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  #1  
Old 05-23-2010, 11:18 PM
Silverfox Silverfox is offline
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Default .17 Remington Build Came Home Saturday

My gunsmith e-mailed and told me my two rifles were finished. I drove to his shop on Saturday and picked them up.

The first rifle is a .17 Remington built on a Stiller Predator action with a Lilja 1 in 9 twist barrel.



The stock I bought for this build is a Bell & Carlson tactical Medalist in tan color with black webbing. I also bought the silver colored bottom metal and installed a Jewell trigger with one of Tumbleweeds Custom Rifles aluminum trigger shoes (Mark Pharr down in Round Rock, Texas makes these neat trigger shoes).



Unfortunately, when I started buying pieces for this project back in late 2009, I thought I would need 30mm extra high Burris Signature Zee rings to mount the Leupold VX-3 6.5-20x40mm side focus scope on the Stiller Predator action in .17 Remington. I had the rings and scope waiting in my reloading room ready to install. Well, that set of rings is WAAAY too tall, so I have to purchase a medium height set of rings. Medium rings might even be a bit too high, but they don't make 30mm Burris Sig Zee low rings.



I'll be posting more photos once I get the rifle operational. This is the rifle for which I took WW .204 Ruger brass and formed it down to .17 Remington. That was a chore, but I think I have waaay better brass than the factory .17 Remington brass would have provided. The chamber has a .201" neck diameter. I turned the necks on all these casings to .0125" thick and when using the 25 gr. V-Max bullets (average diameter on the shank of .1717") I'll have .00215" of space all around the neck of my loaded rounds. The Kindler Golds I have measure .1724" at the shank and if I use those I'll have .0018" of space all around the neck on my loaded rounds. I'll report on how brass I formed works later.
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Last edited by Silverfox; 05-24-2010 at 01:50 AM. Reason: Added info about the brass I formed.
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Old 05-24-2010, 07:39 AM
Foxhunter223 Foxhunter223 is offline
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Very nice Silverfox. Keep us posted on how well she shoots.
Pete
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  #3  
Old 05-24-2010, 01:26 PM
17 shooter 17 shooter is offline
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LeRoy, Great looking rifles...I especially like the 17 Rem on the Stiller Predator Action....That should be a great combination Rifle/cartridge for both P/dogs and Coyotes too.....Keep us posted...Thanks for sharing....George
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Old 05-24-2010, 01:46 PM
AlbertaAl AlbertaAl is offline
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Default 17rem

Congrats...
Can't go wrong with 17REM., been around forever.
Coyotes will be shocked !

Q. Did you you use Hornady 204 brass...and pls. describe the brass resizing process.
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  #5  
Old 05-24-2010, 07:07 PM
terrier man terrier man is offline
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Nice looking machine there silverfox-i have a lilja bbl on my 595 tikka in.17rem and its a shooter-i think you will enjoy yours-keep us posted on the development.
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Old 05-24-2010, 11:57 PM
Silverfox Silverfox is offline
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Thank you, one and all, for the compliments on my new rifles.

AlbertaAl--I used Winchester (WW) .204 Ruger brass to form the .17 Rem casings. Before I prepped all of these WW .204 Ruger casings I had a four-step procedure if you don't count lubricating the casings and the deburring and chamfering steps right after step #3.

1. Run the brass up into my Redding .17 Rem #1 Form Die

2. Run that casing into my Redding .17 Rem Trim Die

3. Trim the brass to a length longer than max SAAMI length--1.810" to 1.815"

4. Run that trimmed brass into my Forster .17 Rem full length sizing die, trim, chamfer, debur and I’m done.

As for the steps I used with this latest batch of WW .204 Ruger brass, there were 22 steps I actually went through to keep from getting kinks in the necks and kinks on the body of the casings to get the brass to the final neck sizing and ready for reloading. I know there are several folks who have posted their method of forming .17 Rem brass out of .204 Ruger brass and some of them use just one-step and others use two or three steps.

Here's a detailed listing of the steps I used to form this brass:

1. Lube neck and shoulder with Hornady OneShot spray lube
2. Used a .215" bushing to work the shoulder down a wee bit
3. Used a .200" bushing to work the shoulder down a wee bit more
4. .17 Rem Redding body die
5. .17 Rem Redding #1 form die
6. .17 Rem Redding trim die
7. Trimmed to 1.792"
8. Chamfered the neck
9. Deburred the neck
10. Lubed the inside of the neck and outside of casings with Hornady OneShot
11. Used my Forster full length resizing die
12. Trimmed to 1.7875" – 1.788"
13. Chamfered neck
14. Deburred neck
15. Deburred the flash hole
16. Annealed all the casings because the brass was work hardened too much to get my K&M expand iron to expand the necks enough for my .17 caliber mandrel to fit inside the necks
17. Ran the K&M expand iron into the neck
18. Did the first cut with my K&M neck turner after using Hornady OneShot lube on the inside of the neck (I have two .17 caliber K&M neck turners)
19. Did the second and final cut with the K&M neck turner
20. Used a Cue-Tip to clean lube out of the neck and used a Bounty paper towel to wipe off the outside of the casings
21. Used my vibrating case cleaner and treated corn cob media to clean the casings
22. Neck size before reloading

If and when I form more .17 Rem brass out of .204 Ruger brass, I will probably revert back to my earlier four-step procedure. However, if I start seeing any creases in the necks, folds below the shoulder, I will probably anneal the casings before doing any more forming.
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Old 05-25-2010, 12:08 AM
Silverfox Silverfox is offline
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Default Correct base and rings now on their way to me!!!

