.17 Rem - Remington 700LVSF

[sir-slots-alot]

The 17 rem is truly a superb calibre which punches massively above its weight.

Over the years, I have owned at least five 17 rem rifles and have fired many thousands of rounds in this cal - And I am probably this cals biggest fan and completely biased toward it.

Once you get the powder / bullet combo right - Its hard not to love it. - Low noise and virtually recoiless - trajectory of a 220 swift for half the powder.

In the past I have pushed the little 20 grn Vmax at 4460 fps - Considering it only uses 22 + grns of powder and has all the attributes listed above and is undoubtedly one of the best point and squirt rifles IMO

My latest 17 rem has a Pacnor 9 twist fitted, and zaps the excellent and deadly 25grn Vmax at 3940 fps - using a mere 21.5 grn / Vit 133 to do so.

With a little practice, vermin at 400 - 500 yrds is achiveble in the right conditions. The 17 rem is also an excellent fox calibre - Albiet it doesnt have the hitting power of the bigger 22's ands 6mm pills

Safety wise, With the 17 FB - It has to be the safest centre fire calibre I know of. I can honestly say - I have never had a single bullet richocet in thousands of rounds

With the exception of the 30 grn Berger bullet - The 17 cal bullet rarely exits TBH therefore delivers its full payload of energy into the target.

Not much more to say - Except , anybody thinking of this calibre - dont listen to the guys who say they are barrel burners - they foul up every 15 shots

Its and more often than not, comes from people with no direct experience or bought a knackered shot out rifle.

Driven at sensible speeds you will get alot of shots out of a barrel - Probably more in fact than a 204 which uses between 4 - 8 grains of propellent more per shot.

A friend of mine has over 2500 round out of his Shillen barrel and it is still bug holing.


One last point - I have had a Remmy LVSF and I too struggled for accuracy , untill I removed the two "Pips" in the H&S stock that touch the barrel - as Rich said - try pushing the 25 grn Vmax toward 4K


ATB
Alan

[jordang]

Sako A1, 17 Rem, perfect.

[Optomist]

Sako A1, 17 Rem, perfect.

Glad to hear 17's are being enjoyed. I've had 17 FB in std rem sps 26" barrel and settled on 25 gn vmax with 16.3 of H4195 and loves it. Just considering which mod to get, not that it is too noisy anyway but some of my land is sensitive, any recommendations?
Normally groups a least clover leafs at range at 100, but have had issues with variable case quality and very sensitive to neck tension I found the usual 0.002" of tension a little tight shaving bullet on insertion so tried .001 and .0015 with different formers on my redding dies and not yet come to any firm conclusions. What has worked for you guys?
Regards Optomist

[Spanner.]

Glad to hear 17's are being enjoyed. I've had 17 FB in std rem sps 26" barrel and settled on 25 gn vmax with 16.3 of H4195 and loves it. Just considering which mod to get, not that it is too noisy anyway but some of my land is sensitive, any recommendations?
Normally groups a least clover leafs at range at 100, but have had issues with variable case quality and very sensitive to neck tension I found the usual 0.002" of tension a little tight shaving bullet on insertion so tried .001 and .0015 with different formers on my redding dies and not yet come to any firm conclusions. What has worked for you guys?
Regards Optomist

Dave Mercer made me one for mine and it is quiter than my HMR.

[Vermin Al]

... I found the usual 0.002" of tension a little tight shaving bullet on insertion so tried .001 and .0015 with different formers on my redding dies and not yet come to any firm conclusions. What has worked for you guys?
Regards Optomist

Try a VLD chamfer tool then polish the neck with 0000 steel wool in a spinner.

[jordang]

Glad to hear 17's are being enjoyed. I've had 17 FB in std rem sps 26" barrel and settled on 25 gn vmax with 16.3 of H4195 and loves it. Just considering which mod to get, not that it is too noisy anyway but some of my land is sensitive, any recommendations?
Normally groups a least clover leafs at range at 100, but have had issues with variable case quality and very sensitive to neck tension I found the usual 0.002" of tension a little tight shaving bullet on insertion so tried .001 and .0015 with different formers on my redding dies and not yet come to any firm conclusions. What has worked for you guys?
Regards Optomist

Dave Mercer (DM80) mod is perfect for the 17's as they are light, cal specific and very effective. As mentioned above mine is hardly any louder than an HMR.

[sir-slots-alot]

Agree with above - DM80 was noticably quieter than my CQB on the 17 rem.

Dave is a top bloke too

ATB
Alan

[Arai]

Agree with above - DM80 was noticably quieter than my CQB on the 17 rem.

Dave is a top bloke too

ATB
Alan

Agreed - DM80's a gentleman.

[Dodder]

Not been on here for a while so thanks to you all for the input. I will certainly try pushing the 25grn V-maxes a bit quicker and also have a look at those lugs on the inside of the Barrel channel on the stock to see if removing them improves the accuracy. Having said that, the Berger 25grn Match Varmints seem to be working well, have a decent BC (same as the 20grn V-Maxes) and despite the tiny hollow point, expand violently with devastating effect on small game.

I've had a fair amount of success with the rifle since my original post and I am still absolutely chuffed to bits with it. The Swaro 6-30 x50 Z6 on-top has a really fine crosshair that is perfect for long range small varmint use (the crosshairs don’t even cover a rabbits eye at 300yards on 30x mag). It is relatively quiet when moderated and very low on recoil allowing you to see the shot much more easily than larger c/f calibres and to be honest, since I’ve had this, I don’t think either my .222 or .22-250 have even been out of the cabinet.

The only thing I do want to change is my moderator. I am currently using a .25cal Ase Utra S5 which works well, but is a big old lump on the end of the barrel, so am considering either a .17 calibre specific Hardy Gen IV or an Aimzonic, just to improve the balance a bit. The DM80 sounds good but is I think a bit heavier than these two? If anyone has any experience of how effective either of these are on a .17Rem I’d be interested to hear about it.