Favorite.17 cal bullet

[alf]

When you say "25 Berger", things get fuzzy. The 25 Berger that we are talking about was the old, old, old 25 "Match". Berger applied the same name to a different bullet later, then mixed things up again with the "Varmint Match" and so on and so on until the meaning of "25 Berger" has gotten hard to keep straight.

The old 25 Match had a teeny, tiny, super tight meplat. Which was it's secret sauce for "controlled expansion". At MV's in the 3800-4000 fps and ranges under 200 yards it was "just right" for coyote. And had just enough penetration to allow for a direct shoulder hit without pure splash.

Back when Clint Starke was making bullets, I did a lot of prototype testing for him. And I could never talk him into making a 25 (or 30 for that matter) with that tiny meplat. His reason, which made perfect sense, is that you'll occasionally get a punch stuck in that tiny HP and have to stop and replace the punch. And from a one man elbow powered operation, that just didn't make financial sense.

I got in on the ground floor when Berger started making the original 25 grainers, great bullet.

Too bad Whidden doesn't make a pointer for 17's, that would fix your dilemma. I've been pointing my 22, 6mm, and 6.5 bullets for years w/ fantastic results on fur or paper.

Bullet Pointing Die System - Whidden Gunworks

 

[borkon]

I haven't actually used the 25 Hornady. I have a bunch of them, but haven't ever needed to try them.

When you say "25 Berger", things get fuzzy. The 25 Berger that we are talking about was the old, old, old 25 "Match". Berger applied the same name to a different bullet later, then mixed things up again with the "Varmint Match" and so on and so on until the meaning of "25 Berger" has gotten hard to keep straight.

The old 25 Match had a teeny, tiny, super tight meplat. Which was it's secret sauce for "controlled expansion". At MV's in the 3800-4000 fps and ranges under 200 yards it was "just right" for coyote. And had just enough penetration to allow for a direct shoulder hit without pure splash.

Back when Clint Starke was making bullets, I did a lot of prototype testing for him. And I could never talk him into making a 25 (or 30 for that matter) with that tiny meplat. His reason, which made perfect sense, is that you'll occasionally get a punch stuck in that tiny HP and have to stop and replace the punch. And from a one man elbow powered operation, that just didn't make financial sense.

When Clint got out of the bullet business, Chan Nagel bought his dies. And bless Chan's heart! First time I talked to him, before he had even started to sell any, he was onboard with the tiny meplat and while he was operational, we had a really good coyote bullet. And more than that, when J4 stopped making long .17 jackets, he endeavored to make his own jackets which were every bit as good as J4 and he provided a really good 30 gr. too.

But, long winded way of saying, I haven't actually used the Hornady so can't actually answer your question!

- DAA

DAA, although i super respect Chan Nagel, I do feel like his .17 cal bullets built on the old j4 jackets were better killers then his latter ones.

 

[B23]

I haven't actually used the 25 Hornady. I have a bunch of them, but haven't ever needed to try them.

When you say "25 Berger", things get fuzzy. The 25 Berger that we are talking about was the old, old, old 25 "Match". Berger applied the same name to a different bullet later, then mixed things up again with the "Varmint Match" and so on and so on until the meaning of "25 Berger" has gotten hard to keep straight.

The old 25 Match had a teeny, tiny, super tight meplat. Which was it's secret sauce for "controlled expansion". At MV's in the 3800-4000 fps and ranges under 200 yards it was "just right" for coyote. And had just enough penetration to allow for a direct shoulder hit without pure splash.

Back when Clint Starke was making bullets, I did a lot of prototype testing for him. And I could never talk him into making a 25 (or 30 for that matter) with that tiny meplat. His reason, which made perfect sense, is that you'll occasionally get a punch stuck in that tiny HP and have to stop and replace the punch. And from a one man elbow powered operation, that just didn't make financial sense.

When Clint got out of the bullet business, Chan Nagel bought his dies. And bless Chan's heart! First time I talked to him, before he had even started to sell any, he was onboard with the tiny meplat and while he was operational, we had a really good coyote bullet. And more than that, when J4 stopped making long .17 jackets, he endeavored to make his own jackets which were every bit as good as J4 and he provided a really good 30 gr. too.

But, long winded way of saying, I haven't actually used the Hornady so can't actually answer your question!

- DAA

It sounds like the old old old 17 cal 25gr Berger is similar to the discontinued 17 cal Hornady 25gr HP because they have a pretty small meplat opening. I remember watching a youtube video of a guy shooting what looked like 3/8-1/2 steel target with, if I recall, 17 Hornet using Hornady 25gr HP's and those little bullets were boring holes right through his steel targets like a drill press. I'm sure the steel target weren't anything special probably just mild steel of some variety but still fairly impressive. Same video he shot same steel target with 25gr Vmax from 17 Hornet and they left a good impression/dent in the same target but didn't bore a hole through like the 25gr HP's.

 

[spotstalkshoot]

Both the 25 and 30 gr Berger were available with varmint type meplat and the target hp. Back when Berger still made both in the 25 gr, we had very few coyote. So I ran the varmint(mef) for Red fox. Since all most all the shooting was spot/stalk during the day on sleepers, I would head shoot coyote with the Berger 25. As coyote numbers increased, I worked up a Hornady 25 hp load that shot the same poi at 200 yards. I don't recall a splash with the Hornady 25 hp on coyote.