MOA,,,I believe you misunderstood what I posted as your quoted material is not what I wrote at all....

Help me out because I'm not getting this. Everyone keeps talking about the nich this caliber fills. Maybe it's because i own a 22, 22 hornet, & other other small calibers. I must say it is taking off quickly by all the posts.

I can see where this might be usful if you need a quite caliber in a tight place and this is your first gun purchase in this type of small caliber. But alot of you guys posting threads are not in "New York City". A 22LR with some of today's hot loads are excellent out to 100 - 150 yds. To me this seems like a new fad cartidge.

Seems like we are getting to exact. 50-100yds use 22LR. 100-150yds use 17hr. 150-200yds use 22hornet and the rest goes on. There are a lot of other calibers that have much more versatility than this non-reloadable caliber.

I'm sure people will their own example of exactness.

mbkddd---might I suggest finding someone who has one and go shoot with them. I'm sure nothing will ever replace the venerable .22 long rifle, I have a number of them and shoot em alot. I also have a Hornet and K Hornet, love em! But there's always a place in a guys heart for an interesting accurate caliber. I believe if you look at the velocity and ballistic coeffecient you'll see even on paper the .17 HMR is all over a .22 and even a .22 mag. Once you shoot for groups at 100+ yards you see for yourself--when you pop a gopher and see how dramaticly it stops little critters I bet by then your a believer. I truly don't believe this is just a fad this little guy shoots way bigger than it ought to, and ricochets are almost a thing of the past. A 75 yard gopher acts like it was hit with a .223, and sometimes it's nice to just grab a box of shells and go shooting with out looking for brass and reloading. Thats what I've found and the niche it fills for me.---Shoot Safe montdoug

I was very skeptical about this 17 HRM for some time myself. I figured a lot of the talk about its inherent accuracy was likely media hype, meant to sell rifles through articles written to bolster advertising sales.....WRONG! This little cartridge IS accurate and it doesn't take a high-priced rifle to support that claim...I still am hesitant to use its 17 grain bullet on Eastern woodchucks but it has to be darn near ideal for prairie dogs and western ground squirrels within its sure-hit range...
Don't knock it until you've tried it....

What are you guys using for a cleaning rod/brush for the 17. No one in town here has anything that will work

rifleman1---I have a CZ 452 Varmint HMR. I got a dewey rod, and I believe Pro Shot brushes from Sinclair International ( they have a web site ) Also if you pull up the "Woodchuck Den Inc." That is a company run by a great guy by the name of Todd Kindler, Todd is the editor of small caliber news. Todd also knows more about small caliber facts and equipment needs than any one your likely to meet. Todd can fix you up with any needed supplies, rods, brushes, bore guides,etc. They focus on items for small calibers-- Great folks!!! Hope that helps. ---Shoot Safe---montdoug

shot a blacktail jackrabbit with my 17 hmt 12" contender (pistol) saturday. jack was about 30-35 yards away. bullet entered ribs, exited spine (in pieces, i think - didn't necropsy it as i was to give dead rabbit to dad for his python). rabbit died almost instantly.

troy

mountdoug:

Thanks for the reply. Called Dewey direct and ordered a 26" graphite rod and brush - at least they had them in stock.

Writeup in Am Rifleman about .17 said they shot 5-shot groups at 100 yds as small as .3" and with a 7X scope. Does anyone believe that? I think it was missprint and they meant 50 yds.

I suppose groups in the 3's are possible under perfect conditions...I seriously doubt the average of five five shot groups would be that small....
I just tested the 17 HRM CCI load last week....Group size is about twice that of the Hornady stuff....Took nine of the ten box CCI "brick" back to my dealer and swapped it for the Hornady ammo. Will try the Remington load tomorrow and report my results.....

The .17 has been a big problem for me ever since I bought it!
The proglem is that I never get to shoot it.
Bought the Marlin 'cause it was cheep.
The shooters had two comlaints.
Trigger to heavy, and the smoth but plate slide all over the place. Had 'smit fix both. 11 boes later I have only fired one clip ( they even loaded it for me ) of five shots!
Lots of fun.

Will the humer lst? I hope not! It's getting expensive.

Are there ammo on the marked with a bit harder bullets and also a FMJ bullet???

