I'm looking for someone with serious experience with .17 Rem Rifles as I've got one that is driving me nuts. The gun is a Homebrew on a trued Rem 700 using a shilen or Douglas Barrel (can't remember which). When new it shot 5 shot .2inch groups with a load of 23 grs of Varget and 25 grs Bergers,Rem 71/2 primers. I've always seen badly cratered primers with this and every other load I've tried in this gun and I suspect its due to a weak firing pin spring not high pressure as the base of the primers are not flattened and there are no other high pressure signs. Now here is the main issue, when new the barrel showed very little copper fouling and cleaned up readily. After about 300 rounds, I started getting pierced primers and noticed that the 25gr bergers were hitting the target (100yrds) sideways. 1 inch groups but all sideways. Interestingly, 20 gr Bergers with 22 grs of Varget or IMR4320 shoots OK, with groups from .3 to .5 inches. I talked to Todd Kindler and he said JB away my Boy and JB I did. I still can't get the Bergers to shoot (except sideways). 25 gr Starke bullets shoot beautifully (.2-.4) inch groups, but the barrel even after two passes with JB after a 10 shot string refuses to clean up completely. No mater how much Sweets or Butches I use the patches still come out dirty. Not copper fouled, just dirty. I'm afraid that the throat is burning out, but don't have a bore scope that works on a .17 to find out. Anyone seen this before and have a suggestion other than pull the barrel?

First, I would suggest that you do as Todd previously said, that is to wrap a JB soaked patch around an undersized bore brush, and short-stroke the bore 40-60 times. Repeat, with a new patch, three times. Next, do the same thing, but substitute Flitz metal polish for the JB's.

Second, get a Wolff 32 pound firing pin spring from Brownells....usually reduces cratering by two-thirds.

Third, you may want to consider trying moly-plated bullets.

Lastly, clean the bore every 20-25 shots.....especially for older barrels.

Hope this helps.

Friend Of The 17
Kevin Gullette

Was the barrel broken in properly?

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A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed !!

I had similar problems with the first 17 I owned, an older M700. I cleanned it down to bare metal and ran through my beeak-in procudure. Rifle would still start keyhoig after about 10 or 12 shots. Sent it back to Remington, they re-adjusted the trigger to about 8 lbs, sent it back with a note that said nothing was wrong.

I finally decied to try and burn less powder, so started using H4198 and the 30 gr Berger. Subsequently the rifle would shoot 40 rounds without keyholing and was consistantly shooting right about 0.75 MOA. This rifle is now a 6X47 and I do not remeber the amount of H4198 I was using, but it was near max.

I am now shooting a Sako M75 17, and still using the 30 Bergers and WW760 @ about 3700 ft/s. I can shoot 50 rounds a day and have not problems with fouling.

Hope this helps,

daveinmt.

The answer is pretty simple. The throat is burning out. I was able to get the 25gr. Bergers to shoot by loading them out more,ending the keyholing problem. I installed a heavier spring and the cratering is diminished but not gone. The next approach will be to bush the Bolt and use a .062 firing pin. I'm just going to shoot this thing at every ground squirrel in Northern California till it becomes a smooth bore. They are getting pretty smart through un-natural selection and have increased the range to over 300 yrds now. The .17 still gets-em-Rob