Remington 17 fireball. Tell me what you know

[MOGLEY]

My nephew has been wanting a new gun and set his sights on the fireball. Have to admit I don't know much about them. If you have one and used it and would like to share your thoughts we would appreciate it.
His use for it would be......  get this.   Giving it to his girfriend for target shooting and woodchuck hunting maybe wacking a crow in the fields.!   What would be the effective range for this caliber.?

[island66]

I've shot several rifles in this caliber.  The 17 Fireball would certainly fit the bill for any of the purposes you have listed.  There is no recoil.  Accuracy seems pretty good.  You'll certainly notice that wind can have an adverse affect on the accuracy.  I'd say that, in the proper hands, you'd be able to whack a woodchuck out to 300 yards or so.  One concern is that the round is pretty limited in its usefulness...paper, woodchucks and crows are about it.  Another thing to consider is ammunition cost/availability.  For your nephew's purposes, a 223 or 22-250 will do the same thing and ammo will be a lot easier to find.  Plus, you have to deal with the fact that the 17 Fireball, being a new cartridge, has not really been proven.  What happens if ammo sales plunge in a couple of years and they quit loading the round?  If it was me, I'd buy a rifle with a more common chambering.  Just my .02!

Jason

[Graybeard]

I love mine which is a Remington Model Seven Predator. It wears a Bushnell Elite 3200 7-21 scope. Out to 300 yards when it speaks a prairie dog dies unless the wind is really howling and I misjudge it. For your uses it should do fine to that distance or greater. There is recoil but it is so slight as to not be noticeable.

The only thing I did to mine was lighten the trigger pull and mount a scope. It easily keeps shots under 0.5" at 100 yards dead stock other than the trigger work. That's factory ammo as I've not yet started to load for it but do hope to work some up next spring before I take out out after PDs again.

Worry not about ammo being discontinued. It has been a wildcat under the Mach IV name for many years and is now finally a factory round. Cases are made from the .221 Fireball case. The round and it's parent case are doing better today than they ever have. You'll always be able to find cases and if not could make them from .222 Remington or .223 in a pinch.