The varmit bullet is not so great on game that you are going to eat!

Johan

Check this one out by Rossi.Theres a short blurb on it in Rifle mag,no accuracy tests.At least you'd have something to shoot while you'r waiting for some 17 ammo.
Jeff
www.rossiusa.com/

Taurus will be making it's new Mod.63 in 17HMR as well as 22LR and 22 Mag. The people at Taurus say it will be available in July.

Rusty
We band of brothers!

Sorry for all the typos guys.
My worse post yet.
By the way my Savage .17 only seems to shoot into about 1 1/4" at 100 yards.
Nobody else must have noticed, because the boxes of ammo keep disappearing.

They don't even ask to shoot it anymore. All they ask is, "where's the little red cuties?".

Good friends, good shooting.
Hope you guys are so lucky.

Jamie

Went out to pick on the P Dogs to day with a Cooper LVT in the 17HMR with a 4.5x 14 scope. The dogs would drop over with a lung to head shot . Shots were between 50and 175 yards. That 17 HMR is a keeper.

I have a "first-run" Marlin 17V and a Savage 93R17FV, both of which are excellent for the money you pay for them. The Marlin had bedding issues, but nothing some Acraglas Gel didn't cure(the rear of the action was floating, if you tightened the rear action screw, it bound the bolt), now it is one of my favorite rifles, and will group into 3/4" all day long with the Hornady ammo. The Savage isn't as good for accuracy, 1MOA is about it, but isn't that still wonderful for a rimfire at 100 yards? I have killed crows at 175, and headshot turtles from 150, they are keepers! Buy one or two, you won't regret it at all!

My new Ruger 77/17V is online and shooting! Its a long story but there has been a Ruger 77/17V over in Missoula, Montana for several months now! I am surprised it has been there so long! It was at a kind of out of the way hardware store/Gunshop called the Axman! This Rifle had piqued my interest because it was made and finished in the original bright shiney stainless finish as opposed to the now standard gray dull stainless finish. Anyway the Rifle was originally offered at $469.00. I had offered one of the countermen $450.00 several weeks ago for it. He counter offered $464.00! I nearly sprung for it then! I am kind of glad I waited. I had been in to check on the Rifle each time I passed through Missoula (170 miles from me). It stayed there. Finally on May 2nd I was headed through Missoula on my way to Seattle to take a turn looking after an elderly and ill parent. I had purposely left my "mad cash" at home as I was trying to put off buying that sweet little Varminter til a convenient time. Well I finally got to the Axmans place in the late afternoon and the head man in charge of Guns was just discussing the Rifle I was interested in with another counterman. The head man was miffed that he could not get ammo for the 17 HMR's he had sold already and was in the mood to sell my shiney sweetheart! I got the Rifle for $425.00 cash and had to drive several miles to find an ATM to get the cash (dang it now the wife will find out about this purchase soon!).
Anyway off I head to Seattle with my prize in the trunk. On returning from the coast and a quick combo Bear Hunt/Varmint Hunt in NW Montana Saturday and Sunday last I was finally able to mount a scope on it Monday and sight it in. The Rifle shot the Hornady and CCI ammo into .43" 5 shot groups at 50 yards that day. The wind was blowing at 15 MPH+ during my only range session. I was very pleased with this accuracy in that wind! The reason I was in a hurry to shoot even in the bad wind was that I had been invited to shoot Ground Squirrels today (Tuesday) with an old friend on a new ranch!
Well to say I was thrilled with the new Ruger and its performance on Ground Squirrels would be an understatement! I was just ecstatic with it! I mounted a splendidly clear Weaver 15X scope on it and the adjustable objective of the Weaver and its excellent Duplex reticle were very impressive indeed! I had my Leica laser rangefinder along but the shooting was just to fast and furious to take readings! The flat trajectory of the 17 HMR made ranging unneccessary anyway! I am sure I killed Gophers to 190 or 200 yards! I only ran 50 rounds through the Ruger 77/17 and opted to shoot the longer shots with this Rifle and save everything "up close" (30 to 110 yards) for my Lilja barreled 10/22! What an incredible day! Snowcapped mountains in the background, brilliant sun and sparse clouds with a sporadic wind to 18 MPH and temperature of 56 degrees. I went through a 550 pack of Federal 22 LR ammo in my Lilja 10/22! One of my best days ever quality shooting wise! We only moved the VarmintMobile 5 times to go through that much ammo! The pups were up and eating grass and digging holes like mad!
On our second move I was amazed to see the birds already on our first stands locale and eating the dead Gophers. And by birds I mean Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, Magpies, Ravens and two unknown brands of Hawks! I mean we were firing as fast as we could reload and only 250 yards from them and they were fighting each other for the carcasses! Quite a sight!
I did not want to run to many bullets down the barrel of the 17 HMR as I was fearful of copper buildup. I used the CCI hollowpoints on the Gophers and they were very lethal. I have a single box of Remington V-Max's also but have not fired them as yet.
My local gun salesman put a trigger part into his 77/17V and this reduced the trigger pull to 1.5 pounds for him and he said it was real crisp. I will have him order a part for me ASAP. The trigger on the Rugger 77/17 was heavy but crisp and I did shoot the .43" groups with it on Monday!
I can't wait for a calm day to shoot the 17 at 100 yards! I am sure I will get groups around .6 to .7 if not better!
Aaahhh! Happiness is a warm barrel on a new Rifle in a Gopher Town!
Long live the 17 HMR!
More later on the Ruger's barrel cleaning and a slight problem I had with the ring mounting.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

