I'm working with my first .17 caliber and would appreciate your experiences with powders. This is a .17-223, which should have just marginally more powder space than a standard .17 Remington. Many years ago, IMR-4320 was the go-to powder for the .17 Rem, but lots of new powders are now available and the lighter 20 grain bullets have become popular, whereas the 25 grain bullet used to be pretty much all that was available..

Particularly with 20 grain bullets, what would be your one or two favorite powders?

I've never owned a .17 but loaded for a few and getting powder through such a small hole gave value to ball powders.....and H-414 was the powder I used.

h335 works well for me. ball powders sure do drop down those tiny necks alot better than stick powders

THanks for the suggestions. There seem to be two schools of thought on powders for the .17 -- some like them slow and some like them fast. It appears from the data I've seen that the .17 is amazingly adaptable to the a wide range of powder speeds.

When I had mine H-4198SC was the ticket.

Dear Stonecreek,
I have two of the 17-223s I shoot. One is a Sako [H&R Ultra Varmint] and the other a AR 15 . The Sako likes the IMR 4320 the best and also the H-335 butchbloc recommended. The crazy AR-15 like about anything but THRIVES on H-335 and 20 Gr Hornady bullets. Lots of fun to walk up a coyotes A$$ as he goes into afterburner!
Aloha, Mark

I nhave several 17 Rems and they like 4320.

I have two,use 4198 and 2400.You have to watch the pressure with 2400 but it works best for me.

Just picked up some of the new Allaint ARComp powder and have been testing it in the 223 and 22.250....with very promising results...

you may want to try that...faster burning that RL 15, but slower than RL 10...