.17 Remington Load ?

Lonnie

Lonnie

New member
I am just beginning to work up a load for my .17 Remington. It is a Remington M700 BDL. All stock but the trigger is worked and I have floated the barrel by just sanding out the barrel channel. I loaded up 3 sets of 10 with 21.5 grs. Varget, 22 grs. Varget and 22.5 gr. Varget. I got the best group from the 21.5 gr. The picture is of 9 shots and the group measures about .8". Do you guys think this is all I can get from this rifle or should I keep working for a better load. Also, will this load be a good coyote dropper? I am guessing the velocity to be around 3550? By the way, I am shooting the 30 gr. Kindler Gold bullets. It was too overcast to use the chrono today and it was also blowing pretty hard when I shot my groups. Give me some advice and some other powders to try if you have any ideas. Thanks, Lonnie
PS. I wrote the wrong load data on the target because I was doing it from memory. It is a 21.5 gr. load.

Coyote009.jpg
 
Group looks good for a facory rifles. If you are going to continue to use the 30 gr. you should get the vel up to around 3750-3900 for clean one shot kills on coyotes and a vel of 36-3700 for fox.. Good luck..T.A.
 
H4895 worked the best in my factory Rem 700 in 17 Rem.

Of note, you might want to work up your loads in smaller increments. The 17 is a small case and pressure rises RAPIDLY.

Shot placement is everything.
 
Roger that pressure rise acloco. I popped a primer at 22.5 and backed off that load. Thanks for the comments guys. I'll load a few more at that and maybe try some in between 21.5 and 22 and see what happens. I'm off the coyotes till next fall but would like to have a good load for a few prarie dogs this summer.
 
try 25.gr berger moly coated bullets,your gun will be easy to clean and shoot tight groups much longer. varget 18.5 to 22.2. re12 18.0 to 21.6. these both shoot well.one tenth of a grain makes alot of difference.you can get load data from walt berger on there website.www.bergerbullets.com.i use my 17 a lot,i shot the factory until it would not shoot any good group because the throat was ruined.fun to shoot and deadly with berger bullets.
 
Lonnie, I have been tinkering with a new Remington LVSF in .17 Rem for a few weeks now. The group you posted is as good as any I have gotten and better than most.I have tryed four powders including Varget and four different bullets.Is your gun new if so it may get better with a few more rounds down the barrel. Loads that I tryed that shot horrible I tryed again and now they are hovering around 1 inch.I am thinking that maybe its a rough barrel because the first two or three shots from a clean barrel are tight then the POI moves left and opens up.
 
Venatic, I bought my rifle used from a guy on this site. It has a few hundred rounds down the barrel. I am going to try some 25 gr bullets also and see how they do. I bought the 30 gr. golds because of the video DAA did with his .17 and those bullets. Looked like good clean kills. My factory ammo has not missed but also has never dropped one in his tracks. I'm looking for a good killing bullet. We'll see how this does next fall on some coyotes. I'll try to get some of those bergers lyotehunter and see how they do. Have you used them on coyotes?
 
One of the loads that I use is 22.5 gr. benchmark 7 1/2 rem. primer 25 gr. Berger its just over 3900fps and my group @ 100 yards was less than a half an inch
 
Also my prairie dog load is a 20gr Hornady V MAX with 24gr of Benchmark, .5 grains less of max. max load fps is 4342. Its like shooting red liquid filled ballons. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
 
I have seen more than one like IMR4320 and a Hornady 25hp. Benchrest primers tightened up my groups even more. IMO .17s are primer sensitive. I have had good luck with Fedral match primers.
 
Quote:
Lonnie, I have been tinkering with a new Remington LVSF in .17 Rem for a few weeks now. The group you posted is as good as any I have gotten and better than most.



venatic,,,,,,,,,,,I have the same rifle. It likes Win760 with the 30grainers and IMR4320 with the 25's. Both bullets shoot best when loaded about 20thou off the lands. I shoot Nagel bullets, no moly.
I love the LVSF as a carry rifle, but it's not the most accurate rifle I've ever owned. Shoots MOA..... Better on some days.

