.17rem Fireball- Has anyone had a chance to tinker yet??

[gth]

The 17FB has been out for a little while now and I was just wondering what some owners thought on the born-again cartridge.

I see Remington is offering it in the SPS Varmint......this combo kinda get me in fox/coyote calling mode just by looking at it.

Where are you getting ammo?
Where are you getting brass?
Have you tried the 25g vmax?
Hows the barrel fouling?


Anything info would be nice.

 

[prosper]

I want one. Ellwood Epps has one in stock, too

Anyway.

1: 'getting ammo'? Please explain this concept, I make my own ammo .17 bullets are common, 221FB brass isn't hard to find, and 17 MkIV dies shouldn't be too bad to order, or 17 FB for that matter

Although I don't yet have a Mach IV or FB I DO have a 17 Rem (which I don't imagine is terribly different). Barrel fouling is the same as the rest of my guns, a little better than some, worse than others. Nothing remarkable either way. It is NOT a 'fouler' like it's reputation has it.

I shoot 20 grain VMAX through it as they have the same BC as the traditional HP, but fly faster. They splatter gophers, but not nearly as much as a 204 or 22 centerfire.

 

[gth]

I Barrel fouling is the same as the rest of my guns, a little better than some, worse than others. Nothing remarkable either way. It is NOT a 'fouler' like it's reputation has it.

Just wondering as this was one of the biggest 'pros' pushed by the sales team at remington. Having a little more moderate powder charge than the .17rem it was supposed to be much quieter and far less fouling.

1: 'getting ammo'? Please explain this concept, I make my own ammo .17 bullets are common, 221FB brass isn't hard to find, and 17 MkIV dies shouldn't be too bad to order, or 17 FB for that matter

I was wondering about factory ammo availability to use as an indication of how much support remington is putting behind this 'new' invention. I would use .221fb brass if I had to, but knowing that Remington isnt just going to sell a bunch of rifles and then bail on the cartridge would be nice too.

 

[prosper]

Just wondering as this was one of the biggest 'pros' pushed by the sales team at remington. Having a little more moderate powder charge than the .17rem it was supposed to be much quieter and far less fouling.

Just marketing bull####. The market somehow has it in their heads that the 17 is a 'fouler'. Maybe it WAS when it was introduced. But barrels, tooling, powders, alloys and everyhting have changed since then.

I have seen factory 17FB ammo as WSS. Not sure about brass yet. But who really cares about market support for this cartridge? It's been around for half a century under the 'mach IV' name, so it's not like components will dry up