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Its a Hebee?

I began my quest as most all of us do, in search of a new gun. I have a passion about the small caliber stuff, .17 in particular. I already had a .17 Remington, and was looking at something a little smaller to push the 20-22-grain bullets efficiently. While the Mach IV is very popular and much easier to get information on I wanted something a little different but close in performance, so I chose the .17 Hebee. Rather than telling some glorious statistics and deductive reasoning about why I chose the Hebee, Ill default to the truth I wanted to be able to say, "Its a .17 Hebee," while at the range.

The .17 Hebee was developed by Dennis Hrusosky a number of years ago as an improved version of the .17 Ackley Bee. The Hebee has a shorter neck and longer body, which gives it more powder capacity. The Hebee is based on the .218 Bee, a rimmed case. The rimmed case lends itself to the single shot Encore action. The rimmed cases are thought to be stronger in the case head area, making loose primer pockets nearly extinct. Shown in Figure 1 are the cases in order from left to right: .17 Ackley Hornet, .17 Ackley Bee, .17 Hebee, .17 Mach IV, and .17 Remington.

I commissioned Fred Smith of Bullberry to make the barrel, and Woodsmith Inc. to make the stock set, based primarily on reputation as this was to be my first Bullberry purchase. I also ordered the Bullberry double end forming die and a Redding full length die set. This was to be my first experience with the double end forming die, and I had no idea what it would look like. Redding also makes forming dies for the Hebee, but I chose to use the Bullberry version, as I could use this forming die for other .17 caliber projects in the future.

At this point I had barrel, stock set, and dies all ordered, but I still had to get some brass, bullets, case holder, and other miscellaneous stuff required for a .17. Another call to Todd Kindler at the Woodchuck Den was all that was needed to get the stuff en route. One thing that continues to astonish me is Todds ability to have everything that I need in stock and ready to ship either he carries a large inventory or I am extremely lucky. Todd had the Wilson case holder (.17 Hebee) in stock, the flash hole deburrer, and the bore guide. Todd is also a great source of information and is willing to take the time to talk to you about your project. He has helped me since the beginning when reloading for my .17 Remington.

I already had Todds "Sensational Seventeens" compilation, so I was familiar with the expected ballistics of the Hebee. Based on case capacity and desired velocities, I chose the 19 22-grain bullet weights. I was hoping to push the 19-grain bullets at 3900 fps, and the 22-grain bullets at 3700 fps. I have had great success with the Starke bullets, so after speaking with Clint Starke, a box of 20-grain RPVBs were on the way. I rounded out my bullet selection with James Calhoon 19-grain and 22-grain double hollow points, Hornady 20-grain V-maxes, and Berger 22-grain MEFs. There are many more .17 caliber bullets made, but I chose these based on previous success. I would also like to try some of the Kindler 23-grain boattails in the near future.

When dealing with any wildcat, determining which powder is suitable or even preferred can become a challenge. I chose to work with both Vihtavouri N130 and Reloder 7 powders based on load data in Sensational Seventeen manual and Dick Saunders ".17 Caliber Shooting" manual. These were the sources of information that I had available and felt most comfortable with. I intend to try some Accurate Arms 2200 powder in the future as James Calhoon recommended it as his first choice, but it only comes in 8-lb. kegs and Maryland only allows purchase of 4-lbs per day of powder.

Another great way to get information on a specific caliber is on the Internet especially www.varminthunters.com on the Go Go Varmint Go message board. This is a great place to ask questions regarding the small caliber stuff, as well as reloading questions. I can post a question on the .17 Hebee and get responses from others that either currently load for or have loaded for in the past.

Two packages arrived on the door step brass, bullets, forming die, and Redding full length die set. I now had everything needed to begin the case forming process. I found directions with my Bullberry double end forming die. In something of a new concept for me, I decided to read the directions, since they were on one half sheet of paper, and numbered 1-4.

The forming die (See Figure 2) is threaded to fit in my reloading press and is stamped on each end with 1 or 2. One problem that I found when using the Bullberry double end forming die was that there was no nut on the die and the thread-slop allowed the die to wiggle while in the press I added a nut from one of my other die sets to alleviate this problem. I also felt the need to polish the die, as there were tooling marks from the machining process as evidenced by the scrape marks on my case necks. Im not sure if either of these things would have affected performance, but I felt like doing them. I formed approximately 50 rounds before polishing the forming die, and had no detectable problems, but have gotten in the practice of polishing all of my dies using Flitz Metal Polish.

