17 caliber bullet seating

[frankm]

Not a ton of 17 caliber shooters but wanted to get some input from those of you who do have a 17. I m interested in your seating depths vs the lands of your rifle.

History, my 17 Hornet has to jump a 20 grain bullet .100 since they re so short and in order to keep enough in the case for reasonable neck tension. ( about .160 or so in the case ) Anyway I ve been able to get 3/4-1" groups but believe the gun is capable of more. I ve got a number of 25 grain VMaxes that I can get to the lands with and still maintain .150 or so of bullet in the case neck... so :
1) experiences at the lands? , .010 off, .020 off, etc

Thx for your input!

Fotis- know you re a 17 guy!!
Frank

 

[frankm]

Not even 1 17 cal shooter/reloader?

Come on guys got to be someone; help

 

[5shot]

Try Predatormastersforums.com lots of 17 shooters there.

 

[frankm]

Thanks 5Shot

 

[5shot]

I see you got some responses over there.

 

[frankm]

I did, thanks for lead!

 

[grry10]

Which .17 are you reloading?

 

[frankm]

Hornady Hornet

 

[Mlatimer]

Not a ton of 17 caliber shooters but wanted to get some input from those of you who do have a 17. I m interested in your seating depths vs the lands of your rifle.

History, my 17 Hornet has to jump a 20 grain bullet .100 since they re so short and in order to keep enough in the case for reasonable neck tension. ( about .160 or so in the case ) Anyway I ve been able to get 3/4-1" groups but believe the gun is capable of more. I ve got a number of 25 grain VMaxes that I can get to the lands with and still maintain .150 or so of bullet in the case neck... so :
1) experiences at the lands? , .010 off, .020 off, etc

Thx for your input!

Fotis- know you re a 17 guy!!
Frank

I load for a cz527 in 17 remington and I typically have the best luck with a .005 jam into the lands. Accuracy close to the lands is typically good as well but my best groups come from a slight jam. I have not shot any 20 grainers in this rifle yet so I can’t speak to their performance exactly but the 25 grain berger is my main bullet and by far my most accurate bullet. I just wish it wasn’t a ballistic turd :lol: . I would stick with the 25 grain vmax and try various loads with a slight jam. If jams aren’t doing it in your rifle I would work out .003-.005 at a time out to .025-.030. Every rifle is different, but it has been my experience that once I start jumping past .030 or so accuracy degrades quickly. One thing to keep in mind is if you jam the bullets and your neck tension isn’t solid when you try to extract a loaded round from the chamber the bullet could stick in the lands and you end up dumping powder all in your action. On the bench this isn’t as big of an issue since you can typically just fire the round but in a hunting scenario where you need to remove a live round from the chamber this poses an issue. I typically don’t jam a load i plan to hunt with. If you really want to shoot the 20 grainers I would start as close as you can get and work back to factory length and see if there is a sweet spot. If you can’t achieve the accuracy you want from the rifle I would consider setting back or replacing the barrel so you can get the proper free bore. Many production rifles suffer from excessive free bore.