17 Hornet Contender carbine - update w/Range Report

[JDHasty]

I had been waiting patiently for the Eagle View stubs and sitting on a CZ 527 17 Hornet Varmint barrel for over a year and I guess Eagle View is not going to ever produce the stubs. 

So I just went ahead and ordered a .810 23 inch barrel through E A Brown EABCO and by Saturday should have the fore end that is all I'm lacking to put it all together.

I have a 5-20 Nikon Monarch BDC that the Nikon rep gave me a while back and have just never warmed up to the Nikon BDC reticle, but kids seem to love it.  Since this is to be a varmint rifle primarilly for my seven year-old daughter to get started Chuck shooting with - I think that it is going to be a pretty nifty setup.

I have a couple boxes of factory ammo so if the weather is not good at Goldendale this weekend, and I don't take the kids to the observatory, look for a range report. 

[JDHasty]

Made it to the range today:  The rifle has a very short stock on it and that made it frustrating for me to shoot (I just could not seem to get it bagged in on both ends and stable), but it does shoot. 

I was cleaning after every shot so accuracy was not optimum.  The ammo was Hornady factory 20 Vmax.  The first group posted was the best I was able to do at a hundred yards - not bad at all.  The second group posted was off a Harris Bipod, which I think is going to be better for a seven-year old than fooling with a front rest. 

I am going to have to rig up some spacer blocks to elevate the rear bag for chuck shooting though - that should not be a problem. This is an ongoing issue anyway because I frequently have shots that the front rests I have do not go low enough.  I like to use a bubble level to level my shooting benches both ways before we begin shooting so you can move the rests around on the table and everything remains level.  I have built a set of legs specifically for kids that also allow the bench to be leveled.  Point of aim is where the scribble is in the second photo.   

The heavy  lines on the targets are one inch squares.  Most groups were just north of an inch at a hundred yards, none were crazy bigger though. So, the bottom line is:  It will be a fully capable three-hundred + - yard chuck rifle, and that is exactly what I was looking to put together.  I have another adult butt stock and if I can find it we will see what she is really capable of once I locate some 1680 powder.   

This range session answered my big question and that is do I order CZ 527 American or a CZ 527 Varmint in 17 Hornet (for me) if I want to see bullets hit in the field at 20 power.  The jury is in and it will be the Varmint, this barrel is .810 all the way down and it just about jumps off target. My other 527s are Americans and my 22 Hornet, which I love, does not allow me to see hits unless I turn the scope way down and the 204 Ruger & 223 are way worse in that regard.       

[JDHasty]

That butt stock is a thing of beauty, shame the photo does not capture all the figure in it.  It was given to me 25 years ago by a TC rep who said:  Someday you will have kids and this will come in handy. 

I was shooting with the rear bag interfering with the rear leg of the front rest, should have turned the rest around, and an inch plus of air space between my shoulder and the stock.  It is rally short, more so than it looks in the photo. 

For chuck shooting that short Harris S Bipod is a bit tall for the rear bag.  I think a piece of 3/4 plywood with half-round around the perimeter will do the trick and two or three more with a couple dowels to stack them will make it so shots can be taken when set up on a rise and shooting down.  I have been threatening to make that contraption for years anyway, frequently I have my fist on top of my rear bag and the front rest bottomed out, and now it is not an option to put it off any longer. 

Wind deflection looks to be ~ 12-13 inches @ three bucks in a 10 MPH 90 degree cross wind.  With my H&R Ultra Wildcat (Sako action) 17 Rem chucks are good as dead out to 4 bucks, so I am hoping that there will be enough energy at 300 with a 20 gr bullet to make this an honest 300 yard gun for her.  If not, I have a few colonies that allow setups as close a hundred yards that I normally deal with with my 22 Hornet.  I have a colony that is behind a feed lot and shots are 75 - ~ 225 and that is likely where we will start her out.     

[jackelope]

I shoot a TC Encore in .300 win mag and I can watch bullets hit the target at 14x thanks to Shawn Carlock.

Hard to believe you can't watch those bullets hit. I believe you. It's just tough to see that happening.

[yorketransport]

TC has always had some beautiful wood on their butt stocks.

It looks like it's stringing vertically but the horizontal is good. Have you tried pillar bedding the forend? Installing pillars and actually bedding the barrel to the forend with Devcon has helped cut down on vertical stringing in some of my TCs. The rest just needed some fine tuning with the sizing die. Getting the headspace just right can help with vertical stringing in the Contenders.

