The little rifles.....

[Tackdriver]

Anybody own them?
I have a 17 Remington, a 19-223 and a 20-223 Ackley Improved.

Getting down below .224" opened up a whole new world of riflery to me, and it sure has been fun, with no signs of it letting up.

I have a 17 Predator reamer on the way, the Predator is the 223, with the shoulder brought forward and the angle changed to 30 degrees. Also necked to 17 cal.

I think it would be neat as anything to do a 14 Walker, or something like that, but there is only one guy making the barrels at this point, and they fall into the "good but costly" category.

I have a "research rifle". It is a Savage 110 E, with basically everything replaced on it. The 19 and 20 caliber tubes fit this rifle. It is so much cheaper just getting a new barrel than a whole new rifle-scope and whatnot, and thats why I do it that way. You can also eaily change boltfaces on this rifle.

There was a thread below on how good the Savages are out of the box. They also make great "kitchen-table-customs", and its the only rifle I know of that can go from 17 Mach 4 to 458 Win Mag in about 30 minutes, once you know what you need to do.

[ScottD]

I have a .17 Remington, a .19 Calhoon, and a .17 HMR (if that counts.)

ScottD

[elalto]

Hey Tackdriver,

Got a question for you, when you change the boltface and barrel on your Savage do you use it single shot or modify the rails, or follower or what???

I have a 17HMR, 17AH, 17REM and am about to build a Tac-20 or maybe a 20-223AI how does yours shoot? How mych better than a Tac-20?

Keep us informed on your Predator, sounds like a neat combo.

Marcos
[e-mail]

[Tackdriver]

ealto
With regard to Savage/boltface thing, think of it in terms of ID and OD.

To change from one to the other, all you are doing is replacing the boltface with another in a different internal diameter. The stuff on the outside maintains dimension (O.D).

The magazines interchange pretty well. Although you can get kinda hung building on one of their "short"actions.

You could stick a 458 Win Mag tube on a short action, but none of the magazines would be long enough to use it as a repeater.

You could also get some weird looks sticking say a 17 Mach 4 barrel on a long action.

Weird looks never hurt anybody.

Lack of second shots, could, possibly (as our bear huggin friend found out), so you have to think about that before hand.

Within the paradigm of most common cartridges, you can switch from one to the other pretty easily. Savages are extremely modular, keeps production costs low, and makes for one heck of a rifle, especially as a "research rifle"

I helped a gentleman on another forum desing a 17-223 on a Long (270 Win) action. We had to tig weld a little tab to the back of a 223 magazine to get it to fit on the longer action, no big deal.

The other thing is some highly improved wildcats may require you to tweak the rails of the magazine slightly, its a 7 dollar part so dont worry too much.

[BayouCityBoy]

I have several 17 Remingtons, a couple of 20 Tacticals and for just plain fun I have a Schroeder center-fire conversion for the Remington 591 5MM RF.

Shooting 4.5 grains of WW296 and a 35 grain hand swaged bullet is more fun than one deserves. I bought a 17 HMR about a year ago and sold it as the 5MM RCM will do everything the 17 HMR will - and I can reload for it, too!!

[CoonDawg]

I've heard of the 20 Tacticals, what is it?

[BayouCityBoy]

CoonDawg:

The 20 Tactical is a 223 with the shoulder pushed back slightly and necked down to take a .204 diameter bullet.

Most barrels are 1 in 12" twist - there are a few 1 in 13" twist barrels that were made when Hornady was the only bullet maker. The 1 in 13 will not stabilize the longer bullets. Velocity on the 33 is @ 4200-4300 FPS -

I get about 3800 FPs with a 44 Gr hand swaged HP and 3950 FPS with a 38 Gr HP. It kinda' like a 17 on steroids - very litttel recoil or muzzle jump so you can generally see what you hit.

Todd Kindler (Small Caliber News) developed the 20 Tactical a few years ago. Hornady and Berger make the only factory available bullets - Hornady in 33 grain and Berger used to make a 36 grainer and have just come out with 30, 35, 40 and 50. Not sure how many of the Bergers have hit the shelf yet.

There is a pretty good internet site with 20 cal information: search for "twenty caliber" and it will show up.

I hand swage my own 20 cal. bullets, so can make about anything I can come up with. I like a 38 gr HP and a 44 Gr HP the best of what I have made.

[Aggie03]

What is the effective range on a coyote or bobcat with a .17 HMR???