Thanks to all you fellows for the compliments on the two new rifles.

I called Graff and Sons and asked if I could return the Bench-Source base for a credit or refund. The rep told me that they usually don't allow returns on merchandise that has been out as long as mine was, but she'd make an exception for me, but the merchandise had to be in brand new unopened condition. Well, that put a monkey wrench it the return. I told her I had taken the base out of the bag and had put Lock-Tite on the screws. She said I could not return it then. I asked her if they would take it back if I bought new screws and included them with the return. NO DEAL!! I guess I can't blame them for not taking them back--it was my fault for not recognizing it was the wrong base.

I also contacted Midway USA about returning the two sets of matte black extra high 30mm Burris Signature Zee rings and that was a smooth deal. They are on their way back for a credit to my credit card account. I also ordered a set of matte black medium height 30mm Burris Signature Zee rings from them and also ordered and EGW Savage RB Picatinny tactical rail scope mount for this Savage target action. They had the rings in stock, but the EGW rail was on backorder and not expected in until May 31 or later. I ordered it anyway.

I went to EGW's website and they had the EGW rail I needed and they had it in the silver color AND they had it in stock!!! I ordered it from them and called Midway USA back and cancelled the EGW rail I had ordered from them.

Hopefully, I now have all the "CORRECT PARTS" ordered so I can get the scopes mounted and start shooting these little jewels. Life is tough, but it is even tougher if you make stupid mistakes. Luckily, nobody's life depended on me making the correct decisions 100% of the time
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  #8  
Old 06-12-2010, 03:31 PM
17VLD 17VLD is offline
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Default Very nice rifle Silverfox..

I really like it,looks like the perfect coyote rig.I've been thinking about a
9 twist 17 built on something that would use W-W .204R brass.
Can't wait to see some target/varmint photos with your new rifle.
Matt
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  #9  
Old 06-14-2010, 03:15 AM
Silverfox Silverfox is offline
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Well, I have both the .17 Remington built on the Predator action up and running and have fire 33 shots down the tube. I also have the .204 Ruger built on the Savage target action working good and have 29 shots down the tube. I used Greg Tannel's Colloidal Graphite treatment before shooting the first shot down each barrel. I cleaned the barrels, gave the barrels another treatment of the Colloidal Graphite and fired one more single shot and cleaned up both barrels. I will use Tannel's Graphoil after each cleaning from now on.

After shooting 31 shots through the .17 Rem and 27 shots through the .204 Ruger on my first trip to the range, both barrels cleaned up extremely easy. I did get the black powder residue out of both barrels for several patches, but hardly any copper came out. I was done cleaning the barrels in about an hour!!! I like that!!!

I am using IMR 8208 XBR and 39 gr. Sierra BK bullets coated with hBN in the .204 Ruger and that combination is working great. I have only shot the 25 gr. V-Max coated with hBN in the .17 Remington and am getting some nice groups, but I want to try some of the heavier bullets I have like the FBHP 30 gr. Starke, the 29 gr. Genco, and the 30 gr. Kindler Gold bullets. For now, I will load up some 25 gr. V-Max for the .17 Rem and some 39 gr. Sierras for the .204 and go shoot some prairie dogs maybe on Tuesday.

I am planning on making one more trip to the rifle range on Monday to make sure the loads I think will work are actually working!!! Then I'll get busy and load up a bunch for my hunt on Tuesday.

I'll have to take some photos of the completed rifles and a bunch of photos while out shooting prairie dogs.

The used Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger I purchased had extremely heavy bolt lift so I called Kevin Rayhill and got his opinion about what the problem might be. He had me try a couple of things and asked me to report my findings to him. I did that and found out that my bolt was coming into hard contact with the back of the barrel--it was like .008" too close to the back of the barrel. I sent the bolt into Kevin to have him shave off .008" off the front of the bolt and also install his lift kit and clean up a couple other minor problems with the bolt. He is supposed to get the bolt shipped back to me sometime tomorrow. Hopefully, it will get here before the end of the week. I have a bunch of 40 gr. V-Max bullets all loaded up for use in that rifle.

I'm still working on loads for the .17 Tactical, but I'm getting closer to the magic combination. I think someone said the .17 Tactical is a "barrel burner" and I'm thinking they are probably right. I can see some minor heat damage in the throat of my barrel and it only has 612 shots down the tube. None of those shots were with hot loads and I haven't let the barrel get hot either. I may have to quit using the .17 Tactical for prairie dog shooting and relegate it to shooting coyotes only???? I sure hate to do that because it was really doing a number on prairie dogs last summer using fire forming loads.
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  #10  
Old 06-14-2010, 03:51 AM
Tim Anderson Tim Anderson is offline
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Sweet looking rifle Silverfox..
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