17 Hornet

scott_r

scott_r

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 99.6%
223   1   0
Location
Behind a .204 Ruger
Im thinking of buying this little cal. for gophers and small varmints. I have a 22 lr, 17 hmr, 204 and 223 but just want something different even though I don't need it at all. So what do you guys think of this cartridge? Id love a 17 Rem or 17 Fireball but with no current rifles in production Im considering the 17 hornet.

Cheers!!
 
I have two .17 hornets, both CZ, one varmint and one American, and a .17 fireball on a Sako.:d
.17 hornet is a fun little hunting round, both mine are accurate, very cheap and easy to load, accurate to about 250m, and well matched to gopher's (squirrels) and rabbits, for small game,
I hand load for mine, 20gr, with 10-10.5 gr VV120, or 25gr HP with H335, rem 6.5 primers, The hornardy brass is giving good life, now at ten loads on sum, early brass wasn't good, but seams to be much improved now,
I shot several hundred, ground squirrels this year with mine, quite a thawk, :)when you hit, and blows them apart,:cool: its a lot less noisy than, a .223 or .204, as half the powder.
On a comparsion to the .17 fireball, the fireball has no real advantage, until the range gets past 200m, in my view, But as it will run the 25gr v-max at 3800 fps, has at least another 100m or range and much more energy,:cool: I had two Remington fire balls and neither were anything special for accuracy, both of the CZ, .17 hornets are easy sub 1" at 100m, my varmint is giving me ten shot groups, at less that 1/2 with 20v-max, and 10.5 gr VV120.
I do not recommend the savage walking varmint for a rifle,d:h: mine had lots of issues, poor feeding, scope mounts off center, fail to eject etc.
I think you will enjoy a .17 hornet, I am, fun little Cal, cheap to run, and considerable performance for a small package, My rim fires, haven't seen much use since I got mine.
 
southernman said:
I have two .17 hornets, both CZ, one varmint and one American, and a .17 fireball on a Sako.:d
.17 hornet is a fun little hunting round, both mine are accurate, very cheap and easy to load, accurate to about 250m, and well matched to gopher's (squirrels) and rabbits, for small game,
I hand load for mine, 20gr, with 10-10.5 gr VV120, or 25gr HP with H335, rem 6.5 primers, The hornardy brass is giving good life, now at ten loads on sum, early brass wasn't good, but seams to be much improved now,
I shot several hundred, ground squirrels this year with mine, quite a thawk, :)when you hit, and blows them apart,:cool: its a lot less noisy than, a .223 or .204, as half the powder.
On a comparsion to the .17 fireball, the fireball has no real advantage, until the range gets past 200m, in my view, But as it will run the 25gr v-max at 3800 fps, has at least another 100m or range and much more energy,:cool: I had two Remington fire balls and neither were anything special for accuracy, both of the CZ, .17 hornets are easy sub 1" at 100m, my varmint is giving me ten shot groups, at less that 1/2 with 20v-max, and 10.5 gr VV120.
I do not recommend the savage walking varmint for a rifle,d:h: mine had lots of issues, poor feeding, scope mounts off center, fail to eject etc.
I think you will enjoy a .17 hornet, I am, fun little Cal, cheap to run, and considerable performance for a small package, My rim fires, haven't seen much use since I got mine.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I was looking at the Savage laminate 17 hornet. I dont need any issues, I see my local dealer has a CZ in 17 hornet...maybe I will have to look at it vs the Savage. My only issue with CZ is their high bolt throw..not a big fan of it.
 
I have never had a problem, with the bolt throw on the CZ 527 I have had, (3), but all the ones, I have bought in the last 5 years, have the modified bolt handle from factory,
nor any problem with scopes, I have a Z3 3-12 on one, a Leopold varmint VX3 5-20-40 and a VX3 3-14-52 on another.
I was extremely disappointed in the savage, I took it back to the local sports store, for WTY, but nothing was done, or honored, I also left out, that the chamber was grossly oversize, that headspace was suspect, blowing primers, and had lots of feed problems, jamming. the mounting holes for the bases were so far out that a VX3 3-14 Leopold ran out of adjustment, had to buy windage adjustable rings, to get it on paper, It was however very accurate.
lots guys very disappointed in the model 25, I will never buy another savage after the way I was treated. nor shop at the local sports store.
Your choice, but I would rather the CZ, or Ruger, because they, will load, fire, eject every time, even if the savage is slight more accurate, I did bed both my CZ actions.
fun rifles, especially being able to spot your shots/ Hits.
 
