Rifleman51
02-25-2011, 07:56 PM
I was over at Savagegunsmithing today, the Gunsmith Scott Null was testing some .17's he had accurized.
He was shooting over a crono and the one thing we noticed was a wide deviation spread in several different brands of .17 ammo.
The rounds that were within 15 FPS of each other went into one tiny hole, but others were as much as 50 FPS, some a little less, some more than the others. When the FPS was off that much, it was a flier every time.
No way to tell how accurate the ammo you get will be, so when you get fliers and you know it's not you, chances are good that it's the Ammo. If you have a crono, run some tests of your own. Ours were very consistant, but I'd like to see some other test by other people, especially if you have a .17 that shoots under MOA. This was just one test and every target had the exact same results, but others may get different results. I tend to think the .17 ammo is not the greatest if you want one hole groups, but the record at 100 Yds is held with a .17 HMR, .059", 5 shots. Maybe it's the brand of the rifle.
If the ammo companys don't start making some match .17 ammo soon, they are going to really hurt the .17 rimfires reputation.
Makes me glad I bought a 22 LR. Scott accurized my BRJ and it has shot a best of .117" 5 @ 50 Yards and will shoot in the .1" to low .2" range all day long on a good day with Wolf MT.
John K
He was shooting over a crono and the one thing we noticed was a wide deviation spread in several different brands of .17 ammo.
The rounds that were within 15 FPS of each other went into one tiny hole, but others were as much as 50 FPS, some a little less, some more than the others. When the FPS was off that much, it was a flier every time.
No way to tell how accurate the ammo you get will be, so when you get fliers and you know it's not you, chances are good that it's the Ammo. If you have a crono, run some tests of your own. Ours were very consistant, but I'd like to see some other test by other people, especially if you have a .17 that shoots under MOA. This was just one test and every target had the exact same results, but others may get different results. I tend to think the .17 ammo is not the greatest if you want one hole groups, but the record at 100 Yds is held with a .17 HMR, .059", 5 shots. Maybe it's the brand of the rifle.
If the ammo companys don't start making some match .17 ammo soon, they are going to really hurt the .17 rimfires reputation.
Makes me glad I bought a 22 LR. Scott accurized my BRJ and it has shot a best of .117" 5 @ 50 Yards and will shoot in the .1" to low .2" range all day long on a good day with Wolf MT.
John K