Ninth Custom Rifle

March 2026



I always thought at some point in my life I would have a 17 Remington so when a reamer showed up for sale on a forum, I grabbed it. Started working on it early to mid January and fired it on February 1st. We had some warm weather so I took advantage of it. Probably have fired about 60 rounds now and 10 of those went across the chronograph at an average of 3950 FPS with a 25 HP. The trigger will have to be replaced soon. It is a factory X-Mark which is about the worst trigger I've ever tried to pull, clocking in at about 6 pounds

My plan was to put together a coyote rifle, you know, because you can't have too many. Play with it, use it, hunt with it and decide if I need a heavy barrel version for Prairie Dogs. I have not blued the barrel or anything at this point because I left the barrel at 24" threaded and that may prove long enough to annoy me. I will probably do a camo paint job of some sort on this rifle so I might as well decide if I need to cut it down before I paint it.

Tested it with a new AB A-10 suppressor on 3/6 it sounded like a 22 LR. Very cool!

So far I am pleased with it. Brass is easy to come by, found a nice set of used dies and off to the races with it. One thing I did find was that the reamers out there, including the one I bought have a neck diameter of .200. The new Nosler brass I bought for the occasion was at .199 and with a bullet seated was pushing the .200 mark. I decided to turn the necks to at least take off the high spots and going forward that will be my practice with new brass and keep an eye on it.



Created March 2026