varmintguy, ANOTHER CONVERT!!! Most fun gun I've ever held since I held guns!!!! Did your CCI perform? As far as I'm concerned, I'll shoot Hornady or Remington and if CCI is all I have to choose from, I'll use the 222Mag or something else!! That's how bad it was!!! I might even opt for my 597Mag using Remington over the 17 CCI!!!!!! GHD

VG - wait til you try the Rem ammo for terminal effect, heh heh heh.

I've noticed clouds of ravens following me around lately too. Big, FAT ravens. Hmm.

Last Saturday, I took my brother-in-law over to a local guncounter I like alot where he picked up a stainless Savage in .17HMR and 100 rounds of the only available ammo, the CCI. Got him sighted in and got busy on the gophers. He was having such a ball that I quit shooting and spotted "candidates" for him. He danced around happy as a puppy with two peters. I've never seen a grown man carry on so. He called me twice that evening still giggling and his brother and his fishing buddy each bought 17's the next day at the same place.

Yup, 17's and gophers is just more fun than God intended. Nice to run into you the other day, VG!

Cheers

Redial

I have NEF 17HMR has shot 1/4 inch 3 shot group and averages 3/8 to 1/2 inch in ideal conditions with the vmax's. I have shot only one group under an inch with the cci's, gun came with 3lb trigger which is hard to believe not bad for $170. It outshoots my Weatherby SPM in 22-250 but I'm not going to replace it with the 17 for my coyote gun.

Redial: Yes it was a double stroke of luck running into you at the Gunstore and getting the good deal on the Ruger at the same time. Thanks for introducing yourself! My partner yesterday in the Ground Squirrel skirmish fired 9 rounds of my allotted 50 for the day through the Ruger 17 HMR. He was so impressed he offered me $500.00 for the Rifle then and there - and he was serious! I could have made $75.00 and had a days fun to show for it but I passed! He bugged me all day - when can we go to Missoula? When can we go to Missoula? Gee he was like a broken record! He was almost to easy to convert! He already has plans to send his Ruger 77/17 to Clarke Custom for a trigger job and an improved chamber reaming (?) and various other accuracy improvements!
I have done so little range work that I better not comment on the CCI as compared to the Hornady but in that wind and with limited shooting it shot just the same as the Hornady in my Rifle. I only have one box of Remington ammo and have not tried it at all as yet. It was two weeks ago now but the Sportsmans Surplus store in Missoula had the CCI ammo on sale! I forget the price but I bought two boxes of it and one more box of the Hornady then also. They had a good supply then.
Ground Hog Devastation: Yes I have been a proponent of the 17 HMR since last year when many of my Varminting buddies began raving about them and their accuracy and lethality. Now I have my own impressions to rave up the 17 HMR. These are the first I have heard of the relatively new CCI bullets not performing up to snuff with the Hornady! I will do some retesting and let you all know how mine does on a calm day with the CCI and the Remington!
17 Hawkeye: I recently saw a heavy barreled NEF in 17 HMR at a sportshop. I forget the price but I remember being impressed at the value I thought it was. I am glad to hear yours shoots so well! As I recall the heavy barrled NEF came with a scope base mounted on the barrel. That should enhance accuracy somewhat there also. How much scope power do you have on yours?
I can't wait to Hunt Turkey with my Ruger 17 HMR! Don't laugh! I shot my fall Turkey last year with my heavy barreled 17 MachIV! A neck shot at 200 yards and the Turkey was down in a flash and virtually no wasted meat or blood shot in the chest!
I can't wait to get back out into the Varmint fields with the 17 HMR!
I will be making a post regarding the Ruger 77/17V as a product review type posting soon.
Long live the 17 HMR!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

