I have a real sweet looking Sako in an A1 action mounted in a laminate factory stock. I have loaded with 20 and 25gr Vmax loads with Varget powder and got less than impressive groups. Any of you fellows have another powder you like in 17 Rem?
Thanks FS

Fasteel,

FWIW, here is some info.

These groups were shot in Feb. 08, at the Pearland Shooting Club. Temp +/- 50F, +/- 60% humidity. Wind was blowing that day, +/- 10 mph.

17 Rem

25 gr. Hornady HP
Rem 7-1/2 primer
2.150 OAL
off the bench at 100 yds.

1" target dots and Shiner beer cap for reference (and it tastes good to)











Best
GWB

i have good luck with h335. but a note - when the 17 came out mike walker of remington said to only use rem 7 1/2 primers with the round. that their research found that that particular primer was far superior than any other for the 17. when mike said something like that the shooting world took note

OT here Geedubya, I like the Frost, but the Smokehaus is good also, we have started getting Shiner sampler 6 packs up here and I am glad the ones we are getting now have the Ault instead of the light.

Sorry for the hijack, back to the 17.

For what it's worth, I'd almost given up on the 17 Rem until I tried IMR 4198. Awesome in my 700 Remington with both Vmax bullet weights. And, my experience confirms the importance of the 71/2 primer.

Thanks fellas
I'm on to the Rem 7 1/2 primers and I have a good assortment of all of these powders you gents have suggested.
When I bought this rifle the first thing I did was give it the full treatment with Shooters Choice and I thought I had done a good job. Have the rifle over at my shootin buddies place and he has given it 4 treatments with WipeOut and is still seeing blue coming out, so perhaps this may be why my groups with Varget were so poor. FS

I use Fed Goldmedal match primers and H4895, Varget, AA2520, H380, 4320, 8208, 4064, RL15.

Accuracy depends on many things, but having the rifle tuned and the brass bench prepped goes farther than worrying about which primer or powder.

My 17's have always responded to 4320 well no matter what the bullet weight, and a benchrest primers REALLY helps with these small cases and bore sizes...the same primers and powdere work equally well with my 20 Practical...

BUT FIRST...the rifle has to be tuned and bedded, the bullet land touch point established and the cases bench prepped and sorted. You CAN'T ge tiny groups without doing the busy work.

If I do all the work I get groups in the 0.100 to 0.300 without any problem. With unsorted, un prepped brass and bullets I get 1" groups plus or minus about a quarter inch, and getting a 17 to shoot small groups is much tougher than larger calibers.

Sabier, Varminting and long range forums have tons of information on the 17...check out 6mmBR also.

LUCK

Fasteel,
another thing I do with all rifles is give them a good cleaning with a JB bore paste/kroil mixture and a bronze brush. Say 50 or 100 strokes through the bore, then patch one way with dry patches at first to get excess, clean rod, then kroil patches till clean. Then wipe out/accelerator over night to see if there is any copper.
GWB

Also in my case, groups would probably be tighter if there was a different "operator"

IMR 4320 and Rem 7.5 with 20 and 25 grain bullets work well for me in two different 17 Rems

I use 19 grs IMR 4198 with the 20gr VMax...my Sako AI Hunter in a McMillan shoots about 3/4" at 100 meters at 3950-4000fps with this load. It takes apart a gopher better than a 40gr VMax out of the 223....

I have an Sako AI 17rem that I use 23.5gr IMR-3031 with Hornady 25grHP. It shoots 1/2" consistently. I've had a few 17's and 3031 has always worked well for all.

I had a Remington 700 for many years. It loved 4320 and Hornady 25 grain bullets. When I had mine the Hornady and Remington 25 grain was all that were available.

It is one rifle I truly regret trading off. One of these days I will run onto a good left hand donor action for a nice little 17.

I used mine primarily for calling coyotes. As I remember it never made spectacular kills, they just dropped like somebody shut off their switch. Never experienced much if any fur damage.

Mart

quote:

Originally posted by dukxdog:
I have an Sako AI 17rem that I use 23.5gr IMR-3031 with Hornady 25grHP. It shoots 1/2" consistently. I've had a few 17's and 3031 has always worked well for all.

I have 3031. I'll give this load a try. Thanks FS