.17 Fireball, 37 grain VLD load

[.17 VLD]

I have a large supply of the long discontinued Berger .17 37 grain VLD bullets.

Planning on a 1-6 or 1-7 twist barrel.

Question is, does anyone have a starting load with this bullet and .17 Fireball?

Wood Chuck Den is no more and Saubier seems to be down.

I have Dick Saunders .17 book and Sensational .17’s, and although that bullet is featured, there were no loads for .17 MV or .17 FB.

 

[AndyA]

That bullet is in my Quickload. What powder, barrel length, COAL are you thinking?

 

[.17 VLD]

That bullet is in my Quickload. What powder, barrel length, COAL are you thinking?

24”
I was thinking TAC
COAL? I don’t know, I’m an experienced reloader, but new to this round and this bullet is a relic.

I just love this round. I should have not messed with .22-250 all these years and just built a good .17. I’m really missing VH Magazine as it seems there was always a .17 article. Going through all my back issues recently.

I’m hoping to just get a safe starting load.

 

[JSH]

Imho, you don’t have enough case capacity to take advantage of what the bullet has to offer.

 

[17VLD]

Back when you could buy quite a few different weights of 17 caliber bullets I dabbled with the 37 grain Berger.
I chose a 7 twist Lilja for that Berger and the ppc case. I also had a 6 twist and felt it was too fast for the bigger case. Perhaps with the smaller Fireball case it will prove to be necessary. I did find out that the 7 twist was able to stabilize that 37 all the way from 2400fps up to 3900fps in my Lilja. I'm sure your fireball will fall in between that bracket and be stable, my best accuracy was a little over 3600fps. I would think you could see 3200fps and have a decently accurate little round. I would think N133 would be your friend for this venture, the heaviest bullet I've tried in my 17mach1v was the 30 Gold. I've also shot a 10 twist 17ppc with the 30 Gold built on an XP100 action that shot amazingly out to 500 yards.All this was done before the 20 calibers had taken off. Today if I was wanting to use the Fireball case I would seriously consider shooting the Vartarg. I have killed many pds with the various 32 poly tipped bullets in 20 caliber past 500 yards with my Coopers in 20 Vartarg and have been well pleased with the performance. I am the last person to discourage you from trying this adventure but I am just wondering what quantity you have of these bullets and what will you be hunting.Its my thought that by the time you see any advantage from the b.c. of the 37 the energy will be down too low for humane kills on varmints. If you are strictly building this rifle for target shooting I am sure you will enjoy it a lot. It's not a bad idea at all, remember all the 6mm's based on the BR case shoot heavy for caliber 105s between 2800fps and 3000fps for record breaking accuracy at distance. I wish I could advise you on a starting load,perhaps someone with quikload can. As always start lower than you think is safe and work up slowly, 17s are very prone to drastic pressure spikes with even small increases in powder charges. Be safe and have fun
Matt

 

[Bill K]

I would be interested in how that 37 VLD actually works in your 17FB, when you get it going. Would seem to me that it is just a tad too long and heavy for the 17 and case, but will wait and see what you actually find out.
Keep us posted on your results.

 

[Evan]

You’re going to get a lot of feedback about how it’s too small for those bullets. I did when I started out with my 20 Vartarg and the Berger 55gn bullet. It nearly shoots 1.25” groups at 600yds at a muzzle velocity of 3075 up to 3150 on the high pressure end.

In my combo, 19-20gns of Benchmark was a really good fill and maximized speed (and pressure). Your ratio is similar and perhaps would lean even slower burn rate.

 

[AndyA]

24" barrel, 1.800 COAL, 17.0 gr TAC QL says 52600 psi and 3180 fps. This is just a guess so start low. 15gr give 36300 psi and 2800 fps.

This is a sensitive case to this bullet. Be careful.

Just for reference, win 748 gave the highest velocity at 3321.

 

[.17 VLD]

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I do appreciate your knowledge and time, I really like hearing about experiences loading this round, or even the old 37’s with any chambering.

I’ll follow up here as my job and work on the farm allows.

BT