I bought one used year before last,CZ 527 17 Remington. That was only after I bought a 17 Hornet CZ from the same guy.
I was really impressed and happy with the 17 HH. I read up on it a bunch before I reloaded for it. Bought a few pounds of powder to try, my mistake. I went with H4198and 20 grain Vmax,looked no farther. I forget the speed,not full blown top end but the accuracy was way over the top of any factory ammo I had tried.
I entered the 17 Remington in a doubtful way. Heck all the gun rags I ever read on the cartridge, claimed they were cleaning it more than shooting it. Accuracy was so so as well. I did a Wipe Out job on it before I ever fired it, it was pretty clean and he told me he only ran maybe 30-50 rounds through, I believe him. Talked to LeRoy,aka silver fox and a few others. I did very little load work, once again chased accuracy first and speed second. 25 grain Vmax is all I tried other than some 20'grain factory. Shot it in some steady winds of 20-25mph a day and a half. All four of us on that hunt were very happy to say the least. Wind didn't bother it any worse than say a 55-60's grain bullet from a 223 or 22-250. I ran at a slow rate about 40 rounds before I decided it needed cleaning. The next day I ran a different powder,CFE223. I went the full day with no issues of any kind of fouling. Cleaned that night at motel and it was easier than the first night.
So I have been bitten pretty hard by the 17 bug. Chasing down a doaner Savage action for a 17 Remington build. I lucked into a fair bit of 17 Remington stuff, but I am still tossing around the thoughts of a 17-223 or 17Remington AI. Kind of wishy washy on a 17-204.
My goal is to at least equal the CZ 17 Remington, the savage build will replace it.
Tinkering with the 17WSM as well. If it will shoot no worse than MOA, it will replace the 17 Hornet. Seems like I loose a lot of Hornet brass for some reason.
Gonna clone B23's Bmag set up I hope.
Jeff