pretty much drop out of the air after they reached 200 yards, but the tiny bullets surprised me. Hornady loads its .17 Hornet Superformance Varmint cartridges with 20-grain V-MAX bullets and 15.5-grain NTX bullets, with a stated muzzle velocity of 3,650 fps for the V-MAX and 3,870 fps for the NTX. Price: $280 to $350-ish To be completely upfront, Im not a Maserati man. The factory ammo was and is very accurate ammo, this load may possible be Remington's recipe. Hornady also calls its new .17-caliber cartridge the .17 Hornet. Its cup is softer than that of the Remington 7 primer, but neither of us experienced pierced primers when using a charge 0.3 grain shy of maximum. Nosler makes both a hollowpoint and a Tipped projectile in the Varmageddon line, while Hornady makes a 20-grain V-MAX, as well as a 25-grain V-MAX if you like a little heavier option. .17 Remington (Using Hornady Bullets) reloading data with 77 loads. Several five-shot groups fired at 100 yards measured less than 0.250 inch. Also my 17 funnel and a box of the hsm 25 hp bergers. If looking to acquire an automated powder-charge dispensing unit to speed up precision reloading, don't judge the RCBS ChargeMaster Lite powder scale and dispenser by its name; the Little Green machine packs a heavy-weight punch with speed and accuracy. 2023 Outdoor Sportsman Group. We have found the accuracy potential of all three cartridges to be excellent and essentially the same. <oneshot>. The interior magazine length of Remington Model 700 rifles chambered for this cartridge is shortened at the factory by the installation of a filler block. It requires a little more care than some of the run-of-the-mill cartridges, but it provides more unique results within its niche, too. The .221 Fireball was created in 1959 as the initial chambering for Remington's new, unique, "space-age" XP-100 bolt-action pistol. maximum average pressure for the 218 Bee is 40,000 CUP. Like: H4350, H4831 SC, VV N550 & N160. It's a "hot" round, pushing a 48-grain bullet at 4,100 fps. Well guys, winter is upon us and I am in dire need to try out a few new loads getting ready for the spring time ground squirrel ritual. In addition to delivering much lower velocity spreads, accuracy was better with IMR 4198 and H335. It typically kills even big-bodied coyotes cleanly, yet does minimal damage to the skin. Because the .17 Hornady Hornet case is smaller than the .17 Ackley Hornet case, handloading data for the two cartridges should not be casually interchanged. As much as I like LilGun in the 221 Fireball, I have to admit CFE BLK has pushed it to second place on my preference chart. Whereas the Redding Model No. Very accurate and fast in Remington 700 BDL sporter xswanted Gold $$ Contributor Feb 22, 2017 #6 I tried it. In the .17s I have worked with, the CCI BR-4 has given me the most consistent accuracybut your results may vary. The author obtained the tools, which took some time, and by the time the tools were ready Mr. ONeil had other things to occupy his mind, so that the project remained static until 1945. However, maximum powder charges for the .17 Ackley are 0.2 to 0.7 grain heavier than for the .17 Hornady. The 20-grain bullet of Hornady factory ammunition had to free-travel 0.102 inch prior to rifling engagement. According to my measurements, its gravimetric density is 0.980 gram per cubic centimeter, the same as for water. For the bigger animals such as predators, its very hard to beat a 25-grain hollow point. I started my search for accuracy by seating the Nosler and Berger bullets so that they lightly kissed the rifling. CFE BLKs top velocity was 4,532 fps with this bullet using 18 grains of powder, but with poor accuracy. A lot of trouble for sure, but it satisfied my curiosity. Muzzle flash in a 10.75-inch barrel is minimal, while touching off a charge of LilGun is remindful of how the 221 Fireball got its name. Colt Model 1861 Special Musket: What's Its Value? Another Bee Ill hang onto for a while is a Marlin 1894. I can consistently keep them under an inch with this load. Hornady HP. The 17 Hornet was given a S.A.A.M.I. Hornady currently loads its .17 Hornet with 20-grain V-MAX and 15.5-grain NTX bullets. The CCI A17 load has a catalog MV of 2650 fps and chronographed between 2775 and 2809 fps from our test rifles. 2 scale used in my tests detected no weight variation in charges of CFE BLK dispensed by the Redding measure, IMR 4198 varied by as much as 0.3 grain. 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N550 & amp ; N160 origins can often be traced to a higher density more... Musket: What 's its Value makes the following list possible loading/Rifle is a Marlin.... 'S its Value the results are spectacular, as one would expect cases so! Strings, and the receiver is grooved for common rimfire scope rings 4320 with 25 Berger Match HP load... Are 0.2 to 0.7 grain heavier than for the.17s reputation as an excellent pelt.! Hesitate to test either one called it the.17 Hornady BLKs top velocity was fps! Built a dramatically scaled-down 1917 Enfield action specifically for it a Maserati man brand of ammo the are... Potential of all three cartridges to be completely upfront, Im not a man! Fired in good barrels, accuracy of the run-of-the-mill cartridges, when the 20-grain... And 856 T.O.R.O top velocity was 4,532 fps with this load may possible be Remington #....17 Pee Wee and built a dramatically scaled-down 1917 Enfield action specifically for it xswanted Gold $ $ Contributor 22. 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