Over this past weekend I had occassion to travel 620 miles here in Montana! The Varmints are out! I literally saw them all! Crows, Magpies, Rock Chucks, Fox, Coyotes, Rabbits of all kinds, Skunks and I saw my first Badger in a long while! But the highlight of the trip was the abundance of Ground Squirrels literally everywhere! I saw them close to the continental divide when I crossed it and the elevation there was just under 5,900" where I was. Their numbers were even impressive in fields where I had shot them last year!? So lots of Hunting oppurtunities upcoming!
Unfortunately I was doing a prisoner escort detail and was only able to arm myself with a Glock pistol. About 60 miles of the trek was on roads I had never been on before and I will get back to that stretch for some certain to be fantastic Ground Squirrel Hunting! Before and after the actual detail I was able to shop at several Gunshops and the new 17 HMR ammunition by Remington has finally made it to Montana. I bought a box even though I do not have the Rifle yet. I will share it with several friends here that do have 17 HMR's though and they can try 10 rounds to see if it may be more accurate than the Hornady stuff. The box said the bullets were Boat Tails. I do not think the Hornady ammo is of the Boat Tail configuration. One shop said they had in and had sold out their first batch of CCI 17 HMR ammo. The weather has finally turned pleasant here and Shooting and Hunting reports to follow soon!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy,

I'm up over 400 gophers sent to the Great Beyond this month alone with a .17HMR! Easter Sunday morning was spent at the pasture altar of exploding rodents while the lovely missus was in a more conventional place of worship. I shot groups of five gophers at a time only because that's how many rounds I can fit in a magazine. I actually heated up the barrel! Sixtyone gophers in 65 shots in less than 45 minutes! Four were just plain smooth misses.

FWIW, in my Savage the Hornady and Rem ammo are interchangeable. They shoot to the same point of impact and have the same terminal performance. Wonder why....

Redial

I'm up to a couple a hundred gophers and about 7 or 8 rock chucks, love that .17HMR. VarmintGuy might check the game laws before shooting crows and magpies, I think their protected.---Shoot Safe---montdoug

Montdoug: Yes in some states they are protected. Montana is one of them. That does not mean that in every state they are protected. But in every state they are nest robbing Varmints and if I had a nickel for every Crow Varmint I have shot I could buy a new Ruger 77/17V! I was just talking today with another Ground Squirrel shooter that raves about his 17 HMR on Ground Squirrels. And he relayed some real long distance kills (200 yards!) on them with his heavy barreled Marlin in 17 HMR. I can't wait to get one!
Keep after em!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
PS: Nest robbers are Varmints in many places I travel and are quickly and unceremoniously laid to rest! Often exploding into large plumes of real dark feathers. Poof!

I meant to ask you 17 HMR shooters. Do your barrels ever foul to the point of you noticing accuracy starting to diminish while in the fields? If so after how many rounds? If not good!
I saw a Ruger 77/17V this past weekend that had a shiny stainless finish on the action and barrel as compared to all the others I have seen that have a dull gray type stainless finish. Anyone know what the deal is there?
I gotta get one!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VG, to answer your question concerning fouling - yes! I'm the only one I've heard bitch about it, so it may just be my barrel - but I doubt it.

The fouling is uniquely carbon and mostly in the first 5-6" of barrel. It started giving me shots "off call" after 50 or so rounds early on but now after 500 rounds and several JB applications, it's getting much better. I have NEVER gotten even a trace of jacket fouling. Ever. I shot 65 rounds Sunday morning and was still getting 150 yard headshots when I finished.

When I start hemming and hawing about spending 18 cents per gopher, I remember what my grandmother said about life being short and seizing the day.

"Use the good china. That's what it's for, dumbass" she'd say. Marine Corps family, ya see.

Redial

The hornady ammo is boat tail. remington ammo uses the same v max bullet and is loaded at the same cci factory. cci remington and hornady are all loaded at cci. the only bullet that is not boat tail is the tnt hollow point which is the cci version of the 17 hmr. they all are 17 grains.

balistic, The Remington is NOT boattail! The box says it is but the box is misprinted! They will use up all the labels they have and then it won't say that anymore. This comment came from the guy who is in charge of packaging for Remington! GHD PS: Pull a bullet and check it out!

VarmintGuy you have a PM

Last weekend I chronographed my stepfather's Contender and NEF in .17 HRM using both the Rem and Hornady ammo. I didn't notice if either was boat tail or not. At the ranges utilized it is a moot point. Anyway, in the contender the Remington ammo was 50fps faster. 2450 vs 2500 fps as I recall. I think it was with a 16 inch barrel- I don't have either gun handy. In the NEF both reounds chrono'd at just over 2500 fps. Didn't really shoot for group.

FWIW,
Beau