Reloading .17 hornet

[Oz2africa]

Greeting guys.

Lucky enough to just put deposit on a new savage 17 hornet.
Have to wait for PTA so figured I'd get busy on research.

Will be loading 20g ballistic tips but not sure what to do about powder...
Gun store recommended BM2 but I couldn't find any data on it?

Nosler website recommends IMR 8208, has anyone got experience with this powder.


Cheers

[billsshed]

Can not say I have tried either of those powders in my little 17. There were a few trying to push me to try Lilgun but have not even seen that. Here the ADI powders are easy to get. 2207 fills the case well but velocity is down. 2205 makes a great little cracker with 10.1 under the 20 and 10.5 under my 17gn at well over 3600f/s. Accuracy is wonderful out of this little cartridge and sub MOA is the norm.
Awesome on wallabys.
Have fun.

[bimbo]

I'm using 20gr nosler varmageddon projectiles and 2207. Recommended powders are 2207 and 2205 from all the reading I did.

[Camel]

BM2 is alright in the larger 17 cartridges, 17/222 and 17 Rem, but would be too slow for the tiny little case you are loading, it may be alright if you were running heavy 17 cal projectiles like 30 grainers and up, but I work on the theory, small case + light projectile = fast burning powder. Look to the powders suited to 22 hornet.
But then again, there is no reason that you cant experiment with slower powders.

[johno1]

A bloke on another forum did a heap of work on the 17 HH when it first came out, he asked my what i'd used in the 19 hornet and the very best I found was Vhit N-120 he managed to get hold of some and found it was the best powder in his rifle, many small cal blokes in the US use it also but I believe it is hard to find now and you can only buy it in 1 kg containers

Johno

[Oz2africa]

Thanks for all the input guys,

Will keep looking into it for the next few weeks, will post updates on my progress

Always good to have an excuse to go to the range for a play