If the shooting press over here in the UK is to be believed, then the .17 HMR spells the end of the .22WMR. I notice that the .22WMR is hardly mentioned on these forums and this has got me wondering whether this cartridge has much of a following stateside? Fill me in guys, I'm curious.

All the best
British

British: I have tried a number of 22 Magnum rimfire Rifles over the years. And accuracy has been poor to almost fair in all of them! My present 22 Magnum Rifle is a Marlin Bolt Action tubular fed model. It shoots the best of all the 22 Magnums I have owned! When I originally bought this Rifle I mounted a 6X24 power Tasco scope on it and did ammunition testing for accuracy. On a dead calm cool February morning in Seattle, Washington I shot a five shot group at 100 yards of just a hair under 1.00"! Normally all the 22 Magnums I have owned in the past were hard pressed to shoot 2.00" groups at that distance. I did repeat the 1.00" groups with the Marlin 22 Magnum on a later day also so it was not a big fluke. Other brands of 22 Magnums I have owned and tried for accuracy were Kimber, Anschutz, Winchester, Ruger and other Marlins. So accuracy is livable but not impressive in my experience. Now for their use in the Varmint fields. I have killed Coyotes with the 22 Magnum on several occassions but I would not reccommend it for exclusive use on them. The 22 Magnum gives one another 40 - 50 yards of practical lethal range over the 22 Long Rifle. And the ammo is expensive! I also have a 22 Magnum revolving pistol that I take along into Rattlesnake country filled with 22 Magnum Birdshot shells. It kills them with a couple of head shots! 22 Magnum ammo runs about $6.00 per box of 50 here in the NW USA. I like my Marlin but am not to gungho about it!
Lots of people use them for pest control, Varmint Hunting, plastic bottle blowing up and general plinking. I have noticed a slump in sales of the 22 Magnum Rifles since this 17 HMR cartridge came along but I do not think the 22 Magnum is dead yet!
The 17 HMR bullet drops 10" while travelling to 200 yards while the 22 Magnum drops 21"! So I guess you could say the trajectory for the 17 is twice as flat as the 22 Magnum! Remingtons catalog shows the 17 HMR to be 2.6" low at 150 yards when sighted dead on at 100 yards. The same distance drop for the 22 Magnum is 5.7" for the 22 Magnum! That is 3.1" more drop at that practicle range. Significant amount to the small Varmint shooter!
I went through about 10 boxes of 50 rounds for my 22 Magunms last year maybe less this year with the new 17 HMR coming online just now!
I do know that all my shooting friends claim the 17 HMR is more accurate than the 22 Magnums they have tried! I am sure this has to do with the quality of the projectile used in manufacturing the 17 cartridge!
The 22 Magnum is not dead yet, over here in the Rocky Mountains anyway.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I took 4 'cases' to montana last year for shooting richardson ground squirrels and the ranchers son said the proper name would have been the 17 gopher, or the 17 montana. He said it was absolutely hands the best gopher round he has ever seen. When I asked about the cost, he said it would more than make up for it in percentage of hits. That boy went through nearly 100 rounds and I didn't see him miss once...scary. anywhere from 20 feet to 200 yards, those puppies pop. I would not recommend it for larger varmints at any distance over a 100 yards.

Doc

PS we only brought back 1/2 of a case for the week. WE LIKED IT A LOT.

