17HMR a strange cartridge

[bigpete]

Have had a 22wmr and a 17hmr and 2 22lr rifles and the 17hmr was the one I used the most for pest control. Never had the problems described here

what pests were you culling , and what ammo were you using pete ? i've seen winchester ammo split a lot of cases , saw a ruger 17hmr have a epic fail at belmont range one day . blew the mag out of the bottom of the rifle ! i'm a little sceptical of the 17hmr myself

Hares,foxes, rabbits. All with CCI 20gn game points

well the OP was using a 17gn ammo , that's the cause of his issues maybe . i've heard accuracy with the 17hmr can go sour after about 40 rounds. what say you pete ? at what ranges were you shooting foxes , how was the ballistic performance. what's your opinion on head shooting grey grasshoppers at under 100 yards ? yeah i'm asking a lot of questions , but this first hand info is enlightening rather than listening to hearsay

Longest shot on a fox was about 150m from memory. Wouldn't shoot grey hoppers with one,its illegal anyway

[bigrich]

Wouldn't shoot grey hoppers with one,its illegal anyway

yeah i know mate . i've heard of people doing it with head shots at reduced range where noise is a factor . haven't seen it done myself

[Die Judicii]

Hey Rich,
From first hand experience/knowledge, I've used 17 Gr V-Max Hornady in .17HMR countless times for your queried use.
Towards the end of the drought (2020-2022) I used to drive around the paddocks euthanasing the ones that didn't have the strength to stand upright
anymore,, or were virtually covered with ticks the size of marbles.
Always brain shots, and anything from a couple of meters up to about 70 meters.
And never failed to produce instantaneous death.

And, just for the record, I've never had a split casing in the .17 HMR.

[bigrich]

Hey Rich,
From first hand experience/knowledge, I've used 17 Gr V-Max Hornady in .17HMR countless times for your queried use.
Towards the end of the drought (2020-2022) I used to drive around the paddocks euthanasing the ones that didn't have the strength to stand upright
anymore,, or were virtually covered with ticks the size of marbles.
Always brain shots, and anything from a couple of meters up to about 70 meters.
And never failed to produce instantaneous death.

And, just for the record, I've never had a split casing in the .17 HMR.

i'm not looking into using a 17hmr for close range culling , i'm just curious if anyone has been doing it . within the ranges you've listed i think it'd be fine myself . probably use a 20gn load if i had to choose . winchester cases years ago were splitting in quite a few different rifles owned by people i came across . haven't heard much about it lately though