Nightwatchman
There was two of us who took on identical projects at the same time. We both already owned Browning Micro Hunter A Bolts in 22 Hornets. We didn't want them two touched so we bought two more. We had a local gunsmith pull the barrel off one and shipped it to Lilja. Told them we wanted barrels the exact same length, taper and contour, but in a 17 caliber, not chambered. They are three groove, 1 in 9 twist rate and I think they are 22 inches long, whatever Browning Micro Hunter Hornets come in. We then shipped the entire packages, barrels, actions, stock everything to York PA, to Bob Green. Who we were told was the absolute ultimate guru in 17 Ackley Hornets, btw-this was proven too. He chambered them to 17 Ackley Hornet with .193 neck and tweaked the magazines for us, so there would be no feeding issues and there isn't any, never has been, not even one. He is the absolute best 17 Ackley guy in America. In accordance with me and everybody else who knows. They shot perfectly from the beginning. We developed different loads, tried different powders and bullets, chased our tails in the wrong direction for a while. Tried 25 gr Bergers both slow and fast, was concerned about fur damage on foxes, slowed down-that was the wrong direction to go, so we sped em up, went with lighter bullets till the absolute all-round perfect bullet was finally discovered. It kills groundhogs like The Hammer of Thor and has not missed a fox this winter. Plus Matt harvested a nice bobcat with his using the 25 gr bullet. All were DRT. It is the Hornady 20 gr V-Max pushed by 12.1 grains of N-120 powder to a muzzle velocity of 3850-3900. When it hits a groundhog at 250 yards, you see em hunch up and just simply collapse, no more movement. I never thought it would stay inside a fox, but it does. We were going to slow earlier in our expereiments. The sight in is 1" high at 100 yds, that is the point of impact with both 20 and 25 grain bullets, they will be within a 1/4" of one another without changing any scope adjustments. It is very-very flat shooting. I pretty much hold on fur out to 275-300 yards. A groundhog standing up at 250-280yds is a gimme shot. The scope I mounted on it stays on it the year round, groundhogs or foxes. The Leupold VX3-3.5x10x50 Illuminated German #4 Dot, the dot covers 9/10ths of an inch at 100 yds, great for hogs in the summer, or foxes at night under artificial light. Dot is very easy to find when it is illuminated. My longest kill on groundhogs was 316 yards, my longest hit was over 400, after a few barrel rolls and flippin around he got back in the hole, oh well. If a Red Fox hangs up at 200 yds, he is dead.
This picture was taken right after we recv'd them back from Bob Green.