Lonnie,,,,,,,,,That group's nothing to complain about for a factory barrel. It's alot harder to get 17cal bullets touching than larger bullets, which can be a little deceiving.
Any load that shoot's 10 shots that can be covered with a dime will certainly kill a Coyote, or Gopher, or a Mouse for that matter. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
Like Randy said,,,,,"try it again and see if it's consistant." If it is I wouldn't waste any more time or money. I'd be happy if my LVSF was that accurate on a regular basis.
 
Hey guys, brand new to the site but not brand new to the sport. Id rather kill predators than big game. I have a rem 700 LVSF in 17 remington for sale if anyone is interested. It has exactly 85 rnds thru it. It comes with RCBS reloading dies, Leupold 2 pc 1/4 turn mounts and rings ( med high I think ) , 40X trigger springs adjusted down to about 3lbs. Im asking 675.00.

I also have a 15'' fluted pro hunter barrel for a T/C Encore in 204 ruger. low round count on that too, I think Id take 200.00 for that. email me at hotrodss67camaro@yahoo.com if anybody is interested.
 
Thanks for all the help guys. You always come through. And welcome to the site coyotedeathangel. Good luck selling your rifles. You ought to try them in the classifieds on this site. That's how I got my .17.
 
Lonnie-- Depending on the size of the target animal, perhaps your groups pictured in your post might be plenty good. You mentioned coyotes as one target animal, and that 9-shot group measuring .80" will get the job done on coyotes at distances well out there too.

What brand of primers were you using when you popped a primer with 22.5 gr. of Varget and the 30 gr. Gold bullet?

As for DAA's experience on coyotes with the 30 gr. Golds, you need to remember if he was using his .17 Predator, those 30 gr. bullets are probably leaving the muzzle around 4,100 fps or so, if I remember right. I use 30 gr. HP Starke bullets and my coyote load from my .17 Remington leaves the muzzle at 3,900 fps. It is deadly medicine for coyotes.

My tests with Varget were done back in June and July of 2001, but I was using the 30 gr. Starke HP bullets. I was using a 1 in 9" twist Lilja barrel that is 26" long and has 4 grooves. I tested 21.0, 21.5, 22.0, 22.2, 22.4 gr., and 22.5 gr. of Varget using Remington 7½ primers. I was shooting over my old F-1 Chrony chronograph with the first screen set 10 feet from the muzzle. Average velocities with the above loads were as follows: 3,461 fps, 3,518 fps, 3,624 fps, 3,639 fps, 3,656 fps, and 3,669 fps.

The load of 22.5 gr. of Varget is, I believe the max load listed in some of my reloading data. If you aren't using a primer with a thick cup like the Remington 7½, CCI 450, or the CCI-BR4, I'd recommend switching to one of the primers I listed above. Pressure can really spike in a hurry with very little additional powder as you approach max loads in this little casing.

I have had good luck using VVN540 with the 30 gr. bullets in my Lilja barreled rifle and that powder has worked great with the 27.8 gr. BTHP Hammett bullets in my Pac-Nor barreled .17 Remington. Another powder I have good luck with for the 25 gr. pills is H4895.
 
Thanks Silverfox. I have no idea what primers I am using. When I bought the rifle, there were about 120 loaded rounds with 25 gr hornady hps. I shot a few and busted 2 primers so I pulled all the bullets and reloaded a few to test with. The primers are silver if that tells you anything. I was wondering if it might be some weak or bad primers. I have never tried to remove primers from empty rounds. Will it blow the primers to resize the cases or will they just push out? I would like to resize the necks on these cases at least since the tension seemed to vary when I loaded the test rounds. I would really like to get the accuracy down to around 1/2" for prarie dogs. I will get some of the primers you mentioned since all I have are winchester primers right now. What do you think of the Lee Collet Dies? Seems I have heard that they are really great.
 
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