Does anyone have any experience or words of widsom concerning the 17 rem in a 14" contender? thank's, harold

Harry, if you want the good the bad and the ugly.
The good, this is a fairly good caliber in a 14" barrel.
The bad, TC's chambering in this for the most part was not very well done, along with a some what lower quality blank.
The ugly, it has recieved a lot of bad press in a 14" Contender barrel, just like a lot of others.

I have never owned one of these myself. I did get the chance to play with one a few years back one weekend, factory 14". I will have to say that the 17 will do well in a 14" barrel, but one of the custom barrel makers would make life a whole lot easier. The factory 17 barrel was fouled fairly bad after about 10 rounds, this was factory ammo at that time. My friend went on and played with this for a while. After a lot of shooting he just figured he would have to give it a good cleaning after 20 rounds, this was even true of his handloads. He finally had another chambered in an XP and was really impressed.
Another thing the Mach IV is just a little bit behind the Remington with a whole lot less powder. He did a side by side with a borrowed gun. This was before any of the "magic" barrel treatments available now.

I am sure there will be at least "one" person with a factory 17 Remington that is just great. But across the board I would think you have a better chance with this if it is an above average barrel maker.
Jeff

I had 2 .17 Rems that were 14-inch barrels. The TC factory barrel shot well -- around MOA with most loads -- but fouled horribly. It was very rough, to say the least. I quickly tired of constantly cleaning. If allowed to be fouled for more than 12 or 15 shots, the groups would open up to patterns in a hurry.

Also, I did have a 'smith do some touch-up of the crown because it was nowhere near concentric (that was done before I ever shot it).

I also had a 14" SSK barel, and I could shoot 80-90 rounds before accuracy started to drop off. Berger bullets would get me to the 0.5" range; Hornady 25s consistently ran around 0.75 and didn't seem to have much of a powder preference.

The best accuracy with both barrels seemed to be around 33-3400 fps (near max loads). The SSK could safely run up to 3500 fps; the TC barrel topped out around 3325 fps, both with 25 grain bullets.

I did clock some Rem 25 grain PLHP ammo that came in the deal with the SSK barrel. I no longer have that data and may be off a tiny bit, but it was around 3425 fps from the SSK barrel and around 3275-3285 for the TC factory barrel.

thanks for the information guy's. sorry it's taken me so long to get back but i've been trying to get the barrel shot before i posted but that hasn't worked out at all. i do have a factory TC barrel, do you think fire lapping would have helped the barrel's in your experiences? any thoughts on moly coated bullets? thanks again.
harold