I will give you my opinions. I think you would give up a pretty good bit of velocity with anything under 18”, and the WSM has a thicker case than the other .17’s, which makes it harder to ignite. Personally due to the lack of WSM ammo and being harder to ignite, I think I would probably go with the HMR or Mach2 in a pistol. The other thing is right now you can get Mach2 ammo for about $9 a box, and HMR is close to double that. WSM, unless you have a bunch of it, nobody has it except for the price gougers on gunbroker.

 

Can't address the performance from a shorter barrel, but the firing pin location and firing pin energy are problems with the .17 WSM shoehorned into actions not designed from the start for it, or modified accordingly. Ruger had issues with ignition and trigger pull on its 77/17 (current model is probably debugged by now). The Miroku 1885s in 17 WSM have a much stronger mainspring than the rimfire versions...near centerfire level, as I recall.

I actually bought three rifles, intending to convert them to .17 WSM: an Anschutz 1702 with extra bolt body, a BSA Model 13, and an 1885 in 17 HMR. The plan on the 1702 and the 1885 was to just punch out a new chamber and modify the bolt face on the 1702 and the extractor on the 1885. The BSA was going to be rebarreled. I walked away from all due to firing pin location and ignition concerns. I believe Gerald had firing pin location issues on his Bullberry?? 17 WSM barrel. I ended up with an 1885 in .17 WSM and a couple of VQ semiautos.

 

Can't address the performance from a shorter barrel, but the firing pin location and firing pin energy are problems with the .17 WSM shoehorned into actions not designed from the start for it, or modified accordingly. Ruger had issues with ignition and trigger pull on its 77/17 (current model is probably debugged by now). The Miroku 1885s in 17 WSM have a much stronger mainspring than the rimfire versions...near centerfire level, as I recall.

I actually bought three rifles, intending to convert them to .17 WSM: an Anschutz 1702 with extra bolt body, a BSA Model 13, and an 1885 in 17 HMR. The plan on the 1702 and the 1885 was to just punch out a new chamber and modify the bolt face on the 1702 and the extractor on the 1885. The BSA was going to be rebarreled. I walked away from all due to firing pin location and ignition concerns. I believe Gerald had firing pin location issues on his Bullberry?? 17 WSM barrel. I ended up with an 1885 in .17 WSM and a couple of VQ semiautos.

I think you are exactly right on Gerald’s problem!
If anybody knows of the problems with WSM’s, it would be Kent (teddy bear rat). If he says something, listen. I can’t give you any better advice than that.👍

 

Thank you for the input. I am going to put some rounds through the 17hmr and evaluate were the firing pin is striking and go from there. Then probably realize I'm whipping a dead horse.

 

I had a lot of interest in the 17 WSM. What cured it when I went to order from one of my favorite barrel maker. It was no longer an option. I called the owner and he explained they had way too many complaints. Seems the Contender lacked enough oomph to ignite the tough primer on the WSM. That caused my interest to evaporate.

 

Right now the project is on the back burner, BUT after deep discussions with a local smith and some measurements on a few fired cases from the 17hmr barrel we are going to rechamber to 17WSM & alter a firing pin bushing and test it. Worst case it doesn't work, toss a $15 bushing and rechamber 17 hornet.

 

If you want the ultimate experiment make it 4.5x28. 5.7 brass is not as hard to find.

 

Can you elaborate please. Keep in mind I'm very new to reloading. I did look up 5.7x28 and I'm assuming your referring to sizeing down to a 17 caliber but I didn't see anything involving 4.5x28.

 

Well, you would be the first. Volume wise it will be identical to the 22 hornet. Hornady can make a custom die set and the Contender is the perfect wildcat platform.

 

Well after some asking around and some great reading, It wouldn't be the ultimate experiment and it wouldn't be the first. It was done in the late 80s and was called 17 v raptor. The guy that did it first wrote a great article back in 1990. Working on getting a better copy emailed to me and will pass it along when I do.

 

Any custom barrel for a Contender is going to take months. Thompson closed its doors ( actually Smith & Wesson ) and the frame cost is ridiculously high right now. SSK was supposed to be making frames identical. While a supply of small parts for the Contenders have appeared the frames by SSK are still in limbo. I bought my Contender stuff years ago but I couldn't afford them now.

 

OP here. My build was based on a rechamber from a 17hmr to 17WSM.

 

TBR is correct, my MGM barrel had to go back to the factory as it didn't line up correctly with the Encore firing pin, a good reason to stick with G1/G2's for rimfires
barrels. An extra power firing pin spring and the new barrel made it reliable and its very accurate, but a lot of bother.

 

I was wrong on the date but here is the article...sorry it's kinda grainy.

 

So is this the reason I’m getting at least 1 round per mag with a primer strike but no boom in my VQ 17wsm?