17 rem.

[Bim]

Does anyone have a 17 rem. barrel for the encore. I'm thinking of getting one for chucks, fox and coyote. How do you like it? I'm also thinking of a 22-250. I like the range of the 22-250 and the light report of the 17. I think I'm leaning more twards the 22-250. I'm so confused.  :?

[tlyne]

Have 17 Mach IV Encore blue 24 inch virgin valley custom barrel with Redding dies,forming dies,  extended shell base and about 900 bullets. Shoots very good. not a steal but fair deal. Twyman

[hh4064]

I had a 22-250 with a muzzle brake on it. It just laid there and did almost nothing for recoil. Plus with the 22-250 you will have alot more range with alot less bullet drift problems on a windy day. Also my 22-250 was easier to load. My 17 is fininky as can be.

[Encore28]

I have a 22in .17 Rem Encore barrel made by Fox Ridge and it shoots great!!
Don't worry about the wind drift thing.............It is not a problem. (Check out the Coyotegods.com)
JMHO
Encore28

[MickinColo]

The 17mm Remington is not a silent round. It makes a pretty good pop when it comes out the end of the barrel. It’s not as loud as a 22-250 or a Swift. But it’s as loud as a 223 Rem.  You don’t want to sit down at the range and sight in without ear protection.

The 17 Rem. is harder to reload than other caliber’s because everything is so small. On the range the 17 will drive you nuts. “Why can’t I get these bullets holes to touch?” and than you realize that you can cover a 100 yard, 3 shot group with a dime.

The 17 Rem and for that matter any 17mm are hard to clean. And the 17mm’s don’t work well in a dirty barrel. The 17mms are fussy about cleanliness.

I agree with the “Coyote Gods” the 17 Rem. is a varment pelt saving round, as long as the shots are less than 150 yards. Best is less than 100 yards.

[Catfish]

2 years ago I was in Idaho in Jan. coyote hunting and one afternoon a guy jumped on a quad runner and took a target with with him, he stopped at 408 yrds., lazered, and set up and 8 1/2 x 11 target. Shooting it a cross wind of about 20 mph with my .17 Rem. I had to hold about 6 in. over the target and straight over the edge of the target to drop them close to the center of the target. I would have had no trouble killing a coyote at that range. My summer carry gun is a .17AH and I push a 19 grn. bullet at 3,600 fps. with it. It is not near what the .17 Rem. is, but it still shoots point blank to about 290 yrds. I also have big fingures but have no trouble  loading the .17`s. I prefer the .17`s to the .22-250 hands down for all varmit hunting. I just got a .204 barrel and think it will be better yet, but have not had a chance to prove that yet.

[MickinColo]

I currently have 3 varmint rifles that I work with, the 17 Remington, 22-250 Remington, and the 220 Swift. In addition to those rounds I also own 2 varmint/deer rifles, the 243 Winchester and a 25-06 Remington (which gives me trouble on a regular bases). All but the Swift are Encore barrels. The Swift is a Ruger No. 1V. The 22-250 and the 243 belong to my wife, I do 90% of the bench work with these rifles (I tell her that she gets to enjoy the fruits of my labor without enduring all the rounds I have to fire over the chronograph and hours at the reloading bench). Actually I love it but I wouldn’t tell her that.

Back to the matter of the 17 Remington. This is not the first 17 I’ve worked with in the last 30 years. Everything I said in my previous post is true but I could have elaborated a little more.

The 17 that I have now is a 24” long heavy T/C Encore barrel purchased through the custom shop at Fox Ridge 3 1/2 to 4 years ago. It has had about 400 rounds fired through it to date. Around 300 of those rounds have been fired on the range and most of those fired over a chronograph. The load I’m using right now is a Hornady .172 25 gr. HP with IMR 4320 (I never give grains of powder I use because it may not be safe in another man’s rifle). It moves out of the barrel at an average of 4050 fps and averages a 5 shot .690 MOA.

A chronograph is a great tool. Not only does it give you an idea about how fast any given round is traveling but it also shows you the effects that heat and fowling have on the bullets velocity too. In a 10 shot string over 30 minutes depending on the weather conditions I will see the group start opening up after shot 5 but more important than that you will see the velocity increase by as much as 400 fps. Add to that a hot day and I’ve seen velocities as high as 4675 fps. However cleaning the rifle after shot 5 with a few passes of a solvent patch and wiped dry (I’m not talking about a thorough cleaning here) grouping stays consistent and the velocities stay in a +/- 150 fps zone.

As far as the 17 Remington being a 400 yard coyote gun, let me state my opinion clearly.  Yes there are people that can make the 17 work out to 400 yards on coyote sized targets. As for me, out of all the rounds I referred to above, the 17 is the last choice for a 400 yard coyote rifle.

The 17 has a TOF (time of flight) of .43 seconds to a 400 yard target. That’s pretty darn quick. The only round mentioned above that get close to that is the 25-06 with a Sierra 87 gr. HP at .45 TOF. All the rest take over a half second to cover that much ground. The problem is; how much does it have left in energy by the time it gets there? The 17 only has 214 ft lbs. of energy at 400 yards with a 25 gr. bullet. Compare that with 22-250 with a 55 gr. bullet (320 ft lbs.), the Swift with a 55 gr. bullet (345 ft lbs.), the 243 with a 60 gr. bullet (397 ft lbs.), and the 25-06 with a 87 gr. bullet (871 ft lbs.).

In a real “20 mph cross wind” the 17 resists deflection pretty good for a tiny bullet. It only has wind drift of 46 inches at 400 yards compared to 22s and the 6mm the 17 is the best. The 25-06 however is the king. With only 33.5 inches of sideways movement the 25-06 would be (is) my first choice for a ultra long distance coyote gun.

I love the little 17; I bought it for shooting coyotes at a call stand. But I recognize its limitations and some people done