Rechamber 17 HH to 17 Fireball

[Kittitas George]

I'm tired of playing the 17 HH "out of stock" game. So I have a Ruger #1 with a heavy Shilen barrel in 17HH. I'm thinking about changing the chamber to 17 Fireball. Is brass readily available for this? The Hornady book says many of the powders I stocked up on for the 17HH will work in the Fireball. What loads seem to work well with the 20gr. V-Max? I'm mostly a gopher shooter under 300 yards, but if I could get a little more distance that would be OK. Because of the brass shortage I don't get to use the rifle as much as I'd like, I had it built to shoot, not look at. Is my thinking OK, or has too much recoil over the years ruined my thinking.

 

[B23]

I know it's a more expensive way to get brass but a number of places have Hornady 17 Hornet ammo for sale.

 

[hogpatrol]

With the HH having a smaller rim, will the Fireball work with the existing extractor?

 

[chuckshooter]

I don't own a 17 cal, but I have the same cartridge's in .20 cal. A 20 ackley hornet and a 20 vartarg and I would never give up my 20 ackley hornet, in fact, I wish I had another one. I just finished making 400 more cases for the hornet. you can shoot an insane amount of rounds on a trip without cleaning. it's usually my first gun out. shoot all the close ones.

 

[Kittitas George]

With the HH having a smaller rim, will the Fireball work with the existing extractor?

With the HH having a smaller rim, will the Fireball work with the existing extractor?

The extractor very well may need to be changed.

 

[Kittitas George]

I know it's a more expensive way to get brass but a number of places have Hornady 17 Hornet ammo for sale.

I haven't seen any 17 HH loaded ammo locally for a long time. I don't want to pay shipping costs also. I hope that rechambering and maybe changing the extractor, then buying only the Redding 'S' sizing die would get me shooting. I use a Vickerman seating die, so the one I have will seat any 17 caliber.
Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Kittitas George]

I don't own a 17 cal, but I have the same cartridge's in .20 cal. A 20 ackley hornet and a 20 vartarg and I would never give up my 20 ackley hornet, in fact, I wish I had another one. I just finished making 400 more cases for the hornet. you can shoot an insane amount of rounds on a trip without cleaning. it's usually my first gun out. shoot all the close ones.

I had a Cooper rifle in 204 Ruger, it had too much 'jump', my 'spotter' died so I went with the 17HH. My other gun is a heavy 40X 222, shooting 45gr bullets. It also has some 'jump' but I can live with it. The gentlemen I shoot with get a little bit too excited when a gopher exposes itself, I don't want to hear "hurry, hurry". I may miss getting the shot, but I don't want to miss the gopher. The 17s do require more frequent cleaning.
Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[JSH]

I don’t know what it would entail for a #1 doing what you speak of.
As far as the 17HH and the 17FB, it’s what I replaced my 17HH with. I run nothing but 20 grain pills in mine.
Ammo availability, dunno as I have only hand loaded. Possibly end up in the same boat if you don’t roll your own.

 

[hogpatrol]

AFAIK, Nosler is still making 17FB brass. I tried it and compared with Remington, it has a less capacity.

 

[Kittitas George]

I don’t know what it would entail for a #1 doing what you speak of.
As far as the 17HH and the 17FB, it’s what I replaced my 17HH with. I run nothing but 20 grain pills in mine.
Ammo availability, dunno as I have only hand loaded. Possibly end up in the same boat if you don’t roll your own.

I do reload, I have found new Fireball brass at a couple of outlets. I need to check with my gunsmith about the extractor being changed. What powders and charge weights do you use? I have quite a few 20 gr. V-Max, they work well for what I do and powders that should work, just need a starting point. I'm hoping to get more responses, to be sure I'm not painting myself into a corner.

 

[Kittitas George]

AFAIK, Nosler is still making 17FB brass. I tried it and compared with Remington, it has a less capacity.

Yes, I found some Nosler brass on line. Good to know about the capacity, this is the kind of info I'm looking for. I don't need to repeat the process of discovery so many others have already gone thru.
Thank you

 

[snert]

I have a 17 FB that started out as a 17 VHA. (Contender). I use brass made from LC 5.56. I bought it from a paid advertiser here...maybe High Plains? I did have to neck turn it all...1000 of them. Most of it works fine but I have had some interesting case failures...two that simply broke in half and one that let go in a sidewall. Even though they seemed fine, they were not. Ironically, I never knew they let go until I extracted them. Not even a puff of gas back and all three hit what I was shooting at!

FB brass is not easy to find in big quantity in my experience.

 

[hogpatrol]

VV N133 and X-Terminator work well with 25s.

 

[JSH]

AA2200, I have a fair bit of it.
I have used CFE BLK and a couple of others I forget now. I have some magnum pistol powders I want to try.

 

[451whitworth]

VV N133 and X-Terminator work well with 25s.

H322 is my favorite in the .17 FB, followed by X-Terminator

 

[RabbitSlayer]

You can easily get free shipping on the hornady ammo. Ammo has been around for several months now. I suspect we will see a run of brass soon. I will buy a lifetime supply at that time. Fireball brass ain't exactly abundant either. 22 hornet brass can also be formed to 17 hornet.

 

[Kittitas George]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I found some loaded 17HH, bought 4 boxes, so I'm good for quite awhile. Much easier, don't need to re-sight the rifle or go thru the drill with starting over with a new caliber. I can well use the time tightening up the 222 R group. April will be here very soon and we have a new area to shoot with lots of gophers.
Thanks again for the help, George

 

[ohlongarmisle]

I'm tired of playing the 17 HH "out of stock" game. So I have a Ruger #1 with a heavy Shilen barrel in 17HH. I'm thinking about changing the chamber to 17 Fireball. Is brass readily available for this? The Hornady book says many of the powders I stocked up on for the 17HH will work in the Fireball. What loads seem to work well with the 20gr. V-Max? I'm mostly a gopher shooter under 300 yards, but if I could get a little more distance that would be OK. Because of the brass shortage I don't get to use the rifle as much as I'd like, I had it built to shoot, not look at. Is my thinking OK, or has too much recoil over the years ruined my thinking.

All you want can be found online, Gun joker has cases, you do what ya gotta do.Any 17 brass is almost non-existent.

 

[17cal Fan]

Love the 17 Hornet and the Fireball. 1680 in the Hornet and 8208 in the Fireball are my go to powders. I shoot hundreds of rounds through each in the PD fields and don't clean them until I get back home. No accuracy lost even when filthy. Favorite bullet, Nosler 20 Varmageddon #30531 250 count boxes. Buy em when I see em.

Feet per second generated by each grain is a fascinating study. The 17H and the 17FB are both very efficient. And if I can mash a PD with a super efficient cartridge and not endure recoil, I'm in !