By Art Merrill | Contributing Editor
If you want to open a can o’ worms, make a flat statement that there was no high velocity in firearms before smokeless powders hit the scene in the 1880s. It appears that bullet velocities of about 2,100 fps or more did occur in rifles, but they weren’t as common as the kazillion rifle cartridges easily capable of exceeding that today. There’s a lot of physics going on that limits bullet velocity with black powder and there are just as many variables that affect those physics. And the term “high velocity” itself has no inarguable feet-per-second definition, but, generally speaking, high velocity is the realm of smokeless powders and jacketed bullets.
Downsizing for speed
Wildcats like the .17-222 require trim and form dies (R) in addition to resizing and bullet seating dies.
The advent of smokeless powders, in fact, created a whole new cognitive framework in firearms, the new paradigm of “high velocity” that didn’t exist before the debut of Poudre B around 1885. Soon thereafter, 3,000 fps became the Holy Grail of high velocity for sportsmen. Though many inventors likely reached it independently, Charles Newton receives credit for the first commercial success with his 250-3000 Savage. In 1912 Newton developed for the Savage company a .25 caliber cartridge launching a 100-gr. bullet at 2,800 fps, but Savage had Newton drop the bullet weight to 87 grains so that it could reach that magical 3,000 fps mark as marketing braggadocio. Savage nearly shot itself in the foot with that, as they wanted the cartridge to promote sales of their lever action Model 99, but deer hunters found the bullet a bit too light for reliable kills and varmint hunters apparently felt the lever gun lacked inherent long range precision regardless of the bullet’s high velocity. Savage belatedly deferred to Newton’s wisdom, and today factory cartridges feature 100-gr. bullets and it’s now called simply the 250 Savage.
A hundred years later, improvements to powders, bullets and cartridge case design, and the design and metallurgy of modern firearms has rendered 3,000 fps somewhat pedestrian, and even heavy bullets for big game can make that speed (if you don’t mind the recoil). Today, “high velocity” cartridges in casual conversation often means those that exceed 3,000 fps. There aren’t very many that reach 4,000 fps, and like the 250-3000 Savage strategy, we have to go to smaller, lighter bullets to get there. And if you want the fastest, go to the smallest, right? And that leads us to the 17 caliber.
Why not 17s?
Compared to handloading other cartridges, the 17s sometimes seem akin to alchemy. For the most part, that’s probably because the centerfire 17 has never reached a level of what we could reasonably call “popular.” While many other wildcat cartridges caught on to become factory numbers, the only 17 caliber that did so was the .17-223, which today is the 17 Remington. But there were others, with compelling names like 17 Javelina, 17 Hornet and 17 Mach IV; the more descriptive .17/222 and .17/222 Magnum; and of course there’s got to be Ackleys, the .17 Ackley Bee and .17 Ackley Hornet. Five of them made magic at 4,000 fps, according to the 1968 Pacific Second Edition reloading manual, and the highest velocity in the old manual crowds the New Holy Grail of 5,000 fps, with two .17/222 Magnum loads listed at 4,760 fps.
A lineup of 17s includes (L-R) 17 Remington, .17-222, 17-221, 17 Mach IV and 17 Ackley Bee. Only the Remington is a factory round.
All of them require converting cases from existing cartridges (and you can still make 17 Remington cases from 223 Rem cases in a pinch). A great many handloaders just aren’t interested in cartridge conversions with their added expense of necessary forming and trimming dies and custom or semi-custom reloading dies, fireforming cases, the extra time spent in all the added steps and ending up with brass that doesn’t have the correct headstamp (the last pretty minor, depending on how obsessive-compulsive one may be). Then there’s the complete dearth of factory rifles that requires custom barreling, comparatively little data in loading manuals and the fact that higher velocity generally equates to faster throat erosion, which limits shooting or increases the frequency of barrel changing and working up new loads.