The case-forming steps are as follows:

1. Chamfer inside and outside of case mouth.
2. Lube the case neck and shoulder area.
3. Run through Side 1 of the forming die.
4. Run through Side 2 of the forming die.
5. Use Redding FL die to complete the neck.

Note: Be sure to apply adequate lube between steps, otherwise a stuck case may result. Figure 3 shows the results from each forming step.

As the cases are sized through the 3 dies the brass becomes work hardened, and annealing is necessary to return the neck and shoulder area of the brass to the dead soft condition. The annealing should be done before fireforming to prevent splitting of the case neck and to aid in the expansion of the case during fireforming.

The case head must not be annealed, as it will become too soft and could rupture during firing. To aid in the annealing process, I made a case holder to act as a heat sink while I rotate the brass in the flame. My case holder looks something like the one that came with the Wilson case trimmer that I use. I machined it with same taper as the case so it makes good contact, improving heat transfer. The case holder is placed into a machined aluminum device that is held in a drill. This contraption worked very well, and I can use it for other case sizes in the future, just by machining new case holders. I used three of them for the Hebee, so that I could keep going while they cooled down.

Once the case is brought up to temperature, it is dunked into water for quenching. The cases should not be trimmed until after fireforming, as they will stretch when they are fireformed and resized. The cases are now ready to have the flash hole deburred, using a special tool I obtained from the Woodchuck Den, and the primer pocket squared.

Figure 4 shows the Encore with Bullberry stock set, and 20" full bull bullberry barrel in .17 Hebee (try saying that 10 times). The fit and finish of the stock set are excellent, and the quality of the wood is breathtaking. A picture just cant do this wood justice. The 2" wide target style forearm matches the stock beautifully. The Swift 6-18X 44 scope is mounted in Burris Zee rings on a Weaver style base.

I need to take a moment to give praise to the Swift scope. A local gun shop (Mallins Guns) that I buy some of my reloading supplies from is a Swift dealer. I never owned a Swift scope before, but I tried a couple and was impressed by the warranty and optical quality. I needed a good scope for my Hebee project, so I decided to try the Swift. I am delighted with its lens quality, light transmission, and tracking. The fine cross hairs are great for shooting at small targets at long distances. The field of view is clear all the way out to the edges throughout the power range of the scope. I have no problem seeing the tiny holes at 100 yards. The target knobs are big and I get distinct clicks when adjusting. I have raised and lowered the elevation with the target knobs and changed the right and left windage a number of times. The point of impact returns to zero on all occasions. The price of these scopes was another pleasant surprise, and overall I consider it a very good deal.

For fireforming, I used a reduced powder charge (13grains) of Reloder 7, and a 25-grain Hornady hollow point. I didnt intend to use 25-grain bullets in this cartridge, but the heavier bullet helps to ensure that the case is formed fully during fireforming. There are other methods of fireforming, but this one was successful for me, and the fireforming loads actually performed very well, and I used them also to break-in the new barrel.

I first loaded one round with the reduced load and fired it to see if it would blow out the shoulder completely. I seated the bullet to just touch the lands. It worked, so I loaded 50 prepped cases. I only had 50 Hornady 25-grain HPs left, so I stopped loading when I ran out.

I used the first 13 rounds to break in the barrel and sight in the scope, cleaning after each shot. Then I began the sequence of 1 fouler out of the clean barrel, then 5 shots for the group, then clean after each group.

I shot 6 groups at 100 yards using the Hornadys with an average group size of .581". The largest group was .687", and the smallest was .436". I loaded the rest of the fireforming loads with 25-grain Bergers, just because those were what I had on hand. I shot some groups using these and had a best of .311" and a worst of .856" at 100 yards. Seen in Figure 5 is a group shot while fireforming. I shot a few over a chronograph to determine the velocity of these loads as well, and got an average of 3,290 fps.

I was very pleased with these groups and had high hopes for the load development. I did lose one case in the fireforming process due to a split shoulder. The barrel cleaned up with a few wet patches of Shooters Choice after each group. I used Sweets to remove any copper after my shooting session and was pleased at the very small amount of copper that was present. It was nothing like cleaning my factory barrel .17 Remington.

