17 hornet Reloading questions

[Mike112288]

So I’m interested in trying out a 17 hornet and reloading for it. I don’t have a ton of reloading experience. I’ve only done a little with 223 and 204. Is it a serious pain to reload the tiny 17 hornet or is it not too bad? Any tips you can give me for reloading that tiny caliber? I noticed it’s harder to find 17 cal bullets than it is for 22 cal. Any info or tips would be appreciated thanks

 

[prairie lover]

20 gr v max and aa 1680 work for me. Tiny bullets. Hard to grab. Very soft and explosive. No recoil to speak of. Love the round. They one con I can think of is its loud for burning that little powder. Very loud.

 

[dead meat]

The 17 Hornet is no harder to load for than the 204 which you already load. I use several powders 1680 and Lil'gun, Cfe blk, and 20 gr. bullets. No issues with this cartridge other than everything is small.

 

[Crowbar64]

its alright. very small tips but i have large hands and its a non issue. the hornady dies also have some kind of sliding collar that helps guide in the tip. the tips arent everywhere like 22 cal but not particularly hard to find. love the caliber.

 

[southernman]

i load for the .17 hornet and don't have a problem, the Hornady seater is a real beauty with its sliding collar.
I can see large fingers and especially damaged finger with limited feeling struggling,
CFE Blackout powder, is very good in this cartridge.

 

[bearhunter]

I don't load for the 17 Hornet, but I do load for the 17-223.

The Hornet is a better option IMHO, simply because of fouling issues. Velocities are very good for most of the ranges the 17 cal bullets will be used by the average shooter.

Bullets are usually available from at least three of our "banner" advertisers, such as Reliable, SFRC and Intersurplus. Likely others as well.

You will want to stock up on "Lil Gun" powder for best and most consistent velocities.

Small rifle primers, either standard or magnum work just fine with Lil Gun, which is still readily available, check out Budget at the top of the page.

You will find the 17 cal bullets to be extremely accurate, until the bore becomes fouled with jacket metal.

In my 17-223, I'm lucky to get 20 shots before I have to clean the bore or the groups open up very quickly afterwards.

I've tried everything from moly coating to powder coating and even lubing the tips of the bullets, I still get extreme fouling issues at the best accuracy load velocities.

The only thing which reduces the fouling is to reduce the powder charge, which your 17 Hornet does perfectly.

I've spoken to a friend who just had to have a 17 K Hornet. He did get a bit more velocity, but he also started to get more jacket fouling.

There seems to be a fine velocity line where the fouling starts to become excessive faster.

I've never looked into it but maybe the jacket metallurgy calls for softer materials? Or maybe the forces generated on normal metallurgical materials are greater because of the reduced diameter and bearing surface proportions to energy?

 

[Big bore dinosaur]

Sort your brass.
The lot to lot variance is the usuall hornady shenanigans
Great caliber I agree. The Redding bushing dies are nice
.190 and 191. Bushin will do most of the brass necks.
Unless you get a thin necked lot of brass or neck turn them down .189 is needed
Flash hole deburing made a big difference also as well as trimming the primer pockets all uniformly
Case prep with this little rocket is key.

 

[stubblejumper]

I have no issues loading the 17Hornet, CFE BLK and the 20gr v-max work well in my rifle. The only real issue was early brass with irregular primer pockets, that make it hard to seat primers consistently.