Should I get the .17 Remington

B

BigJake

New member
I've been reading on here lately, and I've heard a lot about the .17 Remington. And now I want to get one, as I like the "sub-calibers". One of the models I was looking to get is from Cooper rifles.

What do you .17 shooters use the cartridge for? Is this a long range cartridge?

What are some factory/handloaders you guys use.

If anyone has a .17 Rem and/or a Cooper rifle I would really like to hear about it.

I would really like to hear from dukxdog as I have seen him with a .17 (I think it was a .17) and a coyote in a picture.

I know it's a lot, but all info is appreciated. Thanks.
 
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The .17 Rem. is not going to be a great long range caliber.
It is very fast out of the gate but sheads it's energy far faster than say a .223 Rem. The kills on coyotes can seem like a lightning strike with almost never an exit wound. Ammo can be limited if you don't reload. But I have always belived in owning what makes one happy and if your hunting for hides, the .17 Rem. would be hard to beat.
 
"and if your hunting for hides, the .17 Rem. would be hard to beat."

That sentence is the key to the .17 Remington. If you are wanting it for the taking of Coyote fur for sale then it's great. But.... you HAVE to place the bullet well. Either frontal chest shot or broadside lungs. A hit almost anywhere else will let you hone your tracking skills. If you do place the shot correctly there are virtually none that can better it. There are a few that may equal it and a couple that may be better depending on your wishes. Very few.
Basically, if you want very little chance of a followup shot or lost Coyote, and don't do well at shot placement, don't get a .17 Rem. for Coyotes.
 
Since 1976, I have never been without at least one 17 Remington, and I currently have three including a Cooper MTV in 17 Rem. It's a very attractive as well as a very accurate rifle. By design, it's not the best hunting/carry rifle, but off the bench or shooting PD's it's a gem.

Every 17 Remington I have ever owned likes IMR4320 powder and a good 25 grain bullet. Some of the cutom bullet makers provide some very good options, as is the production Hornady 25 grain HP.

If you're interestd in a small caliber rifle, the 17 Remington cartridge is probably not the best, but it's very far from being the worst. You'd like it.

JMO - BCB
 
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I would really like to hear from dukxdog as I have seen him with a .17 (I think it was a .17) and a coyote in a picture.




hey BigJake- i've shot 17 cals since 1976. 17 Ackley Bee, 17-222, 17rem and 17HMR. my HMR is a cooper 57M classic and it's a one holer but it's not really a coyote rifle.
the gun you saw in the photos is a Sako A1 .17rem and i love it with a 4-16X scope but they are hard to find. i've shot coyotes to 300yds with 17's. i have always used the Hornady 25gr HP. i handload all my ammo. i like my little Cooper but the thing with centerfire Coopers is that they are single shot varmint rifles. i like a magazine rifle for predators because you will often get more than one shot and i don't like to take my eyes off them. i don't like big varmint rifles for my calling rifles. a very nice rifle in 17rem is the Rem 700 LVSF(i have one in .204R) i like an accurate rifle which handles qiuckly. the LVSF is the ticket. if you have any specific questions you can send me a PM. thanks for asking! Bobby
 
BigJake-- I've only been shooting the .17 Rem caliber rifles for about 20 years, but I sure am glad I started shooting them back then. I have used the .17 Remington for prairie dogs, gophers, various non-mirgratory birds, as well as fox, badgers, AND coyotes!

The bullets I have been using for prairie dogs are the 20 gr. V-Max (when the wind isn't whipping too fast), the 25 gr. Hornady hollowpoint, the new 25 gr. Hornady V-Max, 25 gr. Starke, 26 gr. Genco, and the 30 gr. Starke. I use the bullets below the 30 grainers strictly for varmints and use the 30 gr. Starke for coyotes and once in awhile I use them on varmints.

I have shot some of the 30 gr. Berger LTBs, 30 gr. Kindler Golds, and 30.8 gr. Hammetts at paper, but haven't taken any of them after live game yet. I just purchased some of the C.E. Nagel 25 gr. bullets (he has the dies that Clint Starke used to make the fine Starke Red Prairie Varmint bullets) and he gave me about 20 of his version of the 30 gr. bullets to try too. I will also be tesing the 27.5 gr. Hammett bullets this spring.

The 30 gr. Starke bullet has been a fine coyote bullet for me over the years. I have taken coyotes with that bullet out to about 385 yards. However, I don't recommend taking many shots with the .17 Remington at that distance. I usually try to limit my shots to around the 250 yard range. I call coyotes, so unless one hangs up way out there, most of my shots are at 100 yards or so.

Like several of the other posters have mentioned, you need to be very careful where you place your shots with this small caliber rifle. Personally, I have switched to the .204 Ruger as my coyote rifle now and the. 17 Remington rifles I have will be mostly for varmints, like prairie dogs and gophers.

If you reload, it will be a GREAT varmint rifle for you. If you have to shoot factory fodder, then whether the .17 Rem is good for you will depend on how well it digests that factory ammo.

Regardless of what ammo you shoot, you'll find that the lack of recoil is a great selling point for this caliber. One can see hits on varmints through the scope. When people ask me how much recoil the .17 Rem has, I tell them that I wouldn't be afraid to place the butt pad up to the bridge of my nose and shoot it. Not sure I'd do that, but there is little recoil.

Good luck on your decision.
 
