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Old 04-13-2014, 10:22 PM
montdoug montdoug is offline
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Default Fri. Rick had a sunny Rockchuck day, as we formed .17 HH brass. Gory!

On Friday while Rick was popping chucks with "Scooter", my best shooting bud and I were driving around sunny pastures turning Skippy into bird food. Great fun and a wonderful day! My shooting bud had a firm grip on the CZ 452 Varmint in .17 HMR she commandeered from me many years back and I was fire-forming .17 Hornet brass from WW cases using a cheap bullet I'd had for a long time and prior to Friday had never shot a critter with. I was unsure of it's terminal performance (rat smackege factor), no need to be!
The bullet in question is a "20 grain Varmint Nightmare Extreme" I'd purchased from Midsouth years back at $29.95 for 500, bought a 1,000 and never used any. I've been curious who makes it and it looked like a good bullet to fire-form with but with the small hollow-point opening I feared it was going to pencil critters at fire-form velocities. As the photo will show I was sure wrong about that.
At the range the fire-form load chrono'd right at 3,370ish FPS using 1680 and WSR primers. I went up a tenth of a grain from where I was and loaded the 400 cases that are ready to be formed. The cases are formed from twice fired WW Hornet cases. In forming the neck and new shoulder unsupported the case mouth run-out was .006 to .008 but it still shot 10 of em into a titch over an inch. That included a range break for guys to go down range after the first 2 shots followed by a scope adjustment of 2 clicks left, and 3 more shots. Another 1 click up then a clear the range again after which I readjusted and shot the next 5. That made 8 into a 3/4 inch-ish group with 5 of em a lot smaller than that. Definitely good enough to form cases and wreck rats!
The first picture is of that 10 shots with a loaded case ready for forming flanked by a formed WW case and a fired and neck sized factory Hornady case (guess which is which?), one looks a lot taller but it's not, just a crummy photographer. I cranked one click back to the right on the scope and put it up till the next day, that being last Friday.



This pic is of 3 gophers that ran into "Varmint Nightmare Extreme's" out of forming rounds at 100ish to 140ish yards, so much for the performance concerns.



This one is a ready for forming round and one that just terminated the lease on a gopher.



We had a great day out in the Big Sky sunshine, didn't wreck a huge number of em but certainly enough to keep us paying attention. For a bonus treat as we were leaving we saw "Skippy and Skippetta" doing an obscene act and my prim and proper Librarian shooting Pard says "I think you can get a double"! Waited a minute or two till it all lined up at about 85 yards and "PRESTO", two rats turned into 4 rats at the squeeze of a trigger . Gotta love it, what an end to a great day!


P.S.
I believe there was a thread here somewhere about problems forming cases for the .17 Hornet. For what it's worth, I've formed 130 of em so far and have yet to have a split neck and that's with twice fired and one box of 50 3 times fired brass. I think the trick is to make sure there is a solid crush fit on the newly formed shoulder.

"WAY" to long, sorry!
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Old 04-14-2014, 12:17 AM
MrMajestic MrMajestic is offline
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Good stuff MD, thanks for sharing!
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Old 04-14-2014, 01:06 AM
Bill K Bill K is offline
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Default Fri. Rick had a sunny day

Doug. I also have had no problem forming/re-sizing to the 17 HH case, as it seems so many complain of. Some have been annealed, some not. Just form, fireform the same load as I am shooting and go.

As for the Midsouth bullets, they are the same as the Midway one's, both are put out by Nosler, a simple cup/lead bullet. Either HP or Tipped. I have shot many of them, they shoot pretty good for the money. Not as tight as better quality bullets, but sure less dollars for so much of the plinking and rabbit jumping shots, that I do. Have fun with your new addition. Bill K
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Old 04-14-2014, 04:16 AM
kenbro kenbro is offline
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Very very nice Doug, I wonder if one skip had time to say to the other 'did the earth move for you, darling? Before it did.
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Old 04-14-2014, 06:41 AM
Bodei Bodei is offline
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Good show! Last week was a bad one for Skippy as I put the hurt on about 500 of his pals and some doubles and even a triple on the young-uns the love to cluster up.
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Old 04-14-2014, 07:03 AM
georgeld georgeld is offline
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All those shots and still missed the quarter!
Come on man, get it figured out some time.

Sure fixes those rats up don't it?
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Old 04-14-2014, 04:06 PM
sgtg sgtg is offline
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Default 17 HH Fireforming

I have had great luck fire forming 17 hh from WW brass, now I have a bunch of Prvi Partizan 22 H to FF to 17 HH. Do you folks shoot off the rim or the shoulder?? I have been shooting off the rim but I'm thinking it might be better to use the shoulder, any thoughts on this ?? Thanks sgtg out
PS; montdoug I think the 17 HH would be the perfect sage rat gun, I have 200 to fireform that is a good reason to make an Idaho run. I love this site, spending and travel mentors. Thanks sgtg out

Last edited by sgtg; 04-14-2014 at 04:14 PM.
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Old 04-14-2014, 04:34 PM
Rick in Oregon Rick in Oregon is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by montdoug View Post
On Friday while Rick was popping chucks with "Scooter", my best shooting bud and I were driving around sunny pastures turning Skippy into bird food. Great fun and a wonderful day!
Way to go Doug! Who said "great minds think alike", and on the same day even!

Looks like the birds in your neck-o-Montana and mine here in Oregon are quite well fed at the moment. I can see another chapter of the EORFS forming soon, as it appears you are quite capable of producing some quality raptor food by the looks of those guys pictured with your CZ 17HH.

Glad to see you also had a bonaroo day, amigo! (And know the proper way to fireform brass.......on Skippy!)
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Old 04-14-2014, 06:53 PM
montdoug montdoug is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sgtg View Post
I have had great luck fire forming 17 hh from WW brass, now I have a bunch of Prvi Partizan 22 H to FF to 17 HH. Do you folks shoot off the rim or the shoulder?? I have been shooting off the rim but I'm thinking it might be better to use the shoulder, any thoughts on this ?? Thanks sgtg out
PS; montdoug I think the 17 HH would be the perfect sage rat gun, I have 200 to fireform that is a good reason to make an Idaho run. I love this site, spending and travel mentors. Thanks sgtg out
IMO the rim is useless as a headspace gauge, definitely want to use the shoulder. After forming I neck-size only. On the .17 Hornet I'm fortunate to have discovered that my CH4D die for the .17 Killer Bee that Jim Carstensen turned into a full size bushing die that specifically fits my rifles chamber will also neck size the .17 Hornet ammo perfectly. I'm looking forward to working up a load with the formed cases as the case mouth run-out on the neck sized cases is running .001 or less , oughta make some straight ammo. Before and after forming it will always headspace on the shoulder .
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Old 04-15-2014, 11:48 PM
jim saubier jim saubier is offline
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Default save a few

can't wait to get out there, save some for me. i will be there in a couple of weeks.
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