17 caliber accuracy

[ballpowder]

After following Harold's full up .20 vartarg bench rifle, I'm curious to find what can be accomplished in .17 cal. I'm getting close to having an Unlimited class Railgun finished and would like to experiment to see what is possible.

I want to get some opinions as to which chambering people think is most accurate. Just playing around with my form dies I found that shorting the 22 BR by .400 makes a cartridge that holds about 20.3gr of H322 half way up the neck. I'm thinking about 17gr powder is going to be my starting point. The BR case shortened that much and you are in the really thick brass. I'm looking at a tight neck 17 fireball but more intriguing is the 17 fireball shortened about .125 or 1/8".

What are your recommendations???

Tim

[dungheap]

IMO, if you want to save yourself a lot of monkeying around with a .17, get a .17 Fireball or better still .17AH. Those case sizes are ideal for the bore size.

[BangPop]

I can tell you one thing for certain. I was shocked at the accuracy potential of the .17 Mach IV. I built myself one about 10 years ago on an early 60's vintage 40X action that I trued up. A Shilen 1-10 twist barrel that was a superb performer. Several different bullets shot well, but the absolute killer accuracy came from the no longer available 22 grain Bergers. 3850 fps and the right seating depth would shoot you some groups in the .0xx range. They are very sensitive to seating depth. That barrel would go from shooting little round dots to shooting .750 with .010 seating depth change. Those little things can REALLY shoot if they are right.

[rickiesrevenge]

I'd do something on the 221 case. Lapua makes brass for it now.

BTW Why do you have a rail in Ketchikan? I used to live there for about 6 years.

Aaron

[ballpowder]

Well I'm going to experiment with it and when the kids get older probably leave it in a storage unit in Tacoma and fly down for the unlimited shoot they do. I enjoy hand landing more than hunting and this would really make hand loading much more fun. I have three bench guns also. Guys at the range here sh&t their pants every time I bring a target back to the bench😜

[ray h]

Ballpowder, I believe Blaine Eddy had a short BR case wildcat like you're talking about. Also check out Blakes Lil Nasty based on a PPC case that's shorten around .180. I know that shoots well.

[Ted G]

I have a 17 Remington in a cooper. Super accurate with 20 gr. Vmax and vv135. Had no problem hitting PD' s out over 500 yd.

[ballpowder]

Not sure I asked earlier but what would be the twist recommended for ultimate accuracy to 200 yards? Ofcourse bullet length is an issue so part of the answer I'm looking for would be should I bother with the various 29&30gr for or focus on 20-27gr in a 1-10"???

[rickiesrevenge]

I'd be looking at the 25gr berger match target bullets. Should be able to use a 10t for that one. I'd still get a 9 so you could shoot up to the 30's just so you can test all the bullets out there.

Aaron

[RareBear]

If you think yer rifle might want to shoot the 25 grain VMAX, a 9" twist would be a good choice. Some folks with an altitude advantage seem to get away with a 10" twist.