Variation Approved.

[The Lord Flashheart 73]

Handloading is a satisfying hobby in it's own right, particularly if you have an engineering bent.

 

Buy a basic manual, not so much for the load data but for he basic grounding in safe homeloading practice.

 

Ideally find someone to show you the rope for your first few rounds, ask a member close to you if he doesn't mind you looking over his shoulder.

 

I've only used a 17 hornet on precisely one fox but it seemed reasonably capable inside 100 yards.

[toxo 160]

My thinking is going like this - I want cheap rabbits hence putting in for the hmr. The farmer asked me to shoot the foxes cos they rear pheasant hence the 223. Then i did some research on the 17 hornet. - If I can get the reloading costs down I'll try for a light load for the bunnies and a hotter load for the foxes. If I can do that I won't need the hmr or the 223 but after running around the local shops I'm finding that many don't cater for 17 hornet although they will get it in for you. The reloading costs aren't gonna be as low as I would like but very much doable. Because of that I'm now thinking of getting a cheap hmr that I can use now whilst sourcing the rifle and supplies for the 17 hornet. Am I making sense here or should I wait?

[Jax13 251]

Not certain on the specifics for the 17 but 22 hornet can be loaded with my rifles preferred rounds for pretty much the same as 30gn vmax wmr and cheaper than the 33gn accutip remmy wmr.

 

This is including writing off brand new remmy brass after 10 loads and using the 35gn vmax.

 

The rifle is like a walking off switch for 4 legged wildlife out to 175 regardless of it being bunny or fox.

 

Since having it, my wmr and lr haven't been out of the cabinet in anger,i have no need for a 223 or similar for fox (if you can't call it or bait / ambush it to within 175/150 you don't deserve to shoot it imho).

[The Lord Flashheart 73]

My thinking is going like this - I want cheap rabbits hence putting in for the hmr. The farmer asked me to shoot the foxes cos they rear pheasant hence the 223. Then i did some research on the 17 hornet. - If I can get the reloading costs down I'll try for a light load for the bunnies and a hotter load for the foxes. If I can do that I won't need the hmr or the 223 but after running around the local shops I'm finding that many don't cater for 17 hornet although they will get it in for you. The reloading costs aren't gonna be as low as I would like but very much doable. Because of that I'm now thinking of getting a cheap hmr that I can use now whilst sourcing the rifle and supplies for the 17 hornet. Am I making sense here or should I wait?

 

 

The friend who's 17 hornet I used is not a home-loader and finds obtaining factory ammunition to be difficult. Fortunately, he doesn't shoot that much and laid in a supply when he first got the rifle, which is a very accurate CZ incidentally.

 

So more fundamentally than saving money you need to home-load for a cartridge like this so as to ensure ammunition availability. If you don't and buy ammunition in drips and drabs as it becomes available then you will be using different brands and/or different batches each time and will waste a lot of ammo checking zero or re-zeroing.

 

It therefore does not make sense to me to buy another rifle with the intention of retiring it as you soon as you get started in home-loading because you will want to home-load straight away in my opinion.

 

Do you have anyone near you to help you out?

 

I have some old reloading equipment I don't need, mainly Lee stuff that I bought when I started out but bought shiny-shiny replacements for as I got more into my homeloading I could give you to get you started, you can have it for nothing on the understanding that you pay it forward to some newbie when you get bitten by the bug and kit yourself out with shiny-shiny in turn...

[toxo 160]

Not certain on the specifics for the 17 but 22 hornet can be loaded with my rifles preferred rounds for pretty much the same as 30gn vmax wmr and cheaper than the 33gn accutip remmy wmr.

 

This is including writing off brand new remmy brass after 10 loads and using the 35gn vmax.

 

The rifle is like a walking off switch for 4 legged wildlife out to 175 regardless of it being bunny or fox.

 

Since having it, my wmr and lr haven't been out of the cabinet in anger,i have no need for a 223 or similar for fox (if you can't call it or bait / ambush it to within 175/150 you don't deserve to shoot it imho).

I agree. The two foxes that I shot with the 22lr I sqeaked in to 40yds.

 

The main reason for the 17 is to try to limit the damage. If I couldn't use the rabbits I wouldn't shoot them.

 

I'm thinking less noise, less recoil, cheapish to load (700 loads from 1lb of powder for 20gr Vmax) and I'm not wanting to reach much more than 150yds.

[toxo 160]

 

My thinking is going like this - I want cheap rabbits hence putting in for the hmr. The farmer asked me to shoot the foxes cos they rear pheasant hence the 223. Then i did some research on the 17 hornet. - If I can get the reloading costs down I'll try for a light load for the bunnies and a hotter load for the foxes. If I can do that I won't need the hmr or the 223 but after running around the local shops I'm finding that many don't cater for 17 hornet although they will get it in for you. The reloading costs aren't gonna be as low as I would like but very much doable. Because of that I'm now thinking of getting a cheap hmr that I can use now whilst sourcing the rifle and supplies for the 17 hornet. Am I making sense here or should I wait?

 

 

The friend who's 17 hornet I used is not a home-loader and finds obtaining factory ammunition to be difficult. Fortunately, he doesn't shoot that much and laid in a supply when he first got the rifle, which is a very accurate CZ incidentally.

 

So more fundamentally than saving money you need to home-load for a cartridge like this so as to ensure ammunition availability. If you don't and buy ammunition in drips and drabs as it becomes available then you will be using different brands and/or different batches each time and will waste a lot of ammo checking zero or re-zeroing.