Too, 17s have a few quirks their larger brethren do not. An acquaintance who is an engineer for a major firearms manufacturer recently shared two experiences he just had while loading for a used 17/222 Magnum rifle he bought. First, one brand of bullets vaporized at 4,400 fps, never reaching the target. We agreed the bullets are likely spinning their jackets off and the tiny lead cores disintegrating or wandering off in the atmosphere. Second, his chronograph occasionally has trouble registering or clocking the tiny bullets moving at such high speeds and so reports an odd velocity now & then.
With all that, plus a comparatively limited selection of 17 caliber bullets, we can see why few people handload the 17 calibers.
Bullets & dies
Loading the 17s is probably not a practice for the beginning handloader, but neither is it really alchemy. It does require extra diligence in that small increases in powder charges can quickly raise pressures in the smaller cases; in all the above mentioned 17s, only three grains of powder separate recommended starting loads from maximum loads. Beyond that consideration, it’s just a matter of extra steps and attention to detail.
Hornady, Nosler, Remington and Berger all list 17 caliber bullets; Hornady offers a total of four 20-gr. and 25-gr. bullets; Berger has 20-gr., 25-gr. and 30-gr. varmint bullets plus a 25-gr. match bullet. Prices run from 11¢ to 30¢ per bullet. There are smaller, specialist bullet makers as well; Calhoon, for example, has bullets of 19, 22, 25 and 28 grains. Remington lists only one 17 caliber bullet on its website – kind of odd when we consider that the only 17 caliber cartridges for which there are factory rifles and cartridges are the 17 Remington and the Remington 17 Fireball. Remington introduced the latter cartridge in 2007, just as the 17 caliber rimfires made the bigtime. If you’ve never heard of the comparatively new Remington 17 Fireball (the old 221 Fireball case necked down to 17 caliber), perhaps that’s an indicator of the successful rimfire 17s driving centerfire 17s even further into obscurity.
Reloading dies for all but the two factory Remington 17s cost more than dies for standard cartridges, of course. Some can be had from the major makers as special order dies, and others will be full-on custom jobs with three-digit price tags and (for the impatient) long wait times. Even used dies can be a bit pricey. To that we can also add the cost of forming and trimming dies, which go for around $50 each, more or less.
Data, old & new
Happily, there is some load data out there for the 17s, though little to none in modern load data manuals. Hodgdon offers free load data online (www.hodgdonreloading.com) for all the 17s named above, except for the 17/222 Magnum and mostly with 25-gr. bullets at ho-hum 223 Remington velocities. We could also go to old loading manuals. If so, understand that manufacturers change their powders’ characteristics over time so that a load of, say, 14-gr. of IMR 3031 today may be slightly more powerful (or not) than that same powder when it was made in 1960. For this reason, when using data from old manuals it’s wise to start with minimum suggested loads fired over a chronograph to see what may be different before stepping on the gas pedal.
Forceps are handy when working with diminutive 17 caliber bullets.
As examples, a perusal of the old Pacific manual mentioned above shows IMR 3031 and IMR 4198 as the popular choices for all the wildcat 17s, with IMR 4198 pushing 20-gr. bullets to 4,760 fps in the .17/222 Magnum. Hodgdon’s contemporary data has no loads at all using IMR powders in that cartridge (we have more powder choices today), but shows a 17 Remington Fireball load just breaking 4,000 fps with IMR 4198 and a 20-gr. bullet. Though the old manual data lists 25-gr. bullets exceeding 4,000 fps in the 17/222, no 25-gr. bullets in any 17 caliber cartridge in Hodgdon’s data does so. There are so many variables involved—especially over the passage of decades—between the old data and the new that it would be mostly conjecture to attempt pinpointing the reasons for the lower velocities recorded today. That said, a probable major reason for the discrepancies is that the pendulum type devices used for measuring bullet velocity back in the day weren’t as accurate as today’s electronic chronographs. Suffice it to take the lesson to start load development with minimum charges and chronograph loads while examining cases for and staying alert to overpressure indications.
There are many reasons to handload; sometimes satisfying curiosity is reason enough. Maybe taking on the 17s is the mark of the truly inquisitive handloader— or maybe it’s just reinventing a wheel that has little use in a world of more common wheels.
