Thread: new caliber

17 Hornady Hornet is the new commercial round based off the wildcat 17 Ackley Hornet which is a 22 hornet necked down to 17 cal. Will hold around 10-12 grns of powder with a 20 grain v-max/z-max doing around 3700 fps. As Claw said, you should easily get 10+ loads with your brass. N120 is one of the top contenders for the 17AH so I imagine it will be great for the 17 HH also. Sits between the 17HMR and 223. Great little round for those 200yd shots as it is way more certain than the HMR and very economical to shoot. 1kg of powder goes a long way! Rumour has it Anschutz are bringing out a model shortly so that will be sweet!

Originally Posted by Beetroot

Any idea how much it is to reload for?
I assume you have a Savage model 25 thingy, whats the weight of it like?

How much better is it than the 17hmr? Whats the cost of factory ammo?

Hi beetroot,
How much better than the HMR, well heaps in performance, and if you reload about the same cost to load for, I recon I am reloading for less than the cost of HMR, unless I buy a brick of HMR on special, bearing in mind I already had the powder for small bore shotgun and buy projectials in Canada for about 1/2 the cost here.
Yep its a savage walking varmint, its a good shooter, but due to other problems I can not recommend one, stiff bolt, poor ejection, jamming and binding when loading, and to top it of the scope mounts are off center, so far I had to buy windage adjustable mounts, to get it on target. About seven Lbs for weight.
I had a CZ American on order and decided to try the savage as the local firearms store had several, last savage I ever buy.
Ammo in Canada runs about $20-25 Cad depending on store.
If you get the chance to have a go with the .17 hornet you will want one, its buy far the most fun small cal firearm I own, for the record I have (.17hrm, .22 ,.22mag, .204, .222,.223 and .22-250)
I should have the CZ .17 hornet, back here buy Feb/March,

Originally Posted by southernman

Hi beetroot,
How much better than the HMR, well heaps in performance, and if you reload about the same cost to load for, I recon I am reloading for less than the cost of HMR, unless I buy a brick of HMR on special, bearing in mind I already had the powder for small bore shotgun and buy projectials in Canada for about 1/2 the cost here.
Yep its a savage walking varmint, its a good shooter, but due to other problems I can not recommend one, stiff bolt, poor ejection, jamming and binding when loading, and to top it of the scope mounts are off center, so far I had to buy windage adjustable mounts, to get it on target. About seven Lbs for weight.
I had a CZ American on order and decided to try the savage as the local firearms store had several, last savage I ever buy.
Ammo in Canada runs about $20-25 Cad depending on store.
If you get the chance to have a go with the .17 hornet you will want one, its buy far the most fun small cal firearm I own, for the record I have (.17hrm, .22 ,.22mag, .204, .222,.223 and .22-250)
I should have the CZ .17 hornet, back here buy Feb/March,

Yeah I thought those Savages were crap lol.
The CZ would be a beautiful gun. I really don't need a new gun, but I love varmint shooting so there could be one in the works.
So you travel to and from Canada a fair bit?

The 17 Hornady Hornet is not a necked down 22 hornet but is basically a necked down Ackly hornet with a near parallel body. It head spaces on a substantial shoulder so case life would be dependant on the neck being annealed from time to time and that's all. They say that Superformance is the powder one to use.

I must admit, after turning my 223 Rem to 223 Maximus, I'll need another rabbit rifle and this does look good.

Historical Notes:

The 17 Ackley Hornet is simply the 22 Hornet Improved necked down to 17 caliber. It was originated by P.O. Ackley in the early 1950's and he describes this cartridge as one of the most balanced of the 17 caliber cartridges. Although small, it delivers ballistics equal to some of the larger 17 caliber cartridges. It is an effective 200 yard varmint cartridge and is quite accurate. It is normally used in single shot rifles, although the small Sako bolt action was favored by many because it was made to handle rimmed cartridges such as the 22 Hornet or 218 Bee.

General Comments:

The 17 Hornet is a good cartridge for use in settled areas where a mild report and minimum ricochet are desirable characteristics. It is one of the most accurate of the 17 calibers. Its use should be confined to varmint shooting. The standard twist is 1 in 10 inches, the same as most other 17 caliber rifles. Reportedly, IMR 4198 gives the most uniform results, although Ball BL-C2 as well as several of the newer powders should work well.