.17 HMR WOW!

Shooting very far, and very accurately have been a passion of mine since I was a kid. I was a military sniper for 10 years, and belonged to many shooting teams during those years. So when I started checking into the .17 HMR, I really got excited. The value of this round falls into the varmint, crow, and small game hunting. This round is a 17 grain .17 dia. bullet that comes screaming out of the muzzle at about 2550 FPS. You can get it in a Hornady “Ballistic tip” round from Federal, and a Speer Hollow Point in CCI cased ammo. Different rounds act differently out of different guns, so I will let you debate which one is best. Wind can set these little fellas adrift a little more than their larger counterparts auch as the .22-250 and .223.So practicing windage adjustments is a must. These are necked down .22 magnums. They can be fired out to 200 yards with ease, and are dead on killers within 100 yards! These little fellas are excellent choices where coyotes and gophers are an issue in areas where urban sprawl is a concern. They are made to fragment upon impact to reduce ricochets. But they hit like a ton of bricks. We did the water jug test for hydrostatic shock. It blew it to smithereens at 100 yds.! Apples faired no better. I will post two pictures up of the target. Quite a lot of fun! I got the Marlin 917M2 with a Tasco 3×9 (Which will be updated as I can afford it.)and fired it with a bipod. It has the varmint barrel on it, all for $189 at WalMart. For reference, these pictures are from 100 yds after zeroing. I fired 4 rounds each for effect. (The extra round in the bullseye on the Hornady was from my 11 year old son Aaron who was shooting against Dad for a buck! He had one of the Speers as well..)

Whadya think?

Obviously, these are zeroed for 200 yards, so 1.5″ at 100 yards accomplishes this in case you were wondering.

I should clarify, the gun itself was $189, scope and bipod were extra. All this with a little bit more noise than a standard .22!

The really cool thing about this gun is the ability to see the impact of the round through the scope due to the low recoil. It’s fun to be able to watch an apple blow up through the scope when you pull the trigger.

I have a couple friends that shoot these guns and rave about them. Definitely worth the $$$.

My Bro in Law has one and are they fun to shoot. A guy can actually afford to shoot a rifle again, and the accuracy is nice. We played striped gopher derby out to about 150 yds. and man is that a great gun.

What scope did you put on it? And if you have any pics of the gun itself would be appreciated. Looking into one myself and may have to check out Walmart.

Yeah at the old mans, he lives near lake wissota, anything under .22 caliber is legal to shoot so a .17hmr qualifies. A normal pellet gun is .17 caliber too. I might look into getting one of them.

I have a Tasco 3×9 on This gun.

I have had one for two or three years now. This 17gr. pill, he velocity, and the barrels rate of twist are a perfect mix. Just my opinion though, not enough gun to consistently kill coyotes. I used to shoot every coyote I saw whether my shot would kill them or not. No longer, I got into calling them and now understand them much better than I once did. I have too much respect to not provide a quick, sure kill. I stick to the centerfires or at least 12ga. with magnum #4 buck. I can attest that the .17HMR is a more than enough gun for pigeons at 150yards or better. POOF! This is one of my favorite calibres.

I was told that this gun would be “Adequate” for coyotes. I would however have to agree with your assessment at 200 yards. But..that is why I did the Hydrostatic shock test with the jug. I think that within 100 yards with the hollowpoint, I may take the shot.

Eye, just in case you want more info on your gun or would like to work over the trigger yourself, check out this website. http://www.rimfirecentral.com

Robby, thanks for the link. Nice site!
Tuck

The old man carries one of these rifle for all varmit issues around his place. He doesn’t care if the coyote is 200 yards out. He just wants the darn thing to have a belly ache when it leaves his place. He is keeping watch over 12,000 pheasants so any varmit is bad news.

Quote:

---

He is keeping watch over 12,000 pheasants

---

Kooty where does your Dad live???

Dead center SD. He’s not afraid of shooting all critters that threaten his livelyhood. All critters!!!

I’ll try to remember some pics over Turkey day of how easy pheasant hunting is at his place.

Lip, I think he considers you a critter…

How’s the trigger pull on the 917? The trigger pull on my Marlin 17 wasn’t very good when I got it and opted for a rifle basix adjustable trigger

Jeremy, most of these clowns are gone fishing for the week…I can call them clowns because they’re gone!

I’m going to start looking at .17’s…Got any pointers for me?

I had a 17 Remington in the ’70’s…loved that gun…but this new 17’s sound more fun.

All I can say is go to the rimfirecentral website and go to the other forums and find the 17 HMR forum. There is a lot of info there, stuff about modifying magazines to lower capacities to modifying triggers for less pull.

Thanks Jeremy…

That’s a great site for guns!

Bought two in sept one for each of my boys. great starter guns for them.and lots of fun for me as well.

The trigger pull is a bit stiff. I will be modifying mine. Whatever you shoot at is hit. It is an unbelievable gun! A bunch of the guys at Mille Lacs witnessed it in action.