I'm in the process of having a 17 Rem built. Darrell Holland is doing the work and it has been 5 weeks since he recieved my action. I'm using a LH 700 SA with a # 4, 1&9 twist Lilja SS match barrel. He will be blue printing the action and replaceing the recoil lug with his oversize pinned lug. The barrel will be cut to 24 inch's with the 11 degree crown. I'm stocking the barrelled action in a HS Precision stock and mounting Leupold LR 4x14 30 mm with side focus adj scope on this rifle. I have purchased 100 pieces of new Rem brass and 400 Berger 30 Match HP . I will be using this rifle for calling. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I have a Remington Classic 17 remington that I like for varmint hunting. My favorite thing about this caliber is low richochet potential which is important where I hunt. I have gotten the best accuracy with mine by outside neck turning the cases. I shot a couple of coyotes with it and it did a good job but it is not my favorite caliber for yotes. You hear a lot of complaints about bore fouling with this caliber but I haven't found it to be any worse than most calibers if you clean regularly. If you go a long time between cleaning you will struggle to get a cleaning rod through the bore. My old calling partner did that and ended up breaking his cleaning rod trying to get it through the bore.
 
I have a 17 Mach IV that is the easiest cleaning gun I own. The Lilja barrel on that rifle hardly fouls up at all. Few wet patches and its clean. The Mach IV is just a blast to shoot. Watching your hits through the scope is very cool.

I just picked up a Rem Classic in .17 rem that is going to be turned into a .17 Predator. Just waiting on another barrel from Lilja.

Hit a coyote in the right spot and they go down in a hurry.

These .17's are addictive...
 
I love my CZ .17rem!! It took some time to get the right load but it was worth it. I shoot 25g berger with 4064. The old rem factory ammo (powerlokt) shot great but the newer facoty ammo is junk in my CZ. It has perfomed great on yotes and fox other than a few "blowups" on foxes and one big coyote that was hit in the shoulder. It is awesome when you squeeze the trigger and the coyote looks like it was struck with a bolt of lightning. It is even better when you can't find the entrance hole. If you have the time and patience to tune your rifle and load, you will love it. I asked the same question as you a couple of years ago and with the help of "Silverfox" and the like, I purchased the CZ and have no regrets. I don't even carry my 22-250 anymore, my gramp has used it all winter to shoot yotes off his bait and I havn't missed it.
 
Have been shooting a 700 bdl in 17 rem for about 20 years.
Recently started shooting a CZ in 17 Rem. Both will shoot under 1/2" with several loads. My experience with the 17 has been what others have posted here.
The 17 can also work very well with reduced loads. A 25gr bullet and 15 gr of reloader #7 gives me 3350fps with about half the noise level of the max loads, is very clean burning(very little powder residue in the barrel) and gives me good groups out to 200yds.
 
bea175-- Your new rifle project sounds like it will be a winner. I hear that Darrel Holland does great work. I don't mean to get this thread sidetracked, but do you know what the neck size measurement is for the reamer Darrel Holland is going to use for your chamber? Also, I'd be interested in what the freebore measurement is and the what leade angle is going to be. I went 50/50 on the cost of the reamer my smith used. We ordered it from Dave Kiff at Pacific Tool and Gauge.

I would also be extremely interested in having you post what the neck thickness is for those 100 new Remington casings you bought. If you have tubing mic, and would be kind enough to measure them, please measure at 5 or 6 places all the way around the neck. If your brass is like mine, I think you'll find one side of the neck wall is a bit thinner than the other side. I'd like to compare your measurements with the measurements I did.

I bought 100 new Remington casings this winter and was extremely disappointed to find that only two of those 100 casings had necks thick enough all the way around so I could neck turn them to a uniform thickness of .00985". I had many of the casings that measure only .0090" on the thinnest side and many of them were .013" on the thickest side. On many of these casings you can just look down from the top of the casing mouth and see that one side of the casing neck is thinner than the other side. Thanks.
 
Silverfox,
Your post made me curious. I seldom take the time to turn cases for my factory chambers.
I just measured some recent unfired 17 Rem cases. range was from .0096-.0134. I found some old factory once fired from about 1987 on the shelf that went from .0109- .0147
If you notice the variation on both are .0038. Just coincidence maybe as I only measured about a dozen from each batch.
 
Have a remington 700 in .17 rem. Love the finish and action. Use Berger match grade 25 grain on yotes, 20 V-max on everything else. Just bought 25 grain V-max but haven't tried them out. The remington cost me an arm and a leg. My girlfriend just bought a CZ .223 and I love it. Nice wood, stong action, and a set trigger. The price was about 2/3 of what I payed.
 
Spur-- Thanks for the feedback on your measurements on new and old brass. Even though a dozen isn't a huge sample and may not be statistically significant to some of the math/statistics gurus, the older brass that I worked with also had thicker necks than this new brass I just purchased.

When I started preparing once-fired brass for my new rifle, I had 600 casings to work with. Although I did use about 15 casings that didn't turn 100% around the neck, I had 519 of those older .17 Remington casings that did get clean up around 100% of the necks, giving me casings that wound up with necks that were .00985" thick around the whole circumference. Too bad the 100 new casings I bought only had a couple of casings that allowed me to do that.
 
SF,He never told me what reamer he was using and i figured he would give me the info when he shipped the rifle back. When he builds a rifle the installed barrel comes with it own bullet seating gage. I never asked for a custom neck so i assume it will be with factory guide lines. I will measure some of the necks and get back with you. I was planning on cleaning up the necks with my sinclair neck turning tool. I have been trying to decide what powder to use with the Berger 30 gr Match HP. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 


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