Pawildman

Anybody been loading for the 17 Rem. Fireball? I'm interested in what for powders you're using, and min/max points. So far, bullet selections I've found available were Hornady 20 & 25 gr. Anyone loading these? Thanks....

Pawildman

I'm thinking the Mach IV data would be close enough to start with. They're darn near identical.............Comments??

ShatoDavis

absolutely correct. I don't have a FB, but I do a MIV. I would start at the bottom side of the MachIV loads and start working up a load.

ShatoDavis

OBTW,

If you like the 17 FB. You would absolutely love the 20 VT. same case in 20 cal. 220 swift trajectories with light loads, no recoil, devastating results etc.... Total wildcat though.

Hunter App

Pawildman,

You would be on the right track to look at 17 Mach IV data, Better yet you may want to use Hodgdon 17 Fireball data found on there website. Additionally you may wish to check out http://www.17remingtonfireball.com-a.googlepages.com/home as this sight may be the best overall information source as of yet.

He lists a number of loads he has tried. And If you notice a 25 grain V-max load with a 1.830 OAL using IMR 4198 and a BR4 primer, I have found this to be a good place to start. This IMR 4198 load pushing the V-max is shooting near a half minute for me. Though I do better yet when bumping the charge up 3 tenths of a grain to the max.

I have been working with the CCI 450 primers and the BR4’s and experiencing the best accuracy w the BR4’s.

I have been having great luck with the 25-grain V-max pills as well as Berger and Nagel 30 grain offerings. Benchmark has been the powder for me when pushing the 30-grain pills.

If you wish to use your 17FB on larger critters like fox & coyotes I might suggest you go w a thicker jacket bullet like the ones offered by Berger or Nagel. I encourage you to stop in on http://www.saubier.com/forum.html and doing a search on the Nagel bullets. He has the dies formerly owned by Starke. So if you should do a search on the Starke bullets you will see why I encourage you to check out the Nagel 17 cal bullets.

This should be enough to get you off to a good start.

Pawildman

Shato Davis & Hunter App....Thanks much for your responses. I'll definitely do some more research.
I'm currently breaking the barrel in with factory ammo, and in the midst of the 3-shot series, plus I need cases to start to reload. Got my dies, and have a new cutter shaft and pilot for the Forster trimmer on the way. I got a pound of H4198, so that will be my starter. As I said, the barrel break-in is in progress, and results so far with the factory AccuTips are looking very promising. After all the exclaiming I've done on another forum about out-of the-box rifles and factory ammo not usually shooting MOA, I MAY have to take a little of that back. My last 3-shot group this afternoon shot right at 1/4". Have't touched the trigger yet, and it's still a little heavy for me, and not disturbed the bedding. This is the 700 Rem. SPS Varmint. I'll continue the break-in, and see how it goes.
Again, thanks to both of you for your help.

Hunter App

" My last 3-shot group this afternoon shot right at 1/4" "

Wow! Looks like you got a super rifle and much better factory ammo than I have heard of.

Pawildman

Yeah.... I was quite happy.... If I can get the target to scan up, I'll get it on here..been having scanner problems lately. If that won't work, I'll try my cameraphone and see if I can get a decent enough picture. At any rate, I'm sure gonna try to get it up on here.

Pawildman

This was shot 9/5/07... Temp 82 deg. Rem. AccuTip 20 gr. factory ammo during a 3-shot series during barell break-in. Most of the other 3-shot strings were in the 3/4" range, and the one before this ran about 3/8". I hope you can see the calipers are set at 0.250, and it may be a little off, but not much. Shows good potential.....
700 SPS Varmint---17 Rem. Fireball. Oh, yeah...wind dead calm.

Hunter App

Nice to see you left room for improvement, Wink!

That is truly a good place to start. Though you have a tall task ahead of you to improve on that group with your reloads.