 

It therefore does not make sense to me to buy another rifle with the intention of retiring it as you soon as you get started in home-loading because you will want to home-load straight away in my opinion.

 

Do you have anyone near you to help you out?

 

I have some old reloading equipment I don't need, mainly Lee stuff that I bought when I started out but bought shiny-shiny replacements for as I got more into my homeloading I could give you to get you started, you can have it for nothing on the understanding that you pay it forward to some newbie when you get bitten by the bug and kit yourself out with shiny-shiny in turn...

 

I'm already finding out about the ammo problem but I was always intending to reload when I put it on the ticket. I'm looking forward to it. Love a project me.

 

The idea of getting the hmr is not just for something I can use now but also to give me time to gather all I need for the hornet and have the ammo made before getting the rifle (will almost certainly be a CZ). Having said that, buying factory and then reusing the brass may be the way to go.

 

As for the equipment, what a great and kind offer! I've already bought some s/h Lee bits. Single stage press, powder measure, hand primer, Lee scales which I understand aren't the best and am looking out for a replacement but it'll do for starters and I've also bought an electronic scale to double check with. My new Lee 17 hornet dies have just arrived.

 

Have downloaded some loading data but am pissed off that a lot of resources including powder sites don't include 17 hornet. And of course with my nearest suppliers being an hour or so away means I have to first find out what they have or can get.

[The Lord Flashheart 73]

Good stuff!

 

 

Lee kit loads good, straight ammunition. I deliberately said "shiny-shiny" to illustrate that whilst the more expensive kit makes things easier in some cases and is nicer to use it won't necessarily load better ammo.

 

A note of caution though, beware cheap electronic scales and use the Lee scales to load for this cartridge.

 

The cheaper end of electronic scales ( and by cheap in this context I mean less than a grand or so) work by a method called a "load cell" which is basically a block of aluminum with the middle milled out and piezo strain gauges stuck top and bottom. They are capable of weighing accurately but are no good for reloading in my opinion because they are no good for trickling the powder charge up to exact weight because the nature of load cells means they expand and contract with temperature and therefore the electronic signal they return to the circuitry drifts.

 

They have a filter built in therefore that looks for this drift ( which takes the form of slight variances in weight the load cell reports back) and eliminates it.

 

You may have guessed the problem then, that trickling individual grains of powder into the pan is indistinguishable to this error-correction circuitry from the drift it is deigned to filter out.

 

Have a look at these scales, a set of 150 quid GemPro 250 electronic scales that many people rate for home-loading:

 

 

 

For a cartridge like the 17 hornet small variations in powder charge can cause large variations in pressure which leaving aside safety issues will make consistent accuracy elusive.

 

Use that Lee scale which is actually very accurate and repeatable but lacks the magnetic damper of the RCBS/Redding/Lyman etc scales and so takes much longer to settle down.

 

I also wouldn't worry too much about having a reduced load for rabbits and a full throttle one for foxes, just find the fastest most accurate load and stick to that.

 

If you shoot a bunny in the body a few hundred FPS will not make any difference, you'll still rip it to pieces considering that even with the .22LR you will aim for the head if meat damage is a concern.

 

Ergo, shoot them in the head if you want to eat them as you are not going to have time to bugger around unloading and reloading different loads when you re actually out in the field and facing quarry.

 

Internet bravado as to personal skill in fieldcraft aside, there are circumstances where you have to get a fox and the distance is non-negotiable. In those circumstances the flattest trajectory possible is very handy, particularly at night and when other people have been shooting at them.

[walshie 2,804]

Lee scales are ok and accurate, just a bit fiddly.

[just-A-snap 1,269]

Out of curiosity lads, how expensive is it to bring ones abode or work place up to the minimum required security standards with initial outlay for ones own loading? Is the average saving with the cost by the short or long run? I.E. weeks, month or years, all depending on ones amount of shooting and quality and amount of equipment of course.

 

Al the very best

Edited April 3, 2017 by just-A-snap

[The Lord Flashheart 73]

I'm not sure what you mean, do you mean over and above the security level needed to have section 1 firearms in the first place?

[walshie 2,804]

Out of curiosity lads, how expensive is it to bring ones abode or work place up to the minimum required security standards with initial outlay for ones own loading? Is the average saving with the cost by the short or long run? I.E. weeks, month or years, all depending on ones amount of shooting and quality and amount of equipment of course.

 

Al the very best

 

Your house is your house. As long as it has locking doors and windows you'll be fine. You can get a basic reloading kit for £100 ish, then you need a few bits and pieces on top of that. My 223 works out at about 50p or so instead of a quid a bang for store bought stuff, so after 200 rounds I'm winning.

[just-A-snap 1,269]

I'm not sure what you mean, do you mean over and above the security level needed to have section 1 firearms in the first place?

Is it not classed as handling explosives? if it is then is more security standards required?

Edited April 3, 2017 by just-A-snap

[walshie 2,804]

 

I'm not sure what you mean, do you mean over and above the security level needed to have section 1 firearms in the first place?

Is it not classed as handling explosives? if it is then is more security standards required?

 

 

No. No extra security required if you keep under I think 15kg of powder at any one time. Not sure of the exact figure but it's a lot more than most people have in stock.

[just-A-snap 1,269]

Spot on for me with your answer with shooting cost, thank you welshie

[just-A-snap 1,269]

Thanks for powder answer as well welshie

 

All the best to you and yours