I recently horse-traded for a Remington 700 VS in 17rem. The deal included one box of Remington 20g. ammo. I put a Bushnell Elite 3200 4x12x40 AO scope on it and will shoot it tomorrow to see what happens.I have a cheap 3-piece cleaning rod I use for my 17HMR and 17 M2 that came with a jag, brush and bore mop. I tried to put a patch through it but I don't have a bore guide so it was very difficult to get the patch lined up and such. When I finally did, it seems that the jag is a little too tight and didn't want to go in. I resorted to using the brush and mop. I know I need to get some things for this gun, I just need some advice as to which to get. I need: a bore guide, good rod, jag(if not included with rod), dies, brass, and some bullets.I would much prefer to get the right equipment the first time rather than fight with stuff that doesn't work well. Any adult supervision anyone can provide would be much appreciated!

Scott,
I shoot a remington 700 classic in .17 rem. I bought a dewey rod and patch jag for mine. I don't use brushes on my rifles, just solvent and patches and some Iosso if necessary. I also shoot a 20gr hollow point hornady. This cartrige IS the mack daddy of the .17s!
Good luck..........wapiti7

I have a 700/.17 Remington and like wapiti7 says, I use the same method and I use Dewey rods as well. As a side note, I once had a handle seize up, a call to Dewey and they sent me a new handle assembly, no charge! Dewey makes a nice coated rod for around $25 and service after the sale is second to none.
When I got this rifle I had to see how much velocity I could get out of it and at 4,025 the cases were growing .001-.002, copper fouled like a mutha and accuracy was poor. I settled on a more conservative load that runs 3,753 and shoots in the 4's.
Good luck with your new toy.

Stepchild

I don't have a 17 Rem myself, but I like the carbon fiber cleaning rods from Midway. They work very well & I am sure that you can find a bore guide there too.
I also just use a jag, patches, & solvent.

quote:

When I got this rifle I had to see how much velocity I could get out of it and at 4,025 the cases were growing .001-.002, copper fouled like a mutha and accuracy was poor. I settled on a more conservative load that runs 3,753 and shoots in the 4's.

I had a .17/.223 that I did the same with. I finally settled on two loads with the 25 gr. Hornady, 19.5 grs. IMR-4198 and 21 grs. of IMR-3031, both of which were in the 37-3800 fps range. I too use the Dewey rod and a Sinclair bore guide but also use brushes. Mine fowled badly after about 50 shots and I would have to clean it but, accuracy always came back.

For years I made my own slotted tip for the .17s. A major PITA! Now Dewey makes a neat little tip and I love them. Hard to beat at about 3.00! I [personally] hate the tips that usually drop the patch off for me to chase across the countryside [I hate making a mess for someone to see or have to pick up] so I`m glad they got ones so cheap now.
Aloha, Mark

Hey Scott, If it shoots good for a few shots (6-20) and then begins opening the groups from a cold barrel, you might want to consider Moly Coating your own bullets.

Get the barrel spotless and go through the Break-In Routine for 20 shots or so. No telling if the original owner did it or not. Then it might or might not need a couple of hundred shots through it to get the best groups.

Best of luck to you.

How do you find this calibre so far as copper build up and general barrel fouling.

I seem to go through a cotton factory of patches after only shooting say 40 rounds at the range.

May purchas a heavy duty general "gunk" cleaner as mentioned on this Forum from time to time and put a whole lot down the barrel and let it rest barrel down, with stop in end of barrel, and see what comes out the next morning.

quote:

Political Correctness: A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Not on topic.. but I love that definition!!!!

This calibre, and HMR naturally enough, can be dogs to clean if you do not use the correct equipment.

Previous posters have hit this issue on the head.

It is a tiny calibre; and just when you get jags and patches going through will apparent ease, the next batch of no doubt microsopically larger patches, make cleaning , even with Bore Tech/ Stoney Point/ Sinclair ONE PIECE rods, it can be a case of getting scissors out and trimming the already small patches.

I use Bore Tech Eliminator for most of my rifle cleaning. But I strongly advise againsy using it, and any brush on Rem .17. Last week , I spent 90 mins cleaning a, with Bore Tech bronze brushes, patching out, brushing,say 20-30 brushes strokes etc, only to find the clean patch sent through came out BLACK. This continued on and on, with a rifle that had not been shot for 6 months.

Following some advice from the major Australian shooting Forum to which I belong, was told to ditch Bore Tech and any brushing. I alread had Sweets and whilst advised to purchase Hoppes No 9, this was not in stock. Purchased Hoppers Bench Rest instead.

What a transformation. First Sweet's patch had hardly any copper blue on it; followd with Hoppes, almost totally clean, few difficult to see copper blue traces.

In 20 mins after allowing Hoppes to "dig in", ran a clean patch through.

It came out as close to white as you could expect.

Cleaning method one, would have seen me bronze brushing the burrel to wafer thin size !

Bore Tech has proven OK with other , larger, calibres, however based on 2 years experience -first hand- would seriously question its use on .17-.224 Calibres