Anybody Tried The New .17 Hornet Yet?

a7mmnut

Moderator
I've searched a little, with no positive results. Looking at Hornady's Superformance load data, at 3650 fps will this be a great mid-range varminter with only 20+" of drop at 400 yards?

-7-
 
Quite a few people on another forum I belong to have them and a few of them are in the process of making a 20HH out of the 17. It has a bit better ballistics than a 17AH but not much at all. The problem at 400 yards will be wind not drop. I was shooting a friends 17AH with 20gr Zmax (vmax) and while it is capable of hitting the distances we shot, it was extremely hard to hit as we had 2 different cross winds at the range. Furthest we shot was 635 yards at a full size steel coyote.

Personally I think it will take off like wildfire and be the next big round for 17's. You use very little powder with lots of performance and can shoot all day with out burning up a barrel.
 
New?

Factory ammo might be a new concept in the .17 Hornet world, but the basic cartridge goes back to the late '40s / early '50s.

Ask the old-timers about the .17 Hornets they've been shooting for up to 60 years, if you aren't finding much about the "NEW" .17 Hornet. ;)
 
The "new" 17 Hornet is the same as the "old" 17 Hornet, its just factory loaded now.
Its as good now as it was before.
 
Hornady only slightly decreased case capacity by moving the shoulder a little farther back than the classic dimensions of the .17 AH dictate. They also gave the cases a thicker rim.
I supposed the thicker rim is to keep people from being able to fire it in existing .17 Hornets, and.... My guess is that it was also to deter other manufacturers from jumping right in and producing their own cases from formed .22 Hornet brass. Hornady has been getting both predatory and defensive in their product releases. I wouldn't put it past them.


It's close enough to the classic versions of the .17 Hornet, that the shoulder bump is negligible. (And the thicker rim does not affect case capacity.)
 
Here is a pic of the HH and AH, the HH is on the left and AH on the right. Here is the reamer print for it too. If you wanted a 17 I'd either get it or the 17 Remington. Basically the HH is a way to get a smaller 17 on the market for everyone that doesn't want to build a rifle for the AH.
 

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