.17 Hornet reloading

[DavidN]

Firstly just joined so thank you for letting me join.

I have done some reloading 223 and been happy with the results, but enjoying the challenge of the Hornet.

I have a CZ American and although I had managed to get a good grouping from 17g cheep BT was having difficulty getting 20g Nosler and Vmax to work. Vmax were better than nosler.

In order for me to improve I have gone through the riffle and found the action was not torqued down. I have bought a torque screw driver and now made sure scope and action is done. 

I am reloading to COAL 1.720 case: 1.345 and using an comparator. Hornady FL die and seating die.

Findings: since doing every up my 17g bullets are not grouping, I need to rework this load.

I am using H110 and data of quickload. Comment I have read is that the 17g do not like speed. so what do people run these at?

 

20g vmax: I have both H110 and N120.

 N120 give me 3500 on my chrono  at 11.5g, with a fill of 112%.  43300 psi .Data from Quickload. This again appears more powder than others are using: any thoughts on this?

Step    Fill. Charge   Vel.  Energy   Pmax   Pmuz  Prop.Burnt B_Time
 %       %    Grains   fps   ft.lbs    psi    psi      %        ms

-10.0  101    10.35   3201     455   31297   4927     91.4    0.952
-09.0  102    10.46   3236     465   32315   4988     91.9    0.940
-08.0  103    10.58   3272     475   33367   5047     92.5    0.929
-07.0  104    10.69   3307     486   34458   5105     93.1    0.917
-06.0  105    10.81   3342     496   35587   5160     93.6    0.906
-05.0  106    10.92   3377     507   36757   5214     94.1    0.895
-04.0  107    11.04   3413     517   37968   5267     94.6    0.883
-03.0  108    11.15   3448     528   39223   5317     95.1    0.871
-02.0  109    11.27   3483     539   40525   5365     95.5    0.859
-01.0  111    11.38   3518     550   41872   5412     96.0    0.847
+00.0  112    11.50   3553     561   43275   5456     96.4    0.835

 

H110: These seam excessive when Hodgdon has the max at 9.5: Again any thought please.

Step    Fill. Charge   Vel.  Energy   Pmax   Pmuz  Prop.Burnt B_Time
 %       %    Grains   fps   ft.lbs    psi    psi      %        ms

-10.0   79     9.81   3321     490   35076   5185     95.7    0.937
-09.0   79     9.92   3354     500   36147   5237     96.1    0.927
-08.0   80    10.03   3387     509   37249   5288     96.5    0.916
-07.0   81    10.14   3420     519   38383   5337     96.9    0.904
-06.0   82    10.25   3453     529   39551   5385     97.2    0.892
-05.0   83    10.36   3485     539   40753   5431     97.5    0.880
-04.0   84    10.46   3518     550   41991   5475     97.8    0.868
-03.0   85    10.57   3550     560   43266   5518     98.1    0.857
-02.0   86    10.68   3583     570   44578   5559     98.3    0.846
-01.0   86    10.79   3615     580   45930   5598     98.6    0.835  ! Near Maximum !
+00.0   87    10.90   3647     591   47322   5635     98.8    0.824  ! Near Maximum !   

 

Sorry for so many questions, just trying to get this right , so thank you in advance

 

David  

[DavidN]

Rather than just leave this here thought i would add to it. Tried a few loads and not able to get H110 to work well with 20g vmax. N120 works better. still some room to improve.

17 grain BT with H110 were Ok but again more work needed. 

[soulboy1957]

Hi, did this a few years ago, settled on lovex D063 or accurate 1680 (same) 

Much better more consistent results with 11.5g and 20g vm

[DavidN]

Thank you for your reply.

[Rim Fire]

On 21/02/2021 at 21:35, DavidN said:

Thank you for your reply.

i use vit N110 running around  3400 CAOL is 1.72 with 10 GRN of powder using 20GRN Hornady hollow points 

[Rim Fire]

15 minutes ago, Rim Fire said:

i use vit N110 running around  3400 CAOL is 1.72 with 10 GRN of powder using 20GRN Hornady hollow points 

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by Rim Fire

[DavidN]

Thanks for your reply, What is evident is the H110 just does not work for me. The N120 is better and a good starting point. I would like to try some Lovex D063 and when I find some will give it a go. Vit N110 is also now an option.

I think the next bits going to be looking at brass. if what is true Hornady is not the best. but that is for another day,

David 

 

[Rim Fire]

All there cases are once fired Hornady never had a problem with them

 

[Zebidee]

Hi there. just joined the forum. I was running up a load last year for my 17H. Tried Hogdon Lil Gun, Swiss Reloader RS 30 and Vit N120. Vit N120 gave me the best results. NB In my Anschutz, I found that Hornady Factory ammo was seating about 100 thou off the lands - relative to my Bisley 308 loads that is a country mile off - I normally run 308s at 20-25 thou. Best I could do in the 17H was seat them at c 30 thou off - seating the bullets any further forward in the case meant they wouldn't fit in the magazine any more. Best load was 10.8gr of N120, behind a 20gr Vmax, loaded to an OAL of 1.797 (-30 thou). Results in the diagram below and inches indicated on the paper target by white dots for comparison. Vertical spread - ok. horizontal dispersion c 1 inch - what can I say - my wind zero was off and it was gusty day on the range! NB Obviously don't just go with my load. Work up to it safely. Your rifle pressures will be different to mine.

[Zebidee]

NB looking at the series again, 11.6gr of N120 was pretty good too. NB this obvs creates higher pressures, knocking on the limits, so definitely don't start there, work up. Quickload reckons 11.6gr N120 would give me 3400fps, but NB NB NB that is at my longer load. Squash the bullet back to factory dimensions of 1.72OAL, you'll increase the velocities by c75fps, but you'll increase the pressures too. Not advised. Lets face it, the rabbit doesn't care whether its 3400 or 3475 fps anyway...

[DavidN]

Interesting, my case H2O is 13.90. both using Quickload with very different results.  

11.5g of N120 gives       3508fps    40654max psi   so would indicate still some room other than the fact it is an 108% fill. That's with coal at 1.720

 

David 

 

 

 

[Zebidee]

Different barrel lengths perhaps? I measured mine at 19.375 ins and not close the the factory spec. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Zebidee

[DavidN]

I just bought some once fired brass. firstly I noticed different colour primers in some, then looking at the Hornady stamping there are also diffrences.

I thought i would then weigh them. 

group 1: 54.2 grain

group 2: 58.8 grains

group 3: 58.8 grain

 

there were a few that came in over 60 grains.

I have yet to do a proper H2O capacity but looks like group 1 is 14.5 grain and the other groups at 13.9 grains.

not sure how this will show up in real time shooting after reloading but could just through everything all over the place. 

 

[Dave-G]

Can't say as I'd like the straps in my ammo wallet retaining the bullet part of the round. Surely the case alone would be better for consistency.

Might be an optical delusion on my part.

Edited February 27, 2021 by Dave-G

[snow white]

I use hogden 4198 =11.2 grains seated at oval 1.715