.17 Hornet

.17 Hornet (Ackley)
.17 Hornet (Ackley)
	Hornady version (center), between .17 Winchester Super Magnum (left) and .22 Hornet (right)
Type	Rifle
Place of origin	United States
Production history
Designer	P.O. Ackley
Designed	1950s
Manufacturer	Hornady
Specifications
Parent case	.22 Hornet
Case type	Rimmed, bottleneck
Bullet diameter	.172 in (4.4 mm)
Neck diameter	.193 in (4.9 mm)
Shoulder diameter	.288 in (7.3 mm)
Base diameter	.299 in (7.6 mm)
Rim diameter	.350 in (8.9 mm)
Rim thickness	.065 in (1.7 mm)
Case length	1.350 in (34.3 mm)
Overall length	1.723 in (43.8 mm)
Rifling twist	1-10
Primer type	small rifle
Ballistic performance
	Source(s): Hodgdon http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

Last updated November 02, 2023

The .17 Hornet is a .17 caliber centerfire rifle cartridge originally offered as a "wildcat cartridge" developed by P.O. Ackley in the early 1950s. He created this non-factory (wildcat) offering by simply necking-down the .22 Hornet to .17 caliber and fire-forming the resized cases in his new chamber design. The result was a small quiet cartridge capable of high velocity. Ackley mentions it as one of the most balanced of the .17 cartridges of his time; likely, this is still true.^[1]

Sixty years later, the Hornady Manufacturing Company (Grand Island, Nebraska, US) turned Ackley's idea into a commercial product with a similar cartridge; the .17 Hornady Hornet uses a 20 grain (1.3 gram) "Superformance" V-max projectile with a published velocity of 3,650fps (1,113 metres/second). ^[2]

However, the new standardized ammunition and brass is not built to exactly the same dimensional specifications as the original wildcat or the dimensions listed on this page. Hornady's standard has a shorter body with less taper and shorter overall case length while the overall loaded length remains that of the original .22 Hornet (in order to fit the standard Hornet magazines). Shooters using the .17 Hornady Hornet in a .17 Ackley Hornet chamber experience the bullet jumping to the rifling and losing some of the inherent accuracy for which the cartridge has been known.

It has been reported the .17 Hornady Hornet uses a thicker rim than the original Hornet case. However, the ninth edition of the Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading shows them to be the same (.065 inches); measuring the rims of actual factory cases shows the Hornady handbook to be correct. Moreover, Ackley's Pocket Manual for Shooters and Reloaders shows the rim thickness for his wildcat to range between .069" and .063" which is consistent with the Hornady handbook. Both cartridges head-space on this rim.

While the Ackley cartridge uses a 30-degree shoulder angle and the Hornady is 25 degrees, its longer shoulder is accommodated by Ackley's longer case body. Fireforming moves the Hornady's shoulder forward at the expense of neck length.

There is another size issue: according to Ackley's manual, his wildcat cartridge is only .289" over the shoulder while the Hornady factory round measures .294". This is the reason the Hornady's case capacity is almost identical to that of the Ackley's. Since there is five-thousandths less taper in the case body, the new .17 Hornady Hornet cases may not fit an Ackley chamber without full-length resizing.

Existing rifles chambered for the Ackley wildcat can have their barrels set back one turn and rechambered to the new .17 Hornady Hornet which meets the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI) standard for the .17 Hornet. This fixes the bullet jump issue and improves ammunition availability with little risk of diminished performance.

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The .22 Hornet or 5.6×36mmR Hornet is a varminting, small-game hunting, survival and competition centerfire rifle cartridge commercially introduced in 1930. It is considerably more powerful than the rimfire .22 WMR and the .17 HMR, achieving higher velocity with a bullet twice the weight of the .17 HMR bullet. The Hornet also differs significantly from these in that being a centerfire cartridge makes it reloadable, and thus more versatile. It was the smallest commercially available .22 caliber centerfire cartridge until the introduction of the FN 5.7×28mm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.460 Weatherby Magnum</span> Rifle cartridge

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">.375 H&H Magnum</span> British rifle cartridge

The .375 H&H Magnum, also known as .375 Holland & Holland Magnum, is a medium-bore rifle cartridge introduced in 1912 by London based gunmaker Holland & Holland. The .375 H&H cartridge featured a belt to ensure the correct headspace, which otherwise might be unreliable, given the narrow shoulder of the cartridge case. The cartridge was designed to use cordite which was made in long strands – hence the tapered shape of the case, which, as a beneficial side effect also helped in smooth chambering and extraction from a rifle's breech.

The .22-250 Remington is a very high-velocity, short action, .22 caliber rifle cartridge primarily used for varmint hunting and small game hunting. It is capable of reaching over 4,000 feet per second. It does find occasional use by women and young children for deer hunting because of its low recoil. Some jurisdictions prohibit the use of cartridges smaller than 6 mm for deer hunting. This cartridge is also sometimes known as the .22 Varminter or the .22 Wotkyns Original Swift. Along with the .220 Swift, the .22-250 was one of the high-velocity .22 caliber cartridges that developed a reputation for remote wounding effects known as hydrostatic shock in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

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References

↑ Cartridges of the World 8th Edition, Book by Frank C. Barnes, DBI Books, 1997, ISBN 0-87349-178-5
↑ "17 Hornet 20 gr V-MAX Superformance Varmint". Archived from the original on 2013-12-26. Retrieved 29 August 2012.

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[1] Cartridges of the World 8th Edition, Book by Frank C. Barnes, DBI Books, 1997, ISBN 0-87349-178-5

[2] "17 Hornet 20 gr V-MAX Superformance Varmint". Archived from the original on 2013-12-26. Retrieved 29 August 2012.

[1]

[2]

.17 Hornet

See also

Related Research Articles

References