If you were to build a custom in 17 Rem. Fireball..

[CloudNein]

So your in Oregon?

Ah, I misspelled it and got the location wrong. I'm on the other side of the country.

 

[Mike in Oregon]

Ah, I misspelled it and got the location wrong. I'm on the other side of the country.

1.5 hrs from Pac-Nor sounds like Oregon or NorCal?

 

[1lessdog]

If I was going to build a 17 caliber Hotrod it would be a 17-204 or a 22 Nosler necked down to a 17 caliber. Now that would be a Hotrod. And shoot 25 or 30 gr bullets.

 

[Evlshnngns]

I'm curious how the Bighorn Origin would do with its mechanical ejector.

 

[B23]

Extraction seems to be an issue for this cartridge.

One of these other guys will likely know and please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't really think it is an actual extraction issue but rather more of an ejection issue. I think they extract from the chamber fine but then fail to eject out of the action.

The ones that I've seen where someone used a SA Rem 700 223 donor action would do everything fine up to where it needed to spit the case out of the action. It would act like it was going to eject then kind of just fall out of the bolt face and drop back into the action and lay on top of the follower. Obviously Remington clocked the extractor slightly differently in their 700's that were chambered in Fireball cartridges for a reason.

I had a 30-338 Lap Imp built on a Rem 700 that did the exact same thing and the fix for it was installing double ejectors. I doubt there would be enough room in the small bolt face to install another ejector and even if you could it may not fix the problem.

 

[Chris Shelton]

I've had two reminton 700s that were originally 17fbs. It would feed but always felt a little janky. Not filling the mag box helped. 1 in the chamber and two in the box usually made it feed just fine.

If I were to do it today I'd probably do it on a Howa Mini, re-stocked with Jefferson bottom metal or if you could find a CZ 221FB at a decent price (good luck) I'd send it to PacNor and have them install a 17fb barrel on it.

I actually built a Howa Mini 17fb 2-3 years back and foolishly sold it before I even fired a round. It was a sweet little rig.

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Sharp lookin rifle! What barrel brand and contour is that? Doing a similar setup right now at pac nor in 20VT.

 

[Flatlands_Outdoors]

Sharp lookin rifle! What barrel brand and contour is that? Doing a similar setup right now at pac nor in 20VT.

It was a PacNor 23” & I believe the contour was a #3

 

[Chris Shelton]

It was a PacNor 23” & I believe the contour was a #3

Thanks for the info! I went with a 23” #4 and had them flute it mainly for looks and now I’m afraid it’s going to Be too light. We will see I reckon.

 

[cmillard]

How about a .17 fireball on a tikka t3x action?

 

[L.Sherm]

How about a .17 fireball on a tikka t3x action?

Like B23 said its a extraction timing- ejection issue and cycling through the mag if you want a repeater, personally I shoot all my small stuff single shot.
Somebody who has a 223 tikka, Howa, kauger etc had a 17FB or 20VT case they could try and see what happens.

 

[Eggman30]

Like B23 said its a extraction timing- ejection issue and cycling through the mag if you want a repeater, personally I shoot all my small stuff single shot.
Somebody who has a 223 tikka, Howa, kauger etc had a 17FB or 20VT case they could try and see what happens.

I have a .17 Fireball and .221 Fireball that I had built in Howa Mini , they both eject fine , feeding from the magazine is a bit "clunky" , still playing with that .
I had Shaw put the barrels on both of these

 

[L.Sherm]

I have a .17 Fireball and .221 Fireball that I had built in Howa Mini , they both eject fine , feeding from the magazine is a bit "clunky" , still playing with that .
I had Shaw put the barrels on both of these

Well that answers the question on ejection timing for the Howa mini now if somebody would make a center feed mag box for these SA to feed the Fireball case best of both worlds.

 

[toomb]

I built mine from a CZ 527 221 Fireball. Great little gun. Bummer that the 527’s aren’t available anymore. I’m currently considering building a 20 Vartarg on the Howa mini. I’ll be following along, as I have the same questions about feeding and ejection.

 

[Eggman30]

I built mine from a CZ 527 221 Fireball. Great little gun. Bummer that the 527’s aren’t available anymore. I’m currently considering building a 20 Vartarg on the Howa mini. I’ll be following along, as I have the same questions about feeding and ejection.

I'd like to try one in .20 Vartarg also

 

[Eggman30]

Also FWIW ,
I have a custom build Remington 700 LH in .17 Fireball and .221 Fireball with Remington's Fireball bolt's , mag , mag follower , and spring , these also eject really well and feed ok . But I really like the feel of the Howa Mini in this Fireball cartridge . I wish Howa would do the mini action in a LH ......


To the OP question , the Howa Mini is about your least cost option , ( short of going the single shot route on a Savage ? ) , Brownells has the Howa mini barreled action , with the mag and bottom "metal"

 

[17cal Fan]

I have a .17 Fireball and .221 Fireball that I had built in Howa Mini , they both eject fine , feeding from the magazine is a bit "clunky" , still playing with that .
I had Shaw put the barrels on both of these

I built a 221FB on a Howa mini and love it. The hit or miss feeding from the mag, finally got it straightened out by building an epoxy ramp on the front of the follower. Try strips of tape first on the follower front end to figure out how tall to make the ramp.