I see Hornaday is now putting out a 25 gr V-max as well as the older 20 grainer . The 25 gr bullet should be packing a pretty fair b.c. rating and should extend the effective range of the 17 centerfires a bit .

I used the 20 gr V s on pd s this summer and they worked pretty well out to the 350/400 yard area . At any rate , really looking forward to next summer and giving the new bullet weight a try........

Sdgunslinger: I went just now to Hornadys web site and no mention anywhere of the new bullet you refer to.
I wanted to look up the ballistic coefficient of the new bullet you refer to. I am sure an E-mail to them would get me an answer to that question.
Where did you hear about this new bullet?
I have been using Berger 25 grainers in my three 17 caliber centerfires and to tell the truth they are GREAT bullets - but they are hard to find when I need more of them!
I would love to get my hands on some of these new Horandy 25 gr.V-Max's! Any idea when they will be available?
Thanks for the info
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Midway has them listed in their .17 cal section.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=151938

Varmint Guy

I first saw mention of these bullets on either sabier.com or predatorsmasters......can't remember which right now , but went to Midways site , and sure enough they are listed along with the other Hornaday 17 bullets . But apparently , Hornaday has not yet published a b.c. on them . My CZ shoots the V-max s so well , there is just no incentive for me to try out the more expensive Bergers.....

Mulerider and Sdgunslinger: I appreciate the information and I will get some of those bullets headed my way for winter load testing!
The prices are very pleasing!
Thanks again!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I have a Remington 700BDL in .17Rem. and shoot both the Hornady 20gr VMAX and the Hornady 25gr. HP. I think the VMAX is slightly more accurate. I find the Berger 25gr. HP is more accurate than either. My problem with the .17Rem. is not whether it will shoot, but with it's lack of consistency. It's quite common to follow a .4" group with a 1.0" group which looks very large with those small bullet holes. I keep the rifle very clean, but it doesn't matter. The rifle seems to do as it damn well pleases. Copper fouls like crazy also. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

Cal

The copper fouling problem and inconsistent accuracy is likely due to a rough bore , which some of the Remington .17 s are noted for . This is not inherent to the .17 caliber , and is not present in the better custom and commercial barrels .

MY CZ barrel , for instance , is quite consistent and I have shot it up to around 100 times without cleaning , and no apparent loss of accuracy in the field .

Guesstimates on the BC for the 25 gr. Hornady V-Max have been in the .225 to .230 range if I remember right from reading about it on the Saubier.com board.

It is a nice long bullet and you may need to load down a wee bit to start with so you don't produce dangerously high pressures. My first shipment of those bullets arrived the first part of Septmeber and I decided to try some H4198, H4895, and Varget powder with them. Here is a collage of 5 targets I shot on two different range trips.



I eventually wound up reloading 20 of these 25 gr. V-Max using 23.0 gr. of H4895 and shot some prairie dogs with them. They were deadly accurate and gave some lift (not a lot) to the prairie dogs I hit. My load is certainly not pushing those bullets real fast, but I was more interested in accuracy for right now and may work for a bit more speed next spring if I can maintain the accuracy too.

Hello sdguslinger,

You may well be right about the rough bore on my Remington 700BDL in .17Rem. It does copper foul a lot which is also a sign. Tubbs makes a product called Final Finish which is supposed to cure that problem. Have you heard of it? It's about the only thing I can think of that would smooth it out. I don't know if Tubbs has it for .17Rem. or not. There's no use in constant scrubbing it with JB Bore Compound or Sweets Copper Remover. Sweets won't help the rough bore problem, and I'd be dead before I accomplished it with JB. Thanks for the information.
Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

Cal,

Try the Wheeler kit, available from Midway. With it, you load your own bullets rather than Tubb's treated ones, so it's not caliber specific.

One warning though - the mild abrasive you might use lapping manually gets much more aggressive under high pressure!

Redial