17 Fireball barrel

[weewilly]

Wanting a 17 Fireball to go with 20VT, anyone built one on savage? Where to go for barrel,best length. thanks

[davemuzz]

I bought mine from Sinman. It was a Shilen. I didn't have him put any kind of fine finish on it because I painted it camo:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a212/davemuzz/IMAG0034.jpg

When I ordered the barrel from Sinman, I had him cut it to 24" in length. Well, I can tell you that it was very accurate, but I use this rifle for fox hunting at night, and the 24" length I found to be cumbersome. So, I had it cut to 19" and it's just as accurate, has lost a tiny bit of velocity, but it's well worth the advantage of carrying it around.

Now, the easy way to make the .17 cartridge chamber is to just make it a single shot. Of course, I wanted to be able to have the ability for a quick follow up shot, and at night, I wanted a magazine. I also wanted a removable one. So, I bought a CZ detachable .221 Fireball mag. The .221 is the same dimension as the .17 Fireball except for the bullet size.

So, with the help of a good wood shop that my buddy has, I took a piece of walnut and made it fit into the Stevens stock, and made the CZ mag fit into the walnut. Also, I had to extend the feed lips on the mag (I did this via Davcon-ing Savage feed lips to the walnut.

Anyway....here are a few pics....FWIW. Dave:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a212/davemuzz/MagWalnut.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a212/davemuzz/MaginStock.jpg

[AVanGorder]

Wanting a 17 Fireball to go with 20VT, anyone built one on savage? Where to go for barrel,best length. thanks

I have a 17 Fireball on a Savage. I wanted a light weight rifle that could be packed around. I got my barrel from Sharp Shooter Supply. It's 24" long, is installed on a stainless model 12 rifle. Very nice...

Adrian

[ICUDIEN]

What kind of velocities do you guys get with those 17 Fireballs?

[davemuzz]

Before I had the barrel cut from 24" down to 19" I was getting an average of 3691fps with the 25gr. Berger bullets, and 3835fps with the 20gr. Berger bullets. This was with H-335. I may have lost some velocity since I cut 5" off the barrel, but the accuracy is still there. I just havent set up my chrony to see where the loads are at now.

Dave