Only had mine for a couple of weeks. I was told by a buddy who owns a well known bullet compoany that it wouldn't even be effective on ground squirrels. He said in two weeks it would be up for sale. Think again! I've never had so much fun with a new gun in my life. It's true, you can see crows blow through the scope and it kills quite well out to 100 yards. I haven't tried anything further yet.

Here is a pic of some beaver and ground hogs.



As you can see, the .17 HMR totally sucks for anything larger than a squirrel, so nobody buy one! Leave the ammo for me.

There are probably more 17 HMR's in the field already than all the 5mm Rem's ever sold. I live in Arkansas, you can't shoot crows with anything but shot or a rimfire. Will I be getting a HUMMER? you bet. It will give me a whole new varmint to shoot at during the fall season. I will be able to kill them out to 200 yards and use the same rifle for small game. I never bought a .22 mag. because I can reload my hornet cheaper, but can't use it on crows. The key to the 17 accuracy is all the makers are starting off with new barrel tooling, and the ammo companies are using a real centerfire type bullet rather than a pumped up rimfire projectile. The accuracy bar is set high and they will be required to maintain it.

I shot a remington 597 this weekend although it has a junk magazine and trigger it is still a fine shooter!! This should be the lead for the 17 hornet in a factory round! this cartridge is unreal

Sheldon Charron: Is that a black Beaver there? Sure looks cool! About 6 years ago I bought a HUGE (Super Blanket) Beaver pelt from my trapper friend in Wisdom, Montana. It was a pure black pelted Beaver. My friend said black pelted Beavers there in SW Montana were VERY rare. I bought the pelt from him for a song ($25.00 I think) and took it to my taxidermist (at the time) in North Bend, Washington. I wanted the hide tanned as it had already been fleshed nicely. The price was quoted as $40.00 for the tanning and I FOOLISHLY paid in advance! Several months later I got a call that my Beaver pelt was ready! I go to the Taxidermist and he hands me a TINY yellow brown Beaver pelt. I start laughing thinking he was joking! He wasn't! To make a long story short someone had stolen my Black Super Blanket size Beaver and replaced it with this Kit size yellow brown Beaver. I was furious! My resulting phone calls and inquiries to the tannery fell on deaf and insensitive ears. No satisfaction what so ever. The tannery blamed the theft and substitution on the Taxidermist and the Taxidermist blamed the theft and substitution on the tannery! Sheeeeit! I still steam over that! I have a standing order with my Trapper friend for the next large black pelted Beaver he gets. Since then he has not gotten any large black ones! He traps about 60 to 100 per year. He has a nuisance trapping license also and traps year round for the Game Department and for hazardous situations Beavers create as well as the normal winter Fur season!
Are the Black Beavers rare or common up your way?
After 35 years of dealings with many, many Taxidermists my advice is this - never give them one cent, NEVER EVER, up front! Agree to pay only upon completion of a satisfactory service or product! I could go on and on with first hand tales of woe, hard feelings regrets and out right thievery by Taxidermist/tanneries but choose not to at this time.
Great picture by the way!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

bought the ruger m77/17 yesterday put a swift 4x12 x40 on it and it shoots good besides the horrible trigger, i will be calling volquartzen tuesday for the new hammer sear, how hard is this to install?

Installing the sear is easy - push a pin or two out(don't loose them) and put in the new sear - you will see how once you have the new sear in your hands - nothing springs out in twenty directions. I also just glass bedded my 77/17 yesterday including the rear tang, first two inches of the barrel above the chamber, couple of flat spots under the receiver and the forend tip -plus I free floated the barrel - sanded off the wood around the barrel to open up the channel - have to wait until this weekend to see the results - if I don't like it I will remove the forend pressure point - buy generally I have the best results bedding the forend with sporter weight barrels - but the slop that existed between the stock and the barreled action is gone.