[jackelope]

Vertical stringing could be flex in that rail. The front of it has air under it. Bellm says that's a big no-no.

[JDHasty]

Vertical may have been that the rear was free floating.  I'm favorably impressed so far. Let me get behind it with an adult stock and custom loaded ammo.

[JDHasty]

I shoot a TC Encore in .300 win mag and I can watch bullets hit the target at 14x thanks to Shawn Carlock.

Hard to believe you can't watch those bullets hit. I believe you. It's just tough to see that happening.

It is not happening for me w/my CZ 22 Hornet.

[jackelope]

Here's what I was referring to. It's sounds like with the youth stock, things were not ideal for seeing the real potential of that rifle. Just something to consider.

http://www.bellmtcs.com/store/index.php?cid=612

[JDHasty]

Here is a photo with a man size stock on it.  If I can get some ammo put together tonight I will shoot it again tomorrow. 

[JDHasty]

Got the 1680 powder and made it to the range with the longer butt stock on it today.  It shoots just fine, the wind was a bit of an issue today it was gusting and kept coming from different directions. 

[jackelope]

Perfect. Looks like a shooter.

[JDHasty]

Perfect. Looks like a shooter.

Yea, it looks pretty decent.  The wind today was problematic, to say the least.  It was gusting and shifting like crazy.  Yesterday the weather here was totally lousy though, so I held out for today at least didn't get drenched too.

I changed a lot of optics around this winter and took a CZ 527 American in 204 and a 788 in 223 along today too and got them zeroed.  Everything I had along today was shooting pretty well and that made it a good day.     

[JDHasty]

I have two days of rockchuck shooting under my belt with this setup and it is a real humdinger.  We shot in pretty heavy wind the first day out to ~225 yards and it was holding it's own. 

It rips chucks open out to ~150 and it is a funny little cartridge after 200 yards or so it either smacks them into "funky chicken" mode and they flip around and their tail goes crazy or they just slump down for a terminal dirt nap. 

I'm pretty well satisfied w/12.4 grains of 1680 and the Hornaday Vmax w/Remington 7 1/2 primer combo.  I suppose I could fool around with other bullet/powder combinations that might give a little better accuracy, but I won't.  That is just the way I am, once I have a gun shooting good enough to suit me I don't worry about seeing if I can shave it down by another hair.

As far as seeing bullet hits through the Nikon set @ 20 power question:  Yea, no problem what so ever. 

On grey diggers, it just opens them right up.  But that is what anyone would expect after seeing what it does to chucks.  Chucks have a really tough hide on them, diggers are pretty soft compared to chucks.   

 

[bman940]

I would be more then happy with the results you are now getting. Very nice. I understand your trepidation to use the BDC reticle but why don't you, for fun, enter your shooting data into Spot On and give the results a chance to work for you. You may be surprised. I have taught ex-Mil guys to use it and then heard them say they were buying a BDC scope after blowing up a 4 inch jar of tannerite at 600 yards. My son grew up on it and it's second nature for him to range land marks then just pull up the rifle and use the proper BDC circle and make the shot.

[JDHasty]

I would be more then happy with the results you are now getting. Very nice. I understand your trepidation to use the BDC reticle but why don't you, for fun, enter your shooting data into Spot On and give the results a chance to work for you. You may be surprised. I have taught ex-Mil guys to use it and then heard them say they were buying a BDC scope after blowing up a 4 inch jar of tannerite at 600 yards. My son grew up on it and it's second nature for him to range land marks then just pull up the rifle and use the proper BDC circle and make the shot.

I had it on a 204R and it did work as advertised. 

On this particular cartridge, 17 Hornet, it just may run out of killing power before there is need any range compensation.  I have a 788 in 223 that I am thinking of chopping the butt stock on and then putting this scope on that rifle for the kids and this Spoton will come in very handy indeed if I do that.  I have a Weaver Super-Slam 3-15 w/EBC reticle sitting in the safe to swap onto the 17 Hornet barrel for them if I do that. 

[bman940]

I applaud you for making rifles kid friendly. When my son was young I used a couple of break open single shots in 22lr,20ga and .243. Great way to learn,be safe and have fun. My now 17 year old is getting ready to go into his last year of high school and some of our fondest memories are hunting together, not the kills but the time spent together.