Ruger 77/17 .17 WSM initial impressions

One of the guys had a b-mag at the range and cronographed the ammo was getting close to 200fps difference so is it the guns or is it the ammo he was using the Winchester stuff don't know what weight be interesting to shoot yours over a crony next time and see what the velocity spred is
 
DEZ said:
One of the guys had a b-mag at the range and cronographed the ammo was getting close to 200fps difference so is it the guns or is it the ammo he was using the Winchester stuff don't know what weight be interesting to shoot yours over a crony next time and see what the velocity spred is
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What kind of chronograph? The Chrony brand is very sensitive to light conditions.
 
I honestly dont know what chrony it was I just whent over to talk to them and be Nosey LOL
They told me about how bad it was grouping and they decided to shoot it over a cronograph .
the local store also had a winchester single shot in the super mag and the customer brought it back on trade because 4Moa was all he get
 
I'll dig out my chronograph, I have an Oehler 35P which is the standard in accuracy with the proof channel. Good point on checking ES and SD and seeing if high/low shots correspond with like velocities.
 
DEZ said:
the local store also had a winchester single shot in the super mag and the customer brought it back on trade because 4Moa was all he get
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Hmm, not good. A friend has the Winchester on order. I was hoping the Ruger would be a shooter.

Have to wonder if there is something inherently wrong with this cartridge.
 
Well I just finished the crown and reinstalled the barrel. I assembled the factory stock onto it, and mounted a new scope, a silver Nikon PS5 3.5-14 with the ballistic circles. About the power range I wanted for what I'm planning on doing with this thing, also figured a silver scope on the stainless gun for a change.

For the crown, I drew up the bore in my CAD software, and figured the optimum ball diameter to lap the 45 degree chamfer after I cut the new crown. I machined a .257" diameter hemisphere on a piece of 660 bronze and set it aside. I put a chunk of stainless in the lathe, and drilled a simulated bore. I wrote a program to use a small boring bar and single point cut an 11 degree crown on the face, I used 5 roughing steps to get to the final depth. I dialed the Ruger barrel into .0002" TIR indicating on the bore, yes you can see every land tick over the dial, you pick the low spots in the grooves. Once it was dialed in, I ran the CNC program, cutting a perfectly smooth crown. There were no apparent burrs, but I lapped in the chamfer nice and slow with some very fine lapping compound and the bronze sphere. After I nicely broke the edge with a .005"-.010" chamfer, I cleaned the barrel and pulled it out of the lathe.

I inspected it under an optical loupe with a bright light and it was absolutely perfectly clean and even. Testing with a pencil lead revealed no burrs at all.

The stock still has the stress in it while tightening the screws, next up is the pillar bed. I've pretty much been doing one mod at a time so I'll see what did what. I'm really hoping the crown gave me a big leap in performance.

When I do up the pillars for the factory stock, I'll make an extra set for when I get the Boyd's Pro Varmint, I ordered a pepper laminate with stippling and adjustable comb.

I'll be shooting it tomorrow to see what the latest massaging has done.
 
Cool. should be interesting to see if the crown cleans it up any, I'm surprised that you've put so much emphasis on it. I assume you could just order something made for .17 crowns from midway or brownells alternatively?

I had the Bmag out yesterday, it seems to be grouping best with the winchester 20 grain rounds, getting about 1.5" with it at 100 yards if I'm doing my part, the american eagle 20 grain is close to that and the 25 grain winchesters seem to be closer to 2.5 or 3" in my rifle.
 
Well I'm letting it cool right now.....looks promising!!!! I'm still getting the same first shot super low fliers and then a tiny group at 50. The first shot tends to be 1.5" low and either right or left about .5", then the next shots will cram into .5" or so. I ended up with four nice 4 shot groups, with the low flier, then I got smart and put 6 shots in the magazine. Both the 20 and 25 grain have the same behavior, and the same tiny groups.

I think this is the influence of the bedding tension showing through, I think a proper pillar bed is going to sort this out once and for all. The groups are very consistent with the exception of the first shot.
 
Thought I would bump this thread, am curious how the Ruger 17WSM is working out with a bit of help.

Am considering a 17 WSM for the spring gopher season so following this thread with interest.
 
Even after pillar bedding, I'm plagued with the first shot low left fliers, the bedding is rock solid. I've pretty much given up for the time being. Waiting on a Boyds stock, going to take another kick at this thing then. It sucks because after the flier, it throws the next shots into tiny groups. If I let it sit for 20 minutes, back to the same first shot BS.
 
Are you cleaning between groups? A low single flyer doesn't sound like a bedding issue to me maybe the low shot is being caused by velocity spikes after cleaning the bore. It does seem weird that you are experiencing a consistent first shot low flyer if you are not cleaning between groups. I wouldn't have thought that this round would generate enough heat (i.e. cold bore shot) to cause the barrel to shift but perhaps I am wrong? Could be that you got a barrel where you have to compensate for a cold bore shot? You thinking of a new barrel if it doesn't shoot consistently or just living with it?
 
If I shoot a 5 shot group, first shot is low left, next four are a little cluster of about 3/8" at 50. If I immediately fire another 5 shot group, it is sub 1/2"....another group sub 1/2". I then let the rifle sit for 20 minutes and don't do a thing, I'm back to the low left flier, then nice little groups.

I want it to behave properly obviously, as I want this as my 'go to rifle' out at my property for grabbing when I need to tell a crow to shut up, or a gopher to leave. First shot is very important in this role, if it was for sitting on a pasture plugging away at gophers, not so much of a problem.
 
What do you think the cause is? I'm guessing the barrel is floated and has no pressure points, I'm not a gunsmith nor have I been involved with rifles as long as many here have, but if I had to guess, I would think it's deflection from heat, at the barrel, or between the barrel and action or ... Your first round seems to be moving slower then the rest (slowest in group on reciept above), maybe the bullets are leaving slower on the first shot, and the rest group when the barrel is at a node, chrono might support that theory a bit, a few hundred more rounds might change that a bit too.
 
Wow. That sounds like a consistent cold bore shot. I didn't think that happened with rimfires but I guess with these new rimfires approaching centerfire velocities, they will get the same problems. Maybe the barrel needs a lapping? It could also be just that your rifle isn't shooting close to what you are used to? This is a ruger factory not a PGW Timberwolf. :) Ruger's button rifling technique is not exactly the most exacting especially compared to a Krieger cut-rifled barrel. I recall that with most of the Rugers I owned you could actually see the roughness of the rifling with the naked eye.
 
I cleaned my Anschutz 1517 MPR and my Ruger WSM back to back with the same patches and jag and the difference between them is a lot!! The Ruger bore feels quite rough for the first 6-8 inches, the Anschutz is waaaaay smoother. I'm thinking Lilja barrel on this thing at some point.

I'm going to take another kick at the bedding when my Boyd's stock shows up. I opted to put a bedded in recoil lug in the flat Ruger cuts in the bottom of the barrel, along with bedding the first 1.5" of it. I don't really want to cut this out as it would be a pain. If just straight pillars in the Boyd's stock makes it shoot, then I'll machine out the barrel channel and recoil lug. If the new Boyd's stock doesn't save it, the barrel is getting yanked off and turned into little metal chips.
 
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