the factory ammo is very good, but its expensive to run with them, I have found all of the .17 cal I have loaded for very accurate, barrel is very stiff as its a tiny bore, with loots of metal still,
I have used H110, Littlegun, IMR4227, VV, N120, with the 20 v-max. and H335 for the 25g, I like VV N120 and 4227, these gave me the best accuracy, no problem to get five shot penny sized groups at 100M, accurate 1680 is also meant to be a good powder, I just couldn't find any.
I would stay clear of little gun, its a bit fast In my opion and reaches peek pressure very quickly, I had a few blown primers even at min loads.
Use a fine ball powder, as powder needs to flow into a very small hole, I tried IMR4198 and gave up as it kept blocking up in case mouth.
the two loads, I use are VV N120 10-10.5gr, rem 6.5 primer, and 20 v-max.
or IMR4227, 10gr, rem 6.5 primer, and 20 v-max.
Buy good dies, I use Redding, and neck size for 4 firings and full length size the 5th, with hornardy brass.
If you are looking for more info Saubier forum has lots on the .17 Hornet, and a sticky on making cases from the .22 hornet brass.
 
I am sure hoping that the new Hornady brass is of better quality, because I just ordered a Ruger in 17 Hornet today. I went with the Ruger, because I wasn't happy with the mount spacing on my last CZ. From what I hear, I likely won't like the Ruger trigger, but at least there are replacement parts available, hopefully I can find a Rifle Basix in Canada. I will pick up brass and bullets tomorrow, and the rifle and dies should arrive around the end of this week, so hopefully. I can shoot it this weekend.
 
I put a volquartsen sear in my Ruger 77/17, still had to stone it and the trigger a bit to bring it to 2lbs. Would recommend taking it to a smith to replace trigger spring with lighter one, and rework trigger/sear. No need to buy volquartsen. Burris Droptine 4.5-14x42 perfect match. Bolt comes up 90 degrees...was hitting Vortex scopes.
 
Stubblejumper please keep us posted on the progress of your Ruger. I am very interested in hearing how it shoots.

OP I have both the 17HH and 17 Fireball. HH is in CZ and FB is a Rem non HB. I did also have a FB in Rem HB but made the mistake of selling it.

I love the HH. I use 1680 in mine as I was able to find 3 lbs. it shoots Vit 120 very well also. I have never tried IMR 4227 but have some on hand and will now try some. You will really enjoy the caliber. It is currently my favorite small bore.
 
lpel said:
Stubblejumper please keep us posted on the progress of your Ruger. I am very interested in hearing how it shoots.

OP I have both the 17HH and 17 Fireball. HH is in CZ and FB is a Rem non HB. I did also have a FB in Rem HB but made the mistake of selling it.

I love the HH. I use 1680 in mine as I was able to find 3 lbs. it shoots Vit 120 very well also. I have never tried IMR 4227 but have some on hand and will now try some. You will really enjoy the caliber. It is currently my favorite small bore.
Click to expand...

Will do. The 17HH will join my 17mach2, 17HMR, 20Vartarg, and 20 Tactical, as part of my varmint rifle arsenal. The other four are all great shooters, so hopefully the 17HH can shoot with them.
 
stubblejumper said:
I am sure hoping that the new Hornady brass is of better quality, because I just ordered a Ruger in 17 Hornet today. I went with the Ruger, because I wasn't happy with the mount spacing on my last CZ. From what I hear, I likely won't like the Ruger trigger, but at least there are replacement parts available, hopefully I can find a Rifle Basix in Canada. I will pick up brass and bullets tomorrow, and the rifle and dies should arrive around the end of this week, so hopefully. I can shoot it this weekend.
Click to expand...

The last few boxes of brass, from Hornardy seam ok, don't have the dished rim, at any rate, as you helped me out, with that, you will be well a wear, I have been buying PPU, .22 hornet brass from Doug Rainer, and resizing it, trim and FF, but does need annealing or I get 50% splits on first firing, I FF with 10gr VV N120 and load 10.5g, with a rem 6.5 for main load. up over ten loads on Hornardy brass now.
I would like to have a play with one of the rugers, myself, like the Cz, but would be nice to have a flush magazine for field carry.
Flying out to New Zealand this Sunday, putting house up for sale, flying back the .17 hornet, CZ varmint, already got it booked in for a muzzle threading and a suspressor.
 
I picked up the rifle, brass, dies , and some n-120 and 20 gr v-max bullets. Will see what I can do with the trigger, mount a scope, and make up some test loads tonight and do some testing tomorrow
 
Nice little gun to shoot gophers with... not too noisy and good for 250 yards...

I built one on a 77-22 Hornet years ago...

I don't know why they have named it the .17 Hornet... it really is the .17 Ackley Hornet...
 
Today I discovered that the Hornady brass doesn't work well with Remington 6-1/2 primers. Even with a mild n-120 load producing only 3130fps with 20gr bullets,, a few rounds had gas leak around the primer. I didn't notice immediately because I use black marker to identify the various loads, and the primers still had rounded edges. I made up a few more loads , but using BR-4 primers to see if that eliminates the issue. My rifle must also have a generous chamber as the loads were producing about 400fps less in my rifle than listed in the manual.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom