Madox58

With today's modern trend of shorter, fatter, and faster rounds, our staff has developed what may be the ultimate varmint round. It will far exceed both the WSM and WSSM rounds in both range and velocity. We would like to introduce the .17/50BMG Magnum.

The new round is based on the 50 BMG necked down to .17 cal. with an innovative shoulder configuration to allow additional powder space. Unfortunately, the round will not be able to be reloaded to factory velocities until we can develop a home-use powder drop that will adequately fill the shoulder space. It has been suggested that the load be assembled in reverse, with the bullet first being seated and the powder then poured throught the primer hole. We are now testing that proceedure.

The .17 cal. projectile is a specially designed 45 gr. varmint bullet. The staff sacrificed a slight bit of velocity with this heavier bullet in order to get an increased ballistic coeficient for added downrange stability.

We started development with 200 gr. of Hodgden H50BMG powder but found it to be a bit slow burning for maximum velocity with this light bullet. 205 grains of IMR4831 seems to produce the highest velocity but we won't know for sure until we find a chronograph that registers above 9999 fps.

Close range accuracy with our prototype rifle was .3 MOA. Further refinement of the rifle should dramatically improve on this poor performance. We fired a group at maximum range yesterday then sent a team to recover the target. They should be back tomorrow to report on long range accuracy.

Finding a scope with enough magnification to see small targets at maximum range has been a challenge. We finally settled on a Swift atronomical reflecting telescope which will provide suitable magnification of ground squirrels at 3 miles. However, being a reflecting scope, it has it's drawbacks. The image is inverted and, with the eyepiece being near the front and at 90 degrees to the scope, it's a bit uncomfortable to hold and sight the rifle. We feel that the unnatural shooting position is the cause of the less-than-ideal accuracy with the prototype rifle. On the plus side, the exceptional velocity of the round allows a 1.5 mile sight-in and allows the shooter to hold dead-on at twice that range.

It's well known that large capacity, narrow bore rounds tend to heat a barrel rapidly, causing premature throat errosion. This round, being large capacity and narrow bore to the extreme, tends to heat the barrel very rapidly, as expected. With the prototype, we find it unadvisable to fire more than two rounds per day in the winter, one per day in hot weather. This gives the barrel time to cool between shots. We have a second generation prototype under development that uses an environmentally correct R134 cooling system that operates from a backpack unit. It is designed to permit sustained rapid fire of one shot per hour.

We tested the new round on a coyote at about 2/3 of it's maximum range. The coyote was feeding on a rabbit when the shot was fired. However, before the bullet arrived, the coyote finished eating and wandered away, causing a miss. We recommend shooting only at sleeping coyotes unless it's either caught in a trap or already dead.

Retail price has not been established. Duplicate prototype rifles are available for those who wish to get in on the ground floor of the hottest round ever developed. We will gladly take trade-ins if you happen to have a low mileage Porche, 1998 or later. First born children are not accepted unless house broken and vaccinations are current.