I havent started doing any real hard looking yet but I'm becoming intrigued with the 19 and 20 calibers, any one have any experience with them.
Looking at the small caliber sites it seems like these guys are having a ball.

Wes

Wes;

I have had at least limited interest in the 17's for sometime now. A shooting buddy of mine had a 17 caliber rifle built for benchrest and liked it alot. It shot 2's all the time at 100 yards. BUT his best accuracy came when he ran two wet patches and 2 dry patches between each shot. Now more details, before you make any decissions. He Moly coated all his bullets, and pushed them over 4000 FPS with Vihta Vuori powder. The bullet were custom made, but I don't remember by who.

Wes-
I've worked with some of the various .17s a bit, but in my part of Texas, there's really minimal application for them.

As to the cleaning aspect, in new, modern barrels and using moly-coated bullets, I found I could shoot 40-50 rounds without significant degradation of accuracy. And in the smaller .17s, the bores would go a good bit more than that, often around 100 shots or so between cleanings.

The only .17 in the house now is a Marlin 17-V in the tiny .17 HMR. I really can't justify a use for it, either -- but it is fun to toy with. Even with the factory trigger, it'll keep 5 shots well inside an inch at 100 yards, and I have no trouble plinking small targets out to 225 yards or so. I've taken numerous 'possums with it and even a couple of nuisance 'coons, but I feel the latter is really pushing it for the little .17.

By the way, the 17-grain V-max ammo clocks 2563 from my gun, which is 13 fps above the advertised claim.

Now if prairie dogs would suddenly materialize in my part of the world...

[ 07-11-2002, 03:09: Message edited by: Bobby Tomek ]

Hopefully a few of shooting buddies will post, as they've played with some of the 17's. Rob has a 14" 17 Mk IV rimmed, and it pushes 25's 3600 fps, no recoil and very accurate. Dennis had a 17 Jet improved carbine that was pushing 25's 4000 fps.

On the small bore forum there are a few folks playing with the 19's and 20's, and I believe a few of them are contender based.

Go to: http://www.saubier.com/

The forum there is very helpfull.

I had a switch barrel XP built this year and have several barrels 17MKIV to 308, most 18" I liked the 17 Rem but absolutely love the MKIV, I am still playing with loads but I can go from sub-sonic to 3800fps. Its like having a reloadable HRM

Thought I'd add
This would be a paper puncher only.
My home range only goes out to 200 yds and I been thinking a little hornet would be economical and easy to shoot then I started looking at these 19 and 20 cals and thought HMMM something diffrent is always nice too
Definitly has to be on the contender and definitly has to be accurate to 200 yrds
big boom and power I dont need.

Wes

Depending on the range you want and what you intend to shoot, you
wouldn't believe the performance of a 14. Yes, I said 14. Check out my
article on saubier.com, or read the coyote hunting article by Blaine
Eddy from Utah on my web site: www.cyberport.net/russ/bullet.htm
If you are hunting for pelts, Blaine highly recommends the 14 over the
17 out to 150 yards.

I hope to receive some boattail bullet dies soon, I expect to be able to
extend the drop dead killing range to 200 yards.

The most common twist for a 14 now is 7. Put a 221 case behind the 15
grain bullet and drive it at least to 4300fps, and figure the rpm of the
bullet. It's incredible what this does to anything it hits.

Bullberry, Virgin Valley, and Van Horn do 14 barrels. Dave V.H. has been
in the 14 business for many years, you should ask him what he thinks
about the 14s. Bullberry and VV are both building a contender barrel for
me. One is a 14/221, the other is a 12!. (.123)

russ lucas
russ@bobmarshall.org