17 caliber seating depth

Frankm

New member
Looking for others experiences regarding seating depth for 17 cal bullets.

I ve got a 17 Hornet that requires me to jump my 20 grain bullet reloads .100. That still gives quite shallow bullet seating in the case neck; roughly .140-.150. I ve been able to find a load that will shoot 3/4 - 1" groups but that's it. I ve measured some 25 gr VMaxes and I m able to touch the lands and still keep .160+ of bullet in case neck. What can you all share with me on seating 17 caliber bullets close to lands? Has it allowed better accuracy than jumping bullets? That has been my experience with many other calibers but only own the 1 17 cal and looking for input.

Thanks in advance !
 
My .17's are all zero freebore and they all shoot best either in firm contact with, or just shy of, the lands.

If your Hornet is a 10T, it might or might not want to shoot the 25 Vmax. Worth trying.

- DAA
 
I'm with DAA. My Cz 17 Rem shoots best with bullet seated to touch also. I mainly run 25 hp's through it. Haven't tried any vmax's.
 
Welcome to the forum. Hope you like it here. Always good to see another Idahoan.

You did not mention what rifle you have but my CZ 527 Varmint in .17 Hornet shoots the 20 grain Vmax with aplomb. I have settled on 1.775" OL and have no trouble with five shots going into less than 1/2" at 100 yards. Often much smaller. My good shooting buddy and fellow participant here on PM uses the same OL length and load that I do.

Neither of us bother with the 25 grain bullets in that little Hornet case but I do used them in my .17 Remington.
 
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Are you trimming your brass to minimum length? If you are stop, find your rifles chamber length and trim for that, this will allow max bearing surface(more seating depth vs coal). It seems pretty common for reloaders to trim brass to short for a specific chamber.
 
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Spotstalkshoot, very good point.... I m currently running brass at SAAMI max and utilizing a Collet neck die but there could be another .010-.020 of case length I could get. You re exactly right about many guys trimming way shorter than necessary. My brass at 1.350.... what is proper way to measure the chamber, preferably with common tools, to see how much longer I can stretch my brass length?
 
You will have to sacrifice one piece of brass. Cut about half the neck off a sized case, make a dummy round up(the half neck case),slip the "neck donut" over the bullet and chamber the dummy round. The chamber mouth will stop the "neck donut" and allow the dummy round to slide through. When you carefully extract the round you will be able to measure the max case length. Sinclair makes a tool for chamber length measuring, but a dremel will make a nice cut.
 
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Originally Posted By: spotstalkshootYou will have to sacrifice one piece of brass. Cut about half the neck off a sized case, make a dummy round up(the half neck case),slip the "neck donut" over the bullet and chamber the dummy round. The chamber mouth will stop the "neck donut" and allow the dummy round to slide through. When you carefully extract the round you will be able to measure the max case length. Sinclair makes a tool for chamber length measuring, but a dremel will make a nice cut.

That is a good idea that I have never seen in print. Thank you, I will be doing this.
 
My 17 rem jumps a mile to the lands. They shoot best at 2.1777. I ran through a seating depth test all the way out to the lands and nothing shot near as good as when the bullet is really crammed down in the case.
 
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