My Ruger 77/17 Hornet

[ab_bentley]

He she is the real deal.

As you can see this rifle has a tight chamber, which surprised me. It's a nice little rig, no idea yet on the the accuracy or freebore but I'll find out today or tomorrow. Adam

 

[gtl1946]

Give us a run down as you reload and shoot this as to what works and what the groups turn out like. If you could take some side pictures of the Ruger, it would be nice if you could post them .

 

[ab_bentley]

For reloading I am using a shortend 17FB die, lube the case and one pass sets the headspace. The case will grow by .010" so it needs trimmed off again to fit properly. From what I can tell the chamber is very tight and proper length as case .010" over will not chamber. The base is so tight that the case gives resistance with my Winchester cases (a good thing). I am fire forming with 3.6gr of Trailboss or 7gr of Ramshot Enforcer (this is going to be my main powder) with 20gr FMJ Sierra bullets and a Small Mag primer. All in all I am very impressed with the quality of this rifle at this point, once my trimmer gets back I will get some groups shot and report back. Adam

 

[rebelbell24]

I was looking at one of these earlier, looks like a nice little gun. What's the freebore?

 

[ab_bentley]

No idea on freebore yet. I would imagine it will fit a 30gr bullet as they offer load data already for it. I would be really happy if they had .025" in it. I will let you know as soon as I know. Adam

 

[Serendipity]

Ab_Bently,

What scope are you using for your 17 Hornet? What's your opinion of a BSA Sweet .223 scope for this caliber since the ballistics are very close to the .223 cal.?

 

[ab_bentley]

BSA scopes, well not fault to anyone here but I don't buy my scopes at Wal Mart. I only use Leupold or Swarovski. This is going to wear a Leupold VXIII (yes III) 1.5-5x20 with Target Dot, no need to over scope it.

I will add this, I learned a long time ago that you get what you pay and get the best you cry once. Don't sell yourself short with BSA, you can find Leupold scopes in EBay for a little more than a new BSA scope.

Adam

 

[ab_bentley]

So I was pleasently pleased tonight, you can seat the bullets to the lands and still fit the magazine. It's the maximum mag length to the lands, but it's still very doable and have half the neck filled with 20gr VMax, even more so with the 25gr HP. All in all I am very pleased with the results. Someone was listening when Ruger built this rifle.

Also the Hornady dies are amazing for 30$ dies. The neck is left with .0025" annular tension, the shoulder is left at .293" (fired case measured .295"). I was very very happy with the results.

Adam

 

[xswanted]

This is a factory Ruger? I thought they pulled the plug on the Hornet?

 

[xswanted]

Nevermind, I see they have it on their website....well sweet!

 

[Catfish]

What kind of velocity are you getting with it? I`ve had a 17 AH for several years and my go to load is is a 19 gr. Calhoon bullet at 3,500 fps. Should be a great groundhog killer and shoot flat to at least 285 yrds.

 

[ab_bentley]

Well Boys here it is, all were fired from 50yds ( to get it sighted in). No cleaning, no shoot one clean one stuff either, all shot from the hood of my truck with the Leupold 1.5-5x20 Vari X-III set on 5.

This is two groups, 25gr of Hornady HP with Trailboss powder

This is also a 25gr bullet with Trailboss

20gr FMJ bullet with TB powder

Hero shot of the rifle/ reloading stand.

Even with the barrel bedded out to the forend it shot well, I was impressed. All in all it's a good rifle. No idea on speed, probably somewhere inthe neighborhood of 2200fps. I'll break the chrony out soon and put some fast powder is the cases. Adam