One problem that I ran into was cleaning a 20" barrel with a 38" cleaning rod. It was very awkward using such a long rod for such a short barrel. I had some difficulty finding a short enough rod, but I found that Pro-Shot makes a 22.5" rod in .17 caliber. This is just what the doctor ordered for us .17 caliber shooters with 19 20 inch TC barrels. Including the supplied brass spear point jag, the cleaning rod cost $19.99.

After fireforming, prior to load development, some additional case preparation is necessary. I started by trimming the cases to length using my Wilson case trimmer which holds the case perfectly perpendicular to the cutter head. I read in my "Sensational Seventeen Manual" that the trim to length was supposed to be 1.355 but I am pretty sure it was a misprint. I consulted my Lymans 47^th loading manual for the .218 Bee and the trim to length was 1.335". I also measured all of my cases and had none even close to the 1.355. With the already short neck of the Hebee, I trimmed as little as possible to get all of the cases the same, which ended up being very close to 1.335".

Once all of the cases were trimmed to length, I used my brand new Forster outside neck turning tool. This is a compact hand tool, which is exactly what I want for case preparation. I enjoy taking my case preparation tools away from the bench, so I appreciate the portability. The other impressive feature of this tool is the micrometer adjustment knob with .001 index marks that allow it to be set to within half-a-thousandth of an inch. The Forster uses a carbide cutter to do the work. Carbide isnt affected as much by temperature as high-speed steel, and remains sharp longer. I am not going to detail the importance of neck turning, but I will just state that I feel it is worth my time investment.

I have included tables showing loading parameters, group diameters, and some analyses of the distribution of impacts. In addition to the familiar group diameter, I like to measure the horizontal and vertical coordinates of each impact. Then I can enter them in a spreadsheet that computes the center of impact and the horizontal and vertical standard deviation (SD) of each group. This way each hit can be analyzed separately for horizontal and vertical spread. Fliers can be defined quantitatively, and usually a flier is only out in one direction or the other. The criteria I used for a flier was that it must be more than three times as far from the center of impact as the SD of the other 4 hits. In a normal distribution, 99.96% would be found within 3 SD of the center. Another benefit of the spreadsheet is that I can print out "virtual" targets for each group or put several groups on one target.

Load development started with Vihtavouri n130 powder and Starke 20-grain bullets. I adjusted the seating depth so that the bullets were just short of the lands. I loaded up starting at 13.5-grains and increasing in 0.3-grain increments up to 15.8 grains of n130 without any significant pressure signs. This combination proved to be very accurate with some very good groups. See Table 1.

I then switched to Reloder 7 and loaded up to a maximum of 15.4 with the 20-grain Starkes. I had some primer cratering with the Starkes at this level but no ruptured primers or sticky extraction. The Starke 20-grain bullets proved to be great with either of the two powders, with some of the groups being in the .3 - .4 inch range. I was unable to get a chrono reading on the Starkes with the n130, but got a velocity of 3884 fps with 15.4 grains of the Reloder 7. See Table 2.

I then loaded some 19grain Calhoons using the n130 in the same manner. The groups with this powder/bullet combination were not as promising as I had hoped, so I discontinued further development. One thing that I noticed was that the suggested maximum velocity for these is 3800 fps, and I am sure that I exceeded this velocity. I loaded some of the 22-grain Calhoons with the n130 also. Although better than the 19-grain Calhoons, this combination didnt suit my Hebee either. I would still like to try some heavier Calhoons at a velocity around 3700 fps to see if I can find a combination that extracts their potential. See Table 3.

Still using the n130, I loaded up some of the Hornady 20-grain V-maxes. I got up to a maximum of 15.5 grains before I started to see some primer cratering. At this charge, I recorded an average velocity of 3844fps, a little lower than I got with Reloder 7. I probably could have loaded these a little hotter, and I intend to try some at 15.8 grains.

With 15.4 grains of Reloder 7, the V-maxes achieved an average velocity of 3915 fps out of the 20" barrel. With the Encore, I could feel some sticky extraction when opening the breech with these loads. The primers looked cratered and flat, but didnt leak or rupture. I reduced to 15.2 grains and didnt experience any additional problems. I will have to keep an eye on this load and possibly reduce further for warm weather shooting as it was 40° F when I shot the load at 15.2 grains, compared to 70° F when I experienced the pressure signs with 15.4 grains.

Accuracy with this load was good, and I plan on doing some follow-up work to evaluate further. I did have some impressive groups with the v-maxes and Reloder 7. See Table 4. All measurements are in inches; range was 100 yards.