I have used the 20 gr. Vmax, I believe.. I am away right now.. I have had great luck with it on dogs and gophers.. BUT I would say most are shot less than 75 yards.. Beyond that distance I use a Hornet or .223..

One of my favorite P-dog loads of all time is 300 Win Mag running a speer 130gr tnt at 3500 fps. properly hit dogs will catch 10 to 20 feet of air with ganglia cartwheeling off.
A touch on the expensive side of varminting but worth every dollar.

I used a cooper 17AH a couple years on PDs. It was substantially better than the 17 hmr. Believe I was using 20 grain Berger hp. They did not have the 223/204 type of energy, but the crawl offs were zero, as I recall.

This winter I have obtained a 17 Hornet (CZ 527) and got it up and running. A 20 Vartarg is in the works too. P-dogs and ground squirrels will soon be in peril!

First trip afield with the .17 Hornet (CZ 527). The male ground squirrels have showed up and I whacked a bunch (82 confirmed) today. Very impressed; out to 150 yards got red stuff and 1 foot flips. Out to 200 most DRT. Nice rifle, nice caliber for under 200 yard shooting

While a centerfire may be the better choice, the ranch I hunt in Wyoming has a majority of it's fields designated "rimfire only". Anyone else run into this?