Okay I've been out of the game for a few years, but am looking at building a new 17 Cal. rifle. What do you guys thinks is the best all around choice?

The .17 Remington has somewhat of a reputation of fouling fairly quickley. The .17 Remington Fireball supposedly alleviates this. I would give the .204 Ruger consideration before making my final decision.

Okay why the 204 instead of the 17 Rem, Guess my why of thnking is the 17 Fireball coming on strong now, so more bullet selection will most likey come around soon. I'm looking at having a Rem 700, or Sako chambered for either 17 Rem or 17 Rem Fireball. This would give me the same feel as my deer rifles.

Depends, what are you going to do with it? 17Rem will work better if you want a repeater. 17F/B is ALMOST identical to a 17Mach4. Do a search. Lee manaul and the Hodgen yearly magazine have a bunch of data. Brass for the 17Rem can be crappy. Brass for the 17 Fireball is not out yet.

Fouling and the 17 is bullshit. Remington had problems with barrels when the 17Rem came out. If you are going to build using a match barrel that will be a non-issue

Buliwyf. How does a 17 Fireball alleviate fouling ???? Never heard of that.

I wouldn't put my opinion of the fouling qualities of the .17 REM quite like Blueprinted says but, I agree with him. My .17/223 was never a fouler and shot very well. The quality of the barrel is of utmost importance as well as a proper break-in procedure. If done properly, a .17 shouldn't foul anymore than a more modest varminter.

After I shot out my .17/223 (1000's of rounds, maybe 3K), I did re-barrel it to the .204 Ruger and am very pleased with it. It beats my .17 in velocity and the accuracy is great.

Blueprinted I'm not sure about the fouling troubles............. Yet.

But the ideal is small game and vermint/predator hunting in texas. I was thinking the .17 Remington Fireball was formerly know as the .17 Mach IV. Guess I could be wrong. Remington has it out now with a 20gr Accutip-v for the .17 Fireball. Then again you could use the .221 Fireball case and reform the shoulder to make the .17 Fireball case, so I don't see brass as a issue.

Yep you can form F/B brass from 222,223,221 with the right form dies. You can not buy formed brass over the counter until next year. I have three 17s right now, none of them foul anymore than anything else I shoot. Remingtons barrel from what I understand are heads and shoulders above what the orginal 17cal Rem barrels are. The 17cal got a bad rap because Rems first barrels were terrible and cleaning gear was as good as it is now.


I have a 14-221 in the works right now. Once that is done I will be sitting on a new 17F/B. I have a 17222AI that all but duplicates 17Rem ballistics and a 17AH which is tons of fun. 17 Rem will feed easier. 17F/B is not impossible to make feed. 17 Rem will out perform a 17F/B with 30gr bullets. A 25gr Berger is real effective coyote medicine. They will both push that bullet close to the same velocity so that may be a wash. A 25gr V-max is a cool little vermin splater. I use them for ground hogs at 4000+fps they will do a number.


Factory loaded ammo is over a buck a shot for both.

17F/B is not identical to the 17Mach4. Loading data can be used for either but the neck and shoulders are in different places on each case. Reports I am hearing are nothing but great for the 17F/B. I have some 1st hand knowledge with the Mach4 it is about one of the best 17 rounds out there. You will be real pleased with either. Sounds like you have your mind made up. You going factory or custom with your new 17F/B???

Hello Blueprinted,

I started gearing up for serious varmint shooting about a year ago. During the process I worked with folks that are hard core varmint hunters so I was lucky to get first hand experience with equipment. I like the .17 caliber and all the guys that hepled me had at least one 17 in their varmint arsenal. The .17 Remingtons I shot seemed to require shorter intervals between cleaning than the .223's etc. My understanding is Remington introduced the smaller case capacity .17 Fireball to better balance the little .17 caliber.

No attempt on my part to step on the toes of the 17 Rem.

Blueprinted, I'll go with a custom 17 F/B, based on a Rem 700 action, I've got a couple of others in the works right now. Guess I need to get them finished first, well maybe LOL.

Did you say you have a 17/223 ?? What do you think of it. Lots of 223 brass around here, Both sons are AR fans, so I get tons of brass from them as well. I have a Rem 700 Custom in 223 that does very well.

Do you know anybody that has worked with the 25-21 Stevens or the 25-25 cal ??

Here:

http://www.smallcaliber.com/

THANKS for the link, great information.

