John,
You have obeviously never owned a .17 cal. rifle. To start with the bullet dia. is .172 and thee .17 cal. bullet do not drift any more than any other bullet of the same BC and velosity. You can get bullets from 19 grns. to 30 grns. that I know of. When to turn a bullet lose at over 4,000 fps. the wind just doesn`t have much time to blow it side ways. The .17 Rem. is an excellant choice for hide hunters on game up to and includeing coyotes, and out to over 400 yrds. You are right that the .17 Rem. was based on the old .17-223 wildcat, and they are about the samething, but neather round will fit in the others chamber and the case necks are to short on the .223 case to form .17 Rem. cases from them. I`m not trying to pick on you John, but I hear all this crap about the .17`s that just ain`t true and it gives them a bad rap. I`ve got a .17 AH that when loaded with 10.4 grns. of H-4227 will push a 19 grn. bullet to 3,600 fps. and shoot point blank ( + or - 2 1/2 in. ) to just over 290 yrds. It`s death on groundhogs. With my .17 Rem. I`m pushing a 25 grn. bullet to well over 4,000 fps. It`s like a death ray.