.17 Remington... Lite!

[StrikeEagle]

I have a .17 Rem rifle... cute little thing, built by H&R on the little Sako action.

The new .17 rimfires interest me, and I've been wondering if it's possible/feasible/reasonable to make .17 Rem loads that will about duplicate them. ie, velocities running 2000 fps rather than 4000 fps.

I'm not even sure where to start looking for data... I certainly don't have anything like this in my books.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Many thanks,
StrikeEagle

 

[BsChoy]

probably with a small charge of pistol powder...I have seen some stuff a guy on another forum has been doing with Blue Dot powder in 243,260 and a bunch others...be very careful when doing this though as a double charge of pistol powder will spontaneously take your firearm apart in a hurry.

 

[mscott]

For the .223 Hodgdon list a sub-sonic load using 3.2 gr of Clays with a 55gr bullet. I have 5 loaded up to try this weekend. If it works, I'll probably try it in my .17 Remington. I see no benefit of going 2,000 fps, but a sub-sonic load could be a lot of fun. Be cafeful with just using lighter powder charges. I would be fearful of a detonation.

 

[StrikeEagle]

For the .223 Hodgdon list a sub-sonic load using 3.2 gr of Clays with a 55gr bullet. I have 5 loaded up to try this weekend. If it works, I'll probably try it in my .17 Remington. I see no benefit of going 2,000 fps, but a sub-sonic load could be a lot of fun. Be cafeful with just using lighter powder charges. I would be fearful of a detonation.

Subsonic .223 sounds VERY interesting. That's really the sort of thing I'd like from a .17 Rem, but I didn't think velocity that low was realistically possible from the round without being unusably erratic.

Where did you see that Hodgdon data? Please share any information you get playing with low-vel .17's?

Thank you!

 

[mscott]

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

 

[627PCFan]

BE CAREFUL OF THE SUBSONICS in .223 with shotgun powder. I ruined a barrel with that, got one stuck, then shot another. Worked out ok because the new one is more accurate but not worth the risk-

 

[Clark]

For the 17 gr Vmax to get 2000 fps you would need 6 gr Blue Dot and be able to operate up to 14 gr.

For the heavy 30 gr bullets, starting at 5 gr 2000 fps and going all the way up to 12 gr Blue Dot for more velocity.

I have shot over 1,000 rounds of Blue Dot handloads in .223s, and it keeps the bore clean and cool. The pressure can be kept low with great accuracy. It is win-win for hunting ground squirrels.

 

[mscott]

My 3.2gr of Clays loads sucked today. Velocity averaged about 850fps and accuracy was terrible. Velocity spread was about 90 fps. Printed about a 5" pattern at 20 yards. I was not impressed and will probably just shoot a rimfire if I want rimfire performance.

 

[StrikeEagle]

My 3.2gr of Clays loads sucked today. Velocity averaged about 850fps and accuracy was terrible. Velocity spread was about 90 fps. Printed about a 5" pattern at 20 yards. I was not impressed and will probably just shoot a rimfire if I want rimfire performance.

Arg, that's what I was afraid of... sorry it didn't work out. Sure would have been fun, though.

As I think about it... do they still make those chamber inserts? You could shoot .22 rimfires using those. And I guess I could fire a .17 rimfire using the proper insert in my little Sako.

I'll see if I can track those down...

Found them! http://www.mcace.com/adapters.htm
You can do a .223/.22rf thing. But nothing in .17 so far... I'll keep looking...

 

[RecoilRob]

One thing to keep in mind when trying to shoot sub-sonics is the rate of twist and weight of bullet. Slowing the bullet down in a barrel with twist rate for full-speed ammo might and often will result in unstable flight.

The longer and heavier bullets need to spin faster to stabilize so you are kind of working against yourself here.

You MIGHT be able to use a lighter/shorter projo at the slower speed as it won't need as much rotational speed to stabilize....but you will be losing most of your energy too.

The subsonic game can be played successfully with heavy bullets in faster twist barrels but maybe not in what you have in the rifle now.