I was decideing on a rifle to have built for hunting coyotes and i also wanted it to be kinda like a theme rifle to represent pred. hunting.
I did some searching and came up with an action and cartridge to fit my needs. I chose the Stiller Pred. action with right port and right bolt, The cartridge i decided on is the 17 Pred., a 223 case necked down and blown out which was designed by Dan C. on Saubier.com., The purpose of the 17 Pred. was to take a 30 gr. bullet and move it along at 4000-4100 fps and not destroy the hides on the coyotes. For a barrel i went with Lilja barrels with a 1-9" twist which is perfect for the 30 gr.bullet., I have other 17 cal's with the lilja barrels and have had good results with them so i continue to use them in my 17 cal. projects. The barrel was chambered with a .196 neck and no free bore. Next i had to look for a stock for the stiller action and decided to go with a McMillan Sako hunter style stock with brown camo. I like the Sako hunter stocks because they give me a better cheek weld and eye to scope contact which really helps with the standing shots on running coyotes. For a trigger i went with the one that Stiller sells and it is working perfectly. I took a scope off of one of my other rifles and put it on the Pred action, its a super sniper scope with target turrents and fixed 10X. I have had this scope for 3-4 years and it seems tobe doing its job well. I use the dial for dialing distances and it seems to always repeat itself and it comes with big dials so its easey to turn the dial with gloves on..
For brass i decided to try Noslers custom 223 brass, the weight was very uniform and the flash holes came cleaned up. The test brass has been fired 6-7 times and i only lost a few to primer pockets getting loose from to hot of load.. For bullets i'm useing Kindler 30 gr. Golds which is a H.P. B.T. and has a very good B.C. for longer range shooting. The powders i'm testing at the moument are N-540, N-550, and Ramshot big game, biggame is giveing me the best accuracy with groups in the .3's and a vel avr of 4000 fps. N-550 came in second with groups in the .3-.4's at a vel. avr. of 4150..For primers the biggame powder likes the fed. 205-m primers and the N-550 likes the rem. 7 1/2 primers.
So far the 17 Pred. has accounted for over a dozen coyotes and a few redfox and i have not had any fur damage on any of them and all where one shot kills from 50 yds out to 375 yds. except i had one coyote in N.M. get up after a good hit in the shoulder with a fireform load with a vel of 3600 fps. I also took the 17 Pred. to a get together in Az. and had it autographed by Gerry Blair and Rich Higgins. I have a hunt planed for S.D. in a couple of weeks to do some more testing on there coyotes which willbe called in..
All gunsmith work was done by SGR custom rifles, Stan did a great job putting this rifle together and was also helpful with makeing the brass... Thanks Stan... Tim A.