Any 17 remington loaders?

Yotehntr

FNG
Joined
May 5, 2021
Messages
25
I've been interested in the 17-204 wildcat and just haven't "pulled the trigger" on one. During the powder shortage we've been going through I was looking for some varget for my 22-250. As everyone knows that's hard to get hold of. But I found a site that had some Winchester Staball 6.5. I did a quick search and even thought the psi seemed high there were some loads for the 22-250 so I bought a couple lbs. I ended up finding some varget so my next favorite gun is my 17 rem. Looked up the data at the hodgdon site and it has some crazy velocity numbers. I've been wanting to shoot a 30 gr bullet faster (in the past I was between 3600-3700 fps. Well their data on the hodgdon site said 3904 for 30 gr pills. I loaded some up and was in the mid 38's.. thought there was plenty of room in the case for more powder and since I wasn't showing any psi signs I slowly worked my way up to the average vel of 3910 fps absolutely no psi signs, no primer piercing and nothing at all to think I was aproaching any issues. Accuracy wasn't great but still sub MOA. (my 17 rem has done some 1 hole (clover leaf) groups at 100) I look at the 17-204 data and that's the same way they figure out a load (slowly increasing while watching for psi signs). I'm feeling like I have a winner here and there's not a lot of difference between my velocities and what I hear the actual velocities of the 17-204's are putting out. The Staball powder gets it's name for it's temperature stability, I'll be doing another check when the temp get up and hope I'm still good. I'm thinking/hoping I've found a really good fur friendly load for my 17 rem.
 

lennywd87

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
May 24, 2020
Messages
124
Thanks for the tip! I love my little 17Rem with some 25gr Hornady on prairie poodles. What primers are you using? I’ve been necking down 204 brass for my 17Rem just to get by and am happy with the results so far.


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OP
Yotehntr

Yotehntr

FNG
Joined
May 5, 2021
Messages
25
I'm using Rem 7 1/2 primers. I'm guessing you aren't after real high velocity's for prairie dogs?
 

lennywd87

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
May 24, 2020
Messages
124
I'm using Rem 7 1/2 primers. I'm guessing you aren't after real high velocity's for prairie dogs?

I’m getting around 3760-3800 with 20.5 H335. I use it for coyotes mostly but, I did spend the first summer getting it dialed in on prairie dogs and that was a blast! Knocked out 50 in 3hrs in my best spot.


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netman

WKR
Joined
Mar 30, 2018
Messages
764
Location
Indiana
I just loaded a bunch of 17 Remington for prairie poodles next week while I’m out bear hunting.
I’ve had a 17 Remington for over 30 years and have played around with numerous powders and bullets.
I had really good luck with Varget but due to the recent situation I had to come up with something else.
It pays to experiment. I tried IMR 4895 with so so luck. I was about to try H4350 when I decided to try IMR 4198.
OMG boy did I luck out on the first load.
19.6 IMR 4198, Remington 71/2 and Hornady 25 . Shot all five into one hole. Best accuracy I’ve ever got with this rifle.
 

bbassi

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Sep 3, 2019
Messages
298
I've come close to building a 17-204 to shoot 30s at least 3 times, but I just can't justify it. My 17 Rem shooting 25 gr Bergers is absolute lightening on coyotes at any reasonable ranges (I hunt thermal @ night so think 300 and in). I also have a couple of 20Practicals shooting the 35 gr Bergers at close to 3900, so I have that 17-204 pretty well bracketed.
 
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