.17 Remington Fireball

[retiredsgt]

I am thinking of buying a rifle in .17 Rem. Fireball. Does anyone have one of the new Remington's in that calibre? How easy is it to reload. I load for "buco" number of calibres, and was wondering about this one.

 

[rangerruck]

I don't but regularly talk to a older dude, who has been shooting it for years. he got a cooper , made a loong time ago, that was chambered for 17mach 4, which is what it is; a 221 fireball case necked down to 17.
he says it is so simple to handload your pills between 3600 and 4000 fps, and that it barely recoils. 400 yd shots are a snap, and all types and sizes of varmints, and the only thing he shoots now, is the 17mach 2 rimfire, and then this, and if he needs to go for deer sized game or bigger, then he picks up a 30 cal weapon. He says that basically , the 17m4 has taken up all his other weapons between the 17m2, and his bigger centerfires. It just does everything well, with much longer bbl life thant the 22250. 220 swift, 204 ruger, and especially the 17 remington, which is what he started with.

 

[Houser52]

Funny you should mention that. I was just at the local gun shop picking up some Bergers for my 223 and the shop owner started talking about the 17 Fireball. All of his group is into shooting long range (eggs at 500 yds) and he's really impressed with the 17. He said he gets 4000 fps+, hardly any recoil and very accurate. I asked about guns and he said Remington is already making one.

 

[Mannlicher]

eggs at 500 yards? ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh k

 

[slzy]

i hit small baloons with iron sights with a wore out m16 in the army at nearly 500 yds,so i am sure it can be done.

 

[sojournerhome]

Eggs at 500

Cooooolll

 

[Gordon]

I have three .17's ; a .17 HMR (actually 2 of those) , a 17Ackley Hornet in a Martini with a 15x Lyman Super TargetSpot, and a .17 Rem (.223 case) in a Lee Six custom 700 Remington with a 12x leupold. I like them and they are relatively quiet and recoiless. The full length .17 Rem can hit a chronographed 4600fps with a light bullet, but I load it around 3900fps with a 27 grain bullet. It will only explode ground squirrels to about 300 yards. The .17 Hornet will do the same at 225 yards and the .17HMR (in a rifle) will tear them up at 125 yards.
Bottomline is if you think you will be shooting beyond 300 yards the .17s are NOT the hot set up; the bullets have low ballistic coefficents and they get blown around alot with the wind. Like twice as much as a .19 Calhoon, a .204 Ruger or a decent VLD .22 does. However for REALISTIC 200-300 yard shots at varmints the .17 Mach 4 rates very high in fun and coolnest factor!

 

[Outlaws]

with much longer bbl life thant the 22250. 220 swift, 204 ruger

Just to correct something for future reference....the 204 ruger is not even in the same ballpark in terms of barrel burning. The 204 is more on par with the 223.

 

[retiredsgt]

17 Rem. Fireball

Gentlemen: Thanks for the info.