Cooper Arms M38 Custom Classic.
Handloading the 17 Ackley Hornet
By Alex Clarke
Click Here to download data for the 17 AH. 17 Ackley Hornet Loads
Last week I wrote about forming the .17 Ackley Hornet, but how about reloading the fireformed cases? Here I use Wilson dies with an arbor press. The neck sizing die requires a bushing. Daryl from the Saubier.com Small Caliber board (prime guru of the 17AH) uses .190″ for WW brass and .188″ for RP brass. I usually use 1 to 2 thousandths larger bushings. Too tight a neck may cause the tip of the bullet to be “dimpled”, causing it to be seated just enough differently for accuracy to be jeopardized as a slight difference in the dimple will make a major difference in the seating depth. The bushings are cheap enough that I recommending ordering 0.190, 0.191 and 0.192″, as the cost of shipping a single bushing is almost as much as the bushing itself.
Remember that you may need to clean and uniform the primer pockets. I use an electric screwdriver with the primer pocket uniforming tool (from Sinclair). You should also trim the brass to the proper length, especially after fireforming the brass.
I have added a micro adjusting head to my Wilson seating die, as it lets making changes in the seating depth when changing bullet types or manufacturer much easier. Normally start by seating the bullets just off the lands, but seat Hornady Vmax bullets into the lands 5 to 10 thousands, but not so deep that when you have to unload an unfired round it gets stuck in the barrel. The results of this is a chamber and an action full of powder. Not something you will enjoy while hunting. Take along a 1/16″ dowel rod to remove the stuck bullet. Do not try to use your cleaning rod! A workaround if you do have to remove the unfired round with the bullet seated long is to aim the rifle straight up while openning the bolt, something I never remember to do. Once when unloading my 17M4 and dumping the power throughout the chamber, I spent the rest of the hunt sharing cousin Bobby’s 257 Roberts. Shooting the first round off the top of the pickup cap, that sucker almost launched off the tail gate.
Micro Seater
Powder Choices
You should download the Western Powders load manual and look at the powder recommendations for the the 17HH. Several good choices are there, with AA1680 being the one most often chosen for the 17AH. It is sometimes very hard to find, but the others may be the only ones availalble. AA2200 seems to be the second choice of the lot. VV-N120 is the choice of many folks, but has become as scarce as hen’s teeth. In all cases start low and go up no more than 0.2 grains at a time. The 17HH has top loads of about 1 grain less than the 17AH, but be very careful about going higher than that.
In my Cooper M38 17AHs, with the 20 gr. Vmax, 12.6 gr of AA1680 is the a good but dirty choice for both the forming and final loads. 12.0 gr of N-120 is the max load with this bullet, and is just at the edge of being too hot. I would drop back to 11.8 or so.
Note well, that the loads mentioned here seemed safe in my rifles, with my components on the days I was shooting my them. They could be extreme overloads in your rifle, as different batches of powder may be extremely different, could be mislabeled, or your rifle may have sufficiently different specifications that could cause a problem that would result in damage to the rifle or injury or worse to you or bystanders.
Start at the recommended “starting” load and work up at no more than 2 tenths of a grain. When using a load from a publication not by the powder manufacturer, reduce the published load by 20% and work up.
Do not fail to obey this admonition nor those in the Western Powders Load Manual!
AMC