[Jack]

I had a 17-223, built on a Rem 700 action, way back in Thee Olden Days, when Hornady didn't make .172 bullets, and a .17 was an odd beast.
I got bullets from a small custom bullet maker (might have been Charlie Sisk). The rifle did pretty well on woodchucks for a while.
But, back in those days, no one made 17 cal cleaning rods- no one I knew of, anyway. The standard bore cleaner was Hoppe's #9 - again, the only one I knew about.
I ended up trying to clean that rifle with a long chunk of brazing rod and Hoppe's on a patch. Lots of soaking and scrubbing. One day's woodchuck hunting required about a week of cleaning- soak 12 hours in Hoppe's, run a few patches, repeat. Being the early days of .17 caliber barrel making, the bore was not the smoothest I've ever seen, and the rifle was a bad fouler.
Loading data? HA! Loading data was mostly non existent. I must say I learned quite a bit, experimenting with that rifle- mostly, what bad things can happen when you do things wrong!
I finally concluded that the rifle was more trouble than it was worth, and peddled it.
I'm sure things are far different now, with bullets, factory cases, cleaning equipment, and good load data available.