The 17's have been around for much longer than most think. Ackley necked down a big verity of calibers to .17 The 17 Rem first came out in a factory rifle in 1971. But as a wild cat it had been around as a 17/222.
In about 1943 Charlie O’Neil asked P.O. Ackley to make a 17-caliber barrel for him. With the war effort in full swing, Ackley had trouble acquiring the tooling and did not get the barrel made up until 1945. By then O’Neil had lost interest in the project. The first cartridge that Ackley made up in 17 caliber was the 17 Pee Wee, a necked down 30 Carbine case.
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It quickly became obvious that there were no actions that would readily handle the 17 Pee Wee and surplus .30 Carbines were still years away from the market. Consequently Ackley quickly realized the need for more useful cartridges in 17 caliber. So, he moved on to the 17 Ackley Hornet, 17 Ackley Bee, and eventually the 17/222. In his “Handbook for Shooters and Reloader”
Ackley stated that, “Experience has shown that the 222 Remington simply necked down without any other change is about the best, and most easily made since it requires no trimming or fire forming. This cartridge is about maximum capacity for the 17 bore and only a slight increase in velocity has been possible by necking down larger cases.”
The lineage of the 17 Remington is clear, it goes back directly to Ackley’s work with the 17 caliber.