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Jake Carey

I had a Ruger .17 that I could not get to shoot, and eventually I realized that in my excitement I had disassembled and cleaned and checked everything except the factory scope rail. Turned out all the screws were about 1/4 of a thread twist too long for the holes. No wonder it had been returned. I shortened them and the groups shrank dramatically. Even the recoil of that little bullet was enough to bang the scope around. Not to insult anyone's intellect, it's just my experience.

Afterward it turned out that I was unimpressed with the 17 at its "best" so I sold it and replaced with with a side-by-side 12. Oddly enough that helped convince my lady that I wanted a pointing dog as badly as she did, and shortly after we were able to find an extremely well bred dog we shouldn't have been able to afford because the breeder needed to make space and he told us to make an offer. So that's the best use of a .17 to me: pretend to be over the moon for it, then sell it to convince your wife of your commitment to the idea that you actually wanted all along.

I hope it works out. It sounds like you're the correct owner for a good-shooting .17.