Originally Posted By: Winny FanOriginally Posted By: K22Originally Posted By: Winny FanOriginally Posted By: CoyotejunkiQuote:If the Rem. factory loads aren't shooting well for you, chances are that reloads won't either.
They always shot well enough to kill called coyotes with for me. But I got much better accuracy with reloads, no surprise there.
I truly doubt that your experience is unique. Well designed and tailored hand loads typically trump even the best of factory ammunition in any bore diameter, even when shooting magic bullets in the factory ammunition.
I have a friend who has a pile of the old Remington bullets. I know because I gave them to him when I got out of the 17 business years ago. Since then he has moved onto making his own 17 caliber bullets which he likes better for several reasons, and he still has a bunch of the old plated bullets left. Today, for the most part, any bullet is better than the bullets of 20-30 years ago, including 17 caliber bullets. Now that I'm playing with 17's again through the urging of a couple of old friends, including him, I plan to take my chances with current day bullets and I bet I won't be sorry.
Before I gave this old rifle a complete face lift which includes a suggested free floating and bedding, a good cleaning might be in order. It sounds like the OP might be on a steep enough learning curve in that respect alone without rebuilding the rifle from scratch, to likely get mixed results at the end anyway.
Maybe not relevant here in this specific 17 caliber discussion, but I laugh when I see the name J-4 tossed around as being the answer to some question no one asks today. 20 years ago they were a great bullet jacket. Today they ain't so great in any jacket diameter. J-4 is a name today that doesn't mean what it did in terms of quality way back when grandad was chasing both young women and coyotes. Not having them available to make bullets from hasn't hurt my feelings at all as there are better jackets available. And yes I do make some of my own bullets so I'm not guessing on this issue. Just not in 17 caliber at the present time.
It's the same when comparing old bullets to new, In an old 17 Remington rifle I bought new back in the 1970's, the Remington ammo with the magical bullet shot poorly in it, but hand loads with a 25 grain Hornady HP bullet worked great with several different powders. Today I'll take a current day bullet over an old one any day. And I have the same feeling about hand loaded ammo versus factory ammo, even today.
Sorry adkmountainken, as stated above, throw those old bullets away. I was doing this to ya: Quote:no matter what mystique the old bullets hold through internet re-telling of the same story.
You're extrapolating over your lower lip protrusion, K-22. I never told anyone to throw anything away, like you stated above that I stated...
And I fixed this quote below for you since you seem to have a real thing about typos other people make. After your extrapolation above, I'm sure you wouldn't want to be seen in a silly way because of a slight error on your part.
Originally Posted By: K22I have zero experience with 17's and no know not what I'm talking about. I do want to mention that I was basing a lot of my reply on this.....................
Quote:had some range time today and was not happy with the reloads. 2 or 3 right where they should be then 2 flyers waaaaay off. brought 1 box of factory loads and shot that up, got where i wanted to be just before i ran out and made the mistake of shooting a few more reloads which were no where near point of impact of factory. I admit that when looking at your photo's I thought some of those old rounds were factory.
but please disregard my replies...............carry on.
Happy 2015 Everyone.
You are so right whinny. Bless you for pointing out my errors. I know nothing about 17's and have never owned one in my life. Shoot, I've never even owned a gun before.
Have a happy new year.
