.17 caliber?
Question:
I was reading an article in Progressive Farmer in my doctor’s office the other day about this round. Has anyone had any experience with this round? From the story, it sounds like an impressive little round, and a lot of fun for squirrel hunting. RedDog Visit the rec.hunting and rec.hunting.dogs FAQ Home Page at: http://sportsmansweb.com/hunting/
Response:
> I was reading an article in Progressive Farmer in my doctor’s office the > other day about this round. Has anyone had any experience with this > round? From the story, it sounds like an impressive little round, and a > lot of fun for squirrel hunting. > RedDog
There are a lot of .17 wildcats and one factory cartridge, the .17 Remington. It’s a pretty good varminter, but I wouldn’t want to shoot a squirrel I planned to eat with it. It is pretty destructive. It is impressive … it shoots as flat as a .220 Swift to 250 yards, darn near as flat to 300 yards. It has less recoil than the .223 and burns about the same amount of powder. The 3 I’ve had have been pretty accurate to spectacularly accurate. Because the bullet is light … 25 grains is normal, it doesn’t have the same explosive effect the Swift or 6mm Remington have. Tradeoff is, you can often see the bullet hit inside the scope. The only negative thing I can think of is, most rifles are cut with sloppy chambers and factory barrels are a little rough … Remington is better than TC in that respect. The sloppy neck means you overwork the brass and case loss can be high if you don’t anneal your brass, and the TC barrel copper fouls … not horribly, but more than I’d like. I’d love to have a custom barrel … Shilen or Black Star Accumax II … and a tight chamber. Tom Visit the rec.hunting and rec.hunting.dogs FAQ Home Page at: http://sportsmansweb.com/hunting/
Response:
The .17 and .177 cartridges are pretty nasty. The muzzle velocity of a lot of them can be upwards of 4500 ft / sec, and they turn meat into pulp.. They are also easily deflected by wind, blades of grass, twigs, etc. I think I would sacrifice ’spectacularly accurate’ performance for something more like a ..22–I imagine finding .17 cartridges or reloading them would be as expensive, or maybe more expensive, than other big game cartridges. Visit the rec.hunting and rec.hunting.dogs FAQ Home Page at: http://sportsmansweb.com/hunting/
Response:
> The .17 and .177 cartridges are pretty nasty. The muzzle velocity of a > lot of them can be upwards of 4500 ft / sec, and they turn meat into > pulp.. They are also easily deflected by wind, blades of grass, twigs, > etc. I think I would sacrifice ’spectacularly accurate’ performance for > something more like a ..22–I imagine finding .17 cartridges or > reloading them would be as expensive, or maybe more expensive, than > other big game cartridges.
With all due respect, this is pure armchair quarterbacking with no field experience: you’re off the mark in just about every concieveable way. Nasty? How so? Powder charge, thus muzzle blast, is similar to the .223. Muzzle velocity with standard weight (25 grain) bullets is 4100 fps or less for the .17 Rem and a bit less for the more common wildcats. While there are lighter bullets available, none is factory loaded. They do not deflect because of any obstacles they encounter … they fragment if they hit anything within about 300 yards, which is about their practical limit. Wind deflection is very similar to the .223; velocity is higher, helping the .17, but the BC is lower, favoring the .223 … it balances out. Whaddya mean "other big game cartridges?" The .17 is a good cartridge for rodents and, in some hands, predators up to the size of a coyote. It should not be used for game, period. As to cost … I shoot 25 grains of IMR4320 powder, a Winchester small rifle primer, and a 25 grain bullet I buy for about $6.40 per 100. That is as cheap or cheaper than any full power expanding bullets for the .223 Remington. All in all, you imagine wrong. I suggest, as politely as possible, that you get some field experience with the .17 before offering an opinion on ‘em. Tom Visit the rec.hunting and rec.hunting.dogs FAQ Home Page at: http://sportsmansweb.com/hunting/
Response:
most likely its the .17remington-basicly a .223 case necked down to .17 bullet, super fast(close to if not at 4000fps). don’t know much more about it but friends have told me it makes a mess of prarie dogs. Visit the rec.hunting and rec.hunting.dogs FAQ Home Page at: http://sportsmansweb.com/hunting/
