What is a 17 Fireball?

[shannonavah]

What's this 17 fireball, is it one of these reamed out to a 17 fireball or is it it's own barrel???

[mcwoodduck]

With the H&R single shots you would have to buy a 17 rimfire barrel and ream it out to 17 Fireball and shoot it on a center fire frame.
You may even have to change or modify the extractor.  Tim could speak better on what to so to make a 17 Fire ball.
But if you are going to go that route you may as well just get a 223 and let your son shoot it.  Easier to obtain ammo and recoil would be mild on either.

[mcwoodduck]

Not sure how my answer to another post became it's own post but that really did not answer the new question but added to the earlier question.   
In easy terms the 221 fireball is a shortened 223 round.  the 17 fireball is a 221 that has been necked to .172 (got it right this time Tim  ) or it is a shortened 17 Reminton, that is a 223 necked to .172.  the 17 Fireball seems to be a better use of powder and similar or greater velocities are reached with the small .17  -25 grain bullets in the 17 Remington.  Another option is the 17 Hornet.  A 22 hornet necked to 172.
If you are going to shoot varmints in rocky semi populated areas the small projectile breaks up when hitting anything solid, makes a mess out of the varmints and will not Rick O' Shea (yes I know it is a french term and not and Irish guy but I am not good with french and you all get what I mean.) 

[quickdtoo]

I moved it here because I already had told shannonavah in the rimfire thread that this needs to be discussed in the Centerfire forum, and made the appropriate changes so it made sense rather that deleting it. 

Tim

[BritUSMC0321]

My neighbour has a Remington 700 in .17 Rem Fireball. He bought it off a guy who had killed several deer with it (all quick, clean kills). My neighbour took a couple of deer this season, he said they both dropped in their tracks. He got this rifle mainly for predators.

NB; ANY CENTREFIRE CALIBER IS LEGAL TO HUNT DEER IN TN.
I am not advocating using the smaller .17-.224 calibers (I personally use 25-06 on up for deer), just passing on info.

There was an article in American rifleman, Volume 156 #11. November 2008, regarding reloading the .17 Fireball. However, we have found that there is not much choice on components/equipment. 

I hope this is helpful.

[dangerranger]

 just out of curiosity does the 17 hornet generate enough pressure to keep it from being safely shot on an old frame? say a 157 topper? or is it still in the hornet range? DR

[LaOtto222]

I do not think there are any standard on pressure for the 17A Hornet along with many other wildcats. It should not be loaded to any higher pressure than a standard 22 Hornet. With that said, I am sure that people push the envelope with their wildcats. If you keep it loaded down to 22 Hornet pressures, it should work just fine in a 158. Ever consider a 22K Hornet? In my opinion, it is a much better round than the 22 Hornet. You get a little more velocity, but that is not what appeals to me the most. Since it has a real shoulder, you can head space off of it making it a little more accurate and you get better case life out of it too. Basically the 17A Hornet is a necked down 22K Hornet so the 17 gets the same benefit of the case design as the 22 K Hornet. While the 22K Hornet will never get the same velocity as a 17A Hornet, it does not do badly. I get about 3150fps with 34 grain bullets out of a 20" barrel and pressure is not outrageous, it is in the same category as a standard 22 Hornet. I shoot minimum charges of powder with the 22 Hornet and I only increased it 3.3% for the 22K Hornet which is a maximum charge for the 22 Hornet.

The 17 Fireball (or 17 Mach IV) is a necked down 221 FB whose parent cartridge is the Remington 222. All cases that have a .375" base are based off the 222 Remington or a stretched version as inspiration. The 222 Remington is an original design, and many, many cartridges have been based off of it or a variant, such as the 222 Magnum, including the 223, 17 Rem, 221 Fireball, 6mm TCU, it is a long list. The 222 Remington is to small cases as the 30-06 Springfield is to the larger cases.

[dangerranger]

I guess the questionis when you neck down , will that raise the pressure? or will it still be in the same range as before? DR

[LaOtto222]

When you neck down, it will take less powder to reach the same pressure with the same weight bullet. A 6 BR takes 29.3 grains of Benchmark with a 80 grain bullet. A 22 BR takes a max of 27.2 grains of Benchmark with a 80 grain bullet. A 221 FB takes 18.0 grins of IMR 4198 with a 40 grain bullet and a 17 FB takes 15.3  grains of IMR 4198 with a 25 grain bullet. So yes, it will generate more pressure for the same amount of powder. It has a smaller neck to go though.

[gcrank1]

Kinda like sticking your thumb over the waterhose spout and going for distance with the main knob turned to different levels.