I sent an email to Chris at ER Shaw and suggested that they should consider adding a 17 Fireball to their chamberings since they already have the 17 Remington....

Well today, I got an email back from him indicating, that despite it not being on their website, that they DO chamber the 17 Fireball now! an order is going to take about 8 weeks...

He indicated that until I brought it to his attention that he was unaware it wasn't listed on their web site.. when he looked he also noticed that they did not have the 20 Vartag and 20 VarTag Turbo listed on their either, and that they chamber both of those....

He added that the cost of the 17 bores was $20.00 higher than the 22 caliber and up sized bores...

however, with the budget willing over the next few weeks or so.. I can see putting an order in for one, for my Savage 12 BVSS......

Then over the winter rainy months, I can get the opportunity to.... at a bunch of targets....so it and me are ready for spring sage rat season...

anyone in the market for some 17 HMRs???

Great choices for smack'n rats! Two of the very best IMO (for what it's worth).
I have a .20 VarTarg as well as a .17 Mach IV (ballistic twin with a minutely different case than the Fire Ball) as well as a .17 Fire Ball too in a VSF Remington.
In my opinion the only things they did wrong with the Fire Ball in factory chambering are the usual factory "Attorney-proofing" mistakes. Too long a throat and and a big neck that over works your brass. I'm sure Mr. Shaw will fix those.
My .17 Fire Ball is about to be sent to Greg Tannel at Gre'Tan Rifles in Colo to have a slice taken off the barrel and be re-chambered with a minimum spec .17 Fire Ball reamer with a tighter neck and zero free bore. The factory ammo is Mic'ing .199 to .200ish on the neck while loaded before firing and .207 fired, the neck on my chamber will be reamed to .202 which is snug but won't require neck turning and won't work the brass as much, (I use bushing neck dies).
Currently on mine I can get a 25 grain V-Max to touch the lands but with very little bullet purchase and the 20 V-Max won't touch in mine at all with acceptable purchase. The zero free-bore will solve all that and create basically a custom chambered .17 Fire Ball on a factory barrel that already seems to shoot quite well as is. As you say it'll give me something to mess with over the winter.
Two questions. I wasn't quite clear if you were thinking .17 Fire Ball or .20 VarTarg for your project? Two, what barrel were you thinking of? I've gotten real fond of the 3 groove Pac-Nor Super Match's.
Keep us posted how it goes. I will warn you that at least for me sub-.22 calibers have become "REAL" addicting , I love em! Atomizing a ground squirrel at 250 yards and seeing all the drama in the scope while it's happening is a "BIG" plus .

Doug,

I am going to go the ER Shaw route on this first one, considering pricing, ease..coming already chambered to the Savage...will certain ask for a tight neck... first will be the 17 Fireball...

but a 20 Vartag might not be that far off in following...

ER Shaw did a decent job on my 223 barrel that I ordered from them.. although they screwed up quite a few things before I finally got it

This is going on a Savage 12 BVSS.. after playing with it a little there, I might end up putting the barrel on a Stevens 200, but shorting it up from 26 inches to say may 20 or 22 inches for a walking varminter...

Shows what I know, I thought all they did was custom smithing with others barrels, I didn't realize they made their own. At any rate I'm sure you'll love it. Looks like from their site their twist is a 1 in 9 which is good cause while the 1 in 10's are popular with the 20 grainers (that's the twist Cooper uses) a lot of fellas seem to have problems with the length of the 25 grain V-Max in the 1 in 10's (that's a great bullet too). The 1 in 9 should add some insurance to the 25 V-Max's and work well with the 20 V-Max as well, it will also most probably do very well with the 30 grain Bergers if you take a run at them also, (great fur bullet).
Again, keep us posted.
Not to get ya ahead of yourself but wait'll ya get that .20 VarTarg , then all ya need is a .221 and ya have the whole family covered . Great case to work with.