I'm a Contender collector, & several years ago, I bought an old, unfired 10" octogon barrel in 17K Hornet... my local builder got interested in doing Contender barrels, & built a 17 Ackley Hornet barrel... so I pulled out my barrel, & we found out that his fire form load would fit & fire form in my chamber, so now I'll be ordering a set of dies, & plan n loading for the little bugger this winter...

anyone shoot one ??? any suggestions ???

There is currently a thread discussing the 17 ackley hornet over at 24hourcampire.com

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php...0/page/1#Post2446050

A buddy tried a variety of 17's in the contender. The last one he had was a 17 saunders jet. Neat little round!

I have a Model 82 Kimber factory produced in .17 K-Hornet. I like it well enough that I traded off my .17 Remington and kept the .17 Hornet.

It's very deceiving though with those small bullets. Sometimes you shoot 5-rounds at 100 yards, look through the scope, and are disappointed. None of the 5 bullet holes touch each other. Later when you bring your targets back to the bench and measure them, you find the "disappointing" target group is still .5 MOA (center-to-center) or very slightly less.

I currently have a couple 17 Remingtons... a model 700 & ( maybe even 2 ) Contender barrels...

I really don't seem to get into the hyper velocity stuff much... I like shooting too much to burn a barrel out every other year... so While I have 17 Remington, 220 Swifts, 22-250's etc... they just don't seem to get the range time I expect this 17 Hornet, ( I shoot alot of 22 Hornet, though I was pretty disapointed at the tradjectory drop when I started shooting the 10" Contender out to 300 yards )the 223, etc. get...

besides... I'm way more of a big bore fan, so this 17 Hornet is kind of a new frontier for me... I expect there are better powders for the 10" barrel, than what works best in a rifle...

thanks for the link to the other thread... I'll check it out...

I have 2. A Kimber Super America in 17K and a Cooper in 17Ack. Both are a real pleasure to shoot. Out to 250 yards they are incredible little laser beams. 10.4g Lil'Gun with the 20g V Max. 3820fps from the Cooper and 3750fps from the Kimber. I've shot coyotes at about 175 yards with the Kimber. Puts them down just fine. The 17 Hornets, 17M4 and the 20 Tac are my favorite varmint cartridges.

I have two.They preform way bigger than the case looks like they should. Easy on components, very little barrel heat in colony varmint situations, no recoil (ya see every hit!). Absolutely outstanding round for gophers and p-dogs but certainly has the poop for varmints a little bigger.
My wife shot this rock chuck (among others)on this converted CZ's maiden voyage.



On it's maiden voyage this Cooper .17 Ackley killed this badger with one shot at 175 yards, no drama, he just took one big bite of dirt and stopped dead in his tracks. (sorry for the reposts)



Some say .17's aren't accurate, hogwash! In an accurate rifle with the newer bullets and powders they are as capable of great accuracy as any of the other varmint calibers.
5 shot group, at 100 yards. The target was a bit wet so the holes are a bit raggedy but you get the idea.



I guess by now you've figured out I'm totally biased . In that nasty old question "If ya only got to keep 3 rifles which would they be?", one of em'd darn sure be a .17 Ackley Hornet.

I'm also currently on a quest for an action to build one on...

I'd like one that I can swap barrels to a 19 Calhoon, and a 20 K Hornet....

Still haven't decided on a CZ 527 Action, the Rem 799 action, or one of the older mauser mini actions, If I can locate one...

just missed one on another site...

also looking at a Ruger 77/22 Action...

Cheers
seafire

Howdy Seafire.
At the risk of firing up the Ruger fans and admittedly never having had one in a Hornet plus being aware that some do shoot well I must say the following (sorry Ruger fans). Buddies experiences and internet websites convince me that you'd be a lot happier with one of the mini mausers you mentioned, CZ or otherwise. Calhoon makes a single shot follower for the CZ's to allow longer than magazine ammo plus the magazines can be modified for extra length ammo unlike the Ruger (or you can buy magazines from Calhoon already modified, personally I like single shot).
The biggest concern I'd have with the Ruger is how many of those guys both friends and website posters going through holy heck trying to get acceptable accuracy. Keep us posted huh?