Thread: .17 ackley hornet

anyone shooting and reloading one of these ?
not talking about the new factory Hornady .17 Hornet but the original ackley

Yes I rebarreled my old mans Brno hornet a few years ago. It shoots .5moa most of the time but has to be clean every 30 shots. Seems to be a powder residue problem. Mt 17rem doesn't have the same issues. Use 25gn hp as they are a bit harder for shooting roos.

interesting !
what type of powder and how much you fitting in the case ?
what model is the brno ?
any pics ?

thanks

I've got a 1949 BRNO 465 Hornet rebarrelled with a Green Mountain barrel. The cartridges feed and extract OK - the shoulder of the case is fairly sharp. Had a BRNO fox 17AH with a Shilen barrel, a few years ago which also fed well. It is an easy wildcat cartridge. Getting the dies is a bit of a performance, and an expensive one at that but you don't need forming dies, just polish the interior well and start the 22 Hornet case in the seater die. Getting the reamer is easy, just email a reamer company in the USA; but also expensive. I use old Dupont IMR4198 for about 3400ft/sec, using a 25gr Hornady HP and CCI match primers. There was a range of Berger bullets available as well but Berger has cut back their options. The standard powder is VV120 which is not particularly available in NZ but there are a few other powders that work OK. There are excellent hand made bullets from the USA but it is difficult to get them to NZ. So, bullets are basically Hornady 25 grain HP, 25 grain plastic tip, 20 grain plastic tip. You will need a 1:9 twist barrel for the longer 25 grain plastic tip. Brass is easy: either Winchester for slightly thicker brass, or Remington for slightly thinner brass and slightly more capacity. The Remington brass is more consistent in weight.

look like this ?

I'm using 2205 in mine 12.5 for the 20gn and 11.5gn for the 25gn. Fantastic round for head shooting bunnies and have also shot fallow out to 220yds. head shot only on undisturbed animals. Have done a lot of rabbit shooting with it so know the bullet drop very well.
As I said earlier shoulder shot on roos only with the hollow point bullets as the bone in a shoulder will stop the plastic tipped projectiles. Have never used berger bullets so can't comment on them
I struggle to post photos but mine has the double set triggers and a bead blast finnish

Originally Posted by Ackley

I'm using 2205 in mine 12.5 for the 20gn and 11.5gn for the 25gn. Fantastic round for head shooting bunnies and have also shot fallow out to 220yds. head shot only on undisturbed animals. Have done a lot of rabbit shooting with it so know the bullet drop very well.
As I said earlier shoulder shot on roos only with the hollow point bullets as the bone in a shoulder will stop the plastic tipped projectiles. Have never used berger bullets so can't comment on them
I struggle to post photos but mine has the double set triggers and a bead blast finnish

3rd icon from the right insert image allows easy uploading of pics just make sure they are not too large

The primary website for 17AH is Saubier.com. You will find everything you ever wanted to know and a lot more on this site. But the search function on the site is primitive, so you have to be patient.

I've got a 17AH on a brno fox11 my favorite rifle I use n120 powder 12.0 gr and a 20gr vmax in remington brass shoots 1/2" groups @ 100yrds Have shot magpies and plovers out to 250yrds, very flat shooting round for so little powder, also use 2207 with 25gr hornady HP shoots those really well but because it is a 10"twist barrel it dosn't like the 25gr vmax at all.
Be careful working up loads dosn't take much to blow primers in this little case

I have a Cooper Varmint Extreme (check out page 5 on this section half way down for several photos) N120 powder, Winchester brass and primers, 20 grn V-max are the bomb for this round, for around 3750 fps. Arbor press. Unsure of powder weight off hand, think 11.5 grns. Magic little round - more consistant with those 200+ yds shots than the 17HMR. Less noise than a larger capicity centrefire in built up areas also...happy days!

thanks guys keep those loads coming

Hi their is real good reloading data in the new berger reloading book

Quentin

any chance of a pdf of the relevant data ;-O
dont want to buy it just for 1 or 2 pages...

HI can you pm me your email address and or text it to as i am at work this moring and will email it to you i have got it all scaned

Quentin