Fats: A word of caution! I purchased the Volquartsen sear and trigger spring from Midway USA last week. It arrived here at my home in the mail at 4:30 PM Friday (the start of the 3 day holiday weekend!). I was amazed that with this part and the spring that not one word of instruction came in the envelope from Midway or nothing in the package from Volquartsen!
Having purposely NEVER touched a sear in my life with file or stone I was stymied!
I had removed the old sear and spring from the Ruger after some lengthy observation and diagrams/drawings hadbeen made for reference. Then I installed the Volquartsen sear and trigger spring and the little Ruger 77/17V would not stay cocked when operating the bolt! I searched again for instructions - none found! The Volquartsen folks had gone home for the 3 day weekend and I am miffed! I re-installed the Ruger sear and spring and the Rifle worked perfectly! Back went the new parts - still no correct functioning! Back in went the old parts. Back and forth, back and forth!
Hmmm..... What to do. I called my old friend Don on Sunday evening and he invited me over to his Gun Shop and I tore down the Ruger for the 56th time! His observation nearly instantly concluded the solution was, what I had deduced over three days of puzzling! The sear would have to be stoned (NOT FILED according to my friend!). My friend had a special vise made to hold sears while people stoned on them!
Now the stoning took place not on the sear to trigger contact points but on a "tab" located on the sears middle section! I took measurements of the area the Ruger sear had been "stoned" on and tried to compare it to the same area on the Volquartsen sear. These difficult to obtain comparison measurements were (as I recall!)

Ruger (sear that worked) .212"!
Volquartsen (new sear that did not work) .230"!

Now I am not recommending that a sear be stoned down to .212" at this difficult to measure spot on the sear! I am saying there was definite need of "fitting" of my Volquartsen sear!
I set the Volquartsen sear into the sear vise and began stoning it! My friend suggested that I take .005" of the sear to begin with! I did and it still would not allow the bolt to remain cocked when opening and closing the bolt!!!
I kept stoning and trying the new sear for function until an hour and a half later I got the sear to allow the bolt to stay cocked even when working the bolt briskly! I inserted a spent case and tried the trigger pull. With two different pull gauges it registered 2 pounds and very crisp!I decided that this was fine (and it was a definite improvement over the original Ruger! - but remember I shot a .502" 5 shot group at 100 yards with the old sear and spring last week - so how bad could the trigger be?!).
So...... I had my Ruger apart about 4 dozen times trying the sear between stoning sessions and originally trying the new Volquartsen parts time after time to see if I had originally installed them wrong.
A couple of tips for the sear and spring installers to save you troubles! Mark the old spring with paint so you can tell the old spring from the new spring! The original Ruger sear on MY Rifle was marked with a stamped "E" on one side. The Volquartsen sear had no markings at all. So you can keep straight the old sear from the new sear if your Ruger part is so marked. If not put a dab of paint on it.
Admittedly I am not the most mechanical person in the world but I do know this for a fact - my Volquartsen part was NOT a drop in!
I am happy with it but I am very puzzled that instructions were not included with it.
Good luck if you decide to try one!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Yea - I've heard some bad stories - but mostly about the safety not engaging and some filing work needed - my swap was painless - but I did hold my breath until I cycled the bolt and tried the safety. Volquartsen has been criticized by others for quality control and thats too bad - opens the door for some competition.

My sweet wife just gave me a Savage model 93R17-F with a 3-9 X40 Nikon for my birthday. What a hoot to shoot!! It is one accurate little rifle. I''m going to have a lot of fun with this one. We shot two groups of 5 at 100 yds. that you could cover with a quarter. We didn't even have a good bench we just stacked an ammo box on top of the ice chest topped with a rolled up sleeping bag and started shooting. The trigger is not very good out of the box. I will have to get it a little lighter and smoother. It is hard and rough right now. Anyone else have this little rifle? Have you worked on the trigger and what did you do?

Your sweet wife has a good taste in optics - hang on to that one - have fun

I bought a NEF Sportster 17 HMR about 6 months ago.Mounted a 6X leupold and took it out to zero.
Had a rather large ragged hole at 50 yards, checked the target up close and all the bullets hit sideways. Inspected the bore and there was no rifling.
Next one will be the ruger.

Just picked up a box of the Speer 17 TNT's at the local Wal Mart here for $9.89 - at the range they were superbly accurate in my 77/17 that I also just glass bedded - they are just as accurate as the Remington or Hornady brands - maybe even a little better - but it was tough in the wind with the target bouncing up and down - but most shots at 100 yds were touching - I love this rifle.

As soon as i can talk the wife into letting me buy the barrel, I will be converting 10/22 MAG into 10/17 mag. Might be a while before I can posts results.

I own two Savage 17's. One Syn and the other wood both with bull barrels. They are both tack drivers with their Leupold scopes.