.17 Remington appropriate powders

[longbow62]

I have many powders that are listed as appropriate for .17 Remington. Most seem to be in the medium burning category. In the past I have used RL-15 and Varget mostly. I can find no data for 2000 MR which seems like it might be a good candidate for the .17 Remington due to how well it meters and where it sits on the burn rate chart. This might be especially true if one shoots the 30gr. pills. 2000 MR in my experience excels with heavy for caliber bullets in .223 and 7mm-08. 2000 MR also sits right below CFE 223 on the burn rate chart which is touted as a very good powder for the .17 Remington. My thoughts are to try it at the starting loads of CFE 223? Does anyone have any experience using it in sub-calibers?

 

[SSL]

I'm sorry that I have absolutely no experience with 2000 MR powder. My best luck in several .17 Remingtons over the years in both accuracy and velocity have been AA2700 (according to quite a few loading articles the same powder as H414 and W760 other than the normal lot to lot variations) and, most recently, CFE223. I wouldn't be without CFE223 for the .17 and .22/250. All of the above are ball powders.
Maybe bracketing the various powders mentioned, along with carefully examining of pressures between them and your proposed powder you can come up with a safe powder charge. Myself, I am always reluctant to try a powder without specific testing from a reliable source prior to trying it.

 

[jackson1]

longbow62, have really enjoyed my 17 Remington for many years, call me a traditionalist but I really like IMR 4320 and Vit. 135. I almost exclusively shot 30 grain bullets. Was a Kinder follower and religiously adhered to his advice. Currently at a cross roads with my 17 Remington, wondering if it will go the way of the 19 caliber. My current barrel is toast and am considering a 20 caliber wildcat. Good luck. For me most of the fun I have with a rifle is teaching it to fly.

 

[biggun2869]

I'm old but I always liked IMR 4320. I've personally never owned one but used to load for my brother. I've seen him pull some great shots at pretty long range on blackbirds

 

[STS]

There has probably been more 4320 shot through .17 Rems than any other powder. It was the "go to" powder for many years. It's worth remembering that when the .17 Rem came about there weren't that many powders available, therefore the almost universal use of 4320. At the same time that the number of different powders was increasing, the popularity of the .17 R was decreasing. In a well built rifle it's still a very functional cartridge.

 

[AlNyhus]

The three best powders I've ever used in my .17 Remingtons are IMR4320, WW760 and AA2700. AA2700 is a real treasure as it meters like water. IMR4320 is always the powder I start with, though.

If you've got a .17 Remington that won't shoot with 4320, it's got issues!

Good shootin'. -Al

 

[longbow62]

Unfortunately I don't have any IMR 4320 to try. I have way more options than I need as is. I have RL-15, Varget, BLC2, ARComp, XBR8202, and CFE223 to try. I just wondered why 2000 MR was not an option when it fell in the same basic relative burn rate as many of the popular powders for the .17 Remington.

 

[JSH]

There are a lot of “old” cartridges that don’t get any “new” data with new powders. Buddy and I had a short chat about this very thing this past week.
He made mention of picking up an old favorite of ours. I said it was sad there was no up to date data with new on the market powders.
He said he had a brand new manual. Told him to look and that data was from the late 80’s to early 90’s, yet published in a new book. Sure enough.......

You might research the powder you are interested in and give it a cautious try.

 

[AlNyhus]

While I haven't used it, 2000 MR appears to be a bit slower that RL15. Starting with the low end RL15 charge and going up from there in .3 gr. increments seems reasonable.

Good shootin'. -Al

 

[20PPC]

As Al has mentioned WW 760 is excellent in the 17 Rem.
H414 is the same powder and shoots identical, it's all I shoot in mine. It regularly produces groups that are under 3/8 " at 100 yards.