17 ackley hornet...bb barrel...

[kirkwhitaker]

I got a 17 ackley hornet 10" bullberry last year and am finally starting to play with it. Fun barrel...anyone else fooling with a 17 hornet? Let me know what you are doing...this thing is gonna be mean on critters.
k

[Ladobe]

I've had a bunch of 17 Ackley Hornets over the years, semi custom rifles, but I also had a couple of 14" and one 20" Bullberry barrel.   Had so much fun with one of the 17AH 14" barrels especially on the Contenders that it was a toss up whether I liked the 17AH or several of the 375JDJ SSK 14" barrel's I had for them.   I used the 17AH a lot at Digger Wars where I'd have to stop shooting when ammo ran out on those 10 day shoots despite having thousands of them loaded for each of the shoots (and even though I continually added more ammo for them each year).    I usually shot the 17AH ammo until it was gone before switching to one of the other 16-18 long range wildcat rigs I'd also always take along.   The 17HMR ended the ammo shortage when it came out and became my go to in place of the 17AH (also helped along when the 17HM2 came out), and without the need to spend countless hours prepping brass and reloading.     Last Digger Wars I hosted was with 17's only (rimfires and wildcats), and was probably the most fun of them.   A long time friend is happily using my Cooper Classic 17AH as his go to fox rifle in Alaska now days - replaced all his 22 Hornets he'd used for them for years.   All the other 17AH's were sold to various people as well as they were all replaced by the six 17 rimfires I bought that did just fine for my types of hunting.   Even so, every Contender owner ought to have at least one 17AH in his life time - a very fun, excellent hunting and very addicting lttle cartridge.

[tred1956]

I have a17AH BB 14 inch barrel. Like you I am early in the development stage. This is one sweet cartridge. If I hook my finger over the scope I can watch the impact on the target. This is something different. I am falling fast for the sub calibers, A lot less recoil and unreal accuracy.  I also have my eye on a 17 fireball, just waiting on the gun fund to recover from my last sub caliber (an OTT 20 Tactical). This barrel amazes me. Both are almost boring. NOT REALLY. Keep us posted of your progress. Just a side note, from everything I have read N120 is the perfect powder for the 17 AH and is back in stock at some of the mail order distributors.

Safe shooting
Doug

[alan in ga]

One thing about a 17 Ackley Hornet barrel, SOME can be shot for hundreds of rounds without cleaning. I built a CZ 527 [rifle] in 17 Ackley Hornet using a factory Remington 700 stainless sporter barrel that was a 17 Remington before I hacked it up in the lathe where it became a 17 Ackley Hornet.
As a 17 Ackley Hornet it has gone 650 some rounds without so much as a patch thru the barrel. I think it was 2 days worth of shooting before I decided I would put a few patches thru just because eveyone else was cleaning barrels. I shot another rifle or two in other calibers also, but the 17 ackely hornet is my favorite fun round, especially when riding around in suburbans out in the pastures of Montana shooting ground squirrels!
It has over 6,000 rounds thru it and still accurate!

[kirkwhitaker]

I have been pleased so far. Have only taken it out a couple times to shoot it, but the little gun just make clusters at 50 yds from the bench. Have no doubt it will improve with age and when I move away from fire forming loads to sized brass. I am excited from the stuff it has done so far and plan to use it on some critters this spring after turkey season goes out.
k

[Ladobe]

I always found fire form loads plenty accurate enough for even our smallest diggers at a couple of hundred yards in my Bullberry 14" barrels... IOW the accuracy didn't change enough to worry about between the fireform loads and when the brass was reloaded after it was fireformed.   The barrel, load and shooter either have it or don't.   It sure beat the heck out of the endless hours and days I spent fireforming (no bullet) brass, time wasted annealing and the reloading supplies being used once I figured that out with my first 17AH.   By the time I started selling the 17AH's I probably had around 10K that were fireformed, most had multiple firings on them and none ever needed to be annealed.
FWIW-YMMV

[alan in ga]

After about 6,000 rounds through one CZ 527 with a Remington barrel machined to 17AH, I 'fireformed' die formed cases with 11.7/1680/20Vmax loads. To this day they were about as accurate as any 'full load' I've loaded! However that made me use fireforming loads in the gopher fields of Montana without a second thought. Gophers nor I could tell the difference.
17 Ackley Hornets after the one trip thru a polished full length die sure look funny, but they sure shoot accurately, too!