You are quite welcome sir: That is why I come here, for a mutual exchange of reliable information, which allows everyone to hopefully enjoy the shooting sports/hunting, etc. even more.

There is a sight ...... IIRC.... Coyotegods.com or similar, a good bit of 17 shooters there I believe.

Have a great day and let us know how your project turns out. Sounds like you are on the right track.

Good luck.

All I shoot is sub-.22 caliber stuff anymore with the exception of big-game, I have about 5 or 6 of each .17's and .20's.
The .17 Rem's bad rep started years ago with bad barrels, less effective powders than we have today and totally different bullets. It was worsened by arm-chair commandos that had never shot one but but never missed an opportunity to run it down. That continued as info was passed from arm-chair commando to arm-chair commando till people were being told bunk like "it's useless in any breeze at all, it fouls after 10 or 15 shots" etc. etc.
As mentioned with a good custom or well broken in factory barrel almost all that's huey.
My "personal" opinion is the .17 rem and the new .17 Fire Ball and the .204 are all absolutely fantastic rounds for what they are designed for, but there are pro's and con's to every round.
If you want to head to a p-dog town with 500 rounds in tow the .17 Fire Ball or possibly the .204 would be my pick (the .17 Rem is big-time over bore. What other round to you load for where the powder charge frequently out weighs the bullet?). the .17 Rem can foul and cause pressure not to mention eat throats with fast sustained strings. The .17 Rem however is (again) in my opinion one of the all time best fur rifles ever developed. A hole about as big around as a grain of rice going in and nothing going out, "
bang floop!" (.17 Fire Ball fit's that as well without as much poop).
.204 is a better rat spreader in a p-dog town if ya like drama (a 40 grain bullet at 3,900fps hit's a lot harder than a 20 grainer for splat factor but they are however the exact same degree of dead), .17 Fire Ball is great in large colony's where lots of shots happen, not much powder, ya see all the hit's, don't heat up too fast.
Ya need one of each .
Don't believe any of the arm-chair commandos

I have been shooting the various 17s for over 30 years now and love them all. Over the years the barrels and poeders have changed for the better and cleaning is not so tedious as before. I LOVE the 17 Mach 4 and shoot it about as often as I do my 17/223. Both of these are on the old Vixen [l-461] actions. Who could ask for anything more??. Accuracy is great and velocity good for all but the furthest shots. I did pop a coyote at over 300 yds with the 17 Mach 4 last weekend and he never twitched. Unfortunately my screwed up knee [and the property owner] made it impossible to get out to him and get the hide but he was beautiful!! I have been shooting the 20 gr Hornady almost exclusively now for the last 4-5 years and they are great. In my smaller capacity case 17s lithe 17 PewWee and the 17 Ack Hornet I use the Berger 18 gr for better ballistics. Never shot a 204 and most likely won`t! No real reason why not except I am happy where I am and the Ruger #1 I saw didn`t shoot too good.
Aloha, Mark

I had a .17 Remington (700 Remington) and burned out 2 barrels, both in less than 1,000 rounds. They shot accurately but the thoats were rough and I had to spend more time cleaning than shooting. Also, I very seldom let the barrels get hot. Now I have a couple .17 Hornets and have yet to get any green on a cleaning patch. The .17 Hornets are accurate and no trouble. The .17 Remington was trouble. The .17 Fireball is about half way in between and I would guess it would be a good choice.

I've owned 3 17M4s and 1 17 Rem. I prefer the 17M4/Fireball over the 17 Rem. Lots less muzzle blast and not much difference in performance with the lighter bullets I shoot {20-25g}. My 20g V Max loads go 4200fps and shoot like a laser. Less case stretching too. If you wanted to shoot 30g bullets the 17Rem might be a better choice.
Some are saying the 17 Fireball is different than the M4 but a fire formed case out of my Cooper 17M4 specs out exactly the same as new 17 Fireball ammo and headspaces with .002" headspace.

Thanks for the information Guys, Guess I'm going to try the 17 Fireball with the 20g or 25g bullets. Using a Rem 700 action and Custom barrel. Anybody tried it with a TC Encore yet? That's another ideal, well for later anyway. Like I said I've been out of the game a few years, but I've been reloading and shooting for over 30 Plus now, Okay don't age me anymore then that please!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again Thanks
Hillbilly

TeamHillbilly ,
The Remington 700 in .221 Fireball has a bad reputation for poor feeding from the magazine due to short overall length . The Sako L461 feeds Fireball length rounds very well .