17hmr v 22wmr

[Bill]

Ive had 22 magnums and for along time it was my go to go for cheap varmit work. Favorite 22mag was an anschutz 22 mag but I started to feel undergunned after a few too many small pig incidents lol, small mag capacity and bullet drop were part of the equation, sold it to a mate who runs fats lambs and he like the accuracy, trigger and lack of noise. Probably shot a few thousand foxes by now

I now have tikka 17hmr and I feel its a better gun in everyway, Ive mostly used it on paper but a mate has been using it for hares, rabbits and foxes for the last 8 months and reckons it just about the perfect outfit for the job, he shoots professionally for a living and loves the 17gr CCI which runs around 2700fps, thats add a lot of extra range over the 22magnum. paid $220 for the 500 of the CCI 17gr. The Tikka also feels like a man sized rifle but doesnt weigh alot.

[Jeff303]

Ive had both. 17 is a nice round but hates wind & thicker skinned critters. The 22mag trajectory isnt as flat but not shocking either, you learn to allow for it.
Had a savage 93 fv that shot through the eye of a needle, & a ruger American now thats great too.
Tagging a pig with a 22 mag leaves a lump in the front of your pants,
Tagging a pig with a hmr leaves one in the back

[SCJ429]

Tagging a pig with a 22 mag leaves a lump in the front of your pants,
Tagging a pig with a hmr leaves one in the back

Hunting is very simulating for you then?

What happens when you shoot a decent centrefire?

[Vicko]

Lol - I won't be shooting pigs with a rimfire

[GQshayne]

Grab yourself the current issue of Sporting Shooter. It has a good article on the 22 Mag in it, written by Nick Harvey. Interesting read.

old "uncle nick" is still going hey ? god bless him

The July edition? Ive got it, but cant see the 22Mag article by Nick. Or is it an earlier edition?

August issue mate. I am a subscriber, so have had it long enough to read it already.

And yes, Uncle Nick is still going. And I reckon his magazine tests are the benchmark. Perhaps he is given more space in the mag than some other testers, but his tests are very comprehensive. He is of course very biased towards hunting, so target and tactical stuff is not his favourite, but that matches my interests too.

[GQshayne]

A quick quote from the article - 17gn HMR has 129 ft/lbs energy at 100m, 40gn WMR has 207 ft/lbs.

[Jeff303]

My point is , you dont always know whats going to jump out. As an all rounder the 22 mag has it. And yes , i do use centrefires, but a 30-06 is not my first choice for a leisurely stroll chasing rabbits.
As a dedicated varmint round , theres nothing wrong with a hmr

[SCJ429]

All good, as long as you are having some fun.

You never know what might jump out and there is nothing wrong with a 204 Ruger either.

I am not a fan of the 22 Magnum but that is my choice. That does not stop you having fun with it.

[Bruiser64]

I have both in the Ruger American version. I like both calibres. I also have a 204. I much prefer my 204 for fox and roo shooting. I prefer my HMR for bunny shooting. I have shot foxes with both the 17 and the 22 magnum. Obviously shot placement is crucial. If you are likely to be shooting foxes with any regularity l would recommend the magnum over the 17. Head shooting and getting as close as you can would be my suggestion as well. I use the 30 grain Hornady vmaxs, which I quite like. CZ, Tikka, Ruger: I think they would all be pretty good. It’s a question of your personal preference.

Thanks - I think I'm probably going to be heading a similar direction. What sort of range you think you'd normally 'opt out' of using the 17hmr on foxes?

I would think 70 or 80 metres would be the limit. You definitely want to go for a headshot though. If I am targeting foxes I use the 204. There is a huge difference in performance (unsurprisingly) between the 204 and the 17 hmr. If I see a fox and I have the 17 in my hands I will try to call it in as close as I can. The hmr is a fantastic bunny gun though. For the price of the Ruger American, I am happy to have both.

[Elmer]

I have shot Bunnies out to 180yds with the .22mag and a crow at 240yds.
Past 100 the .22mag has twice the punch of the hmr and can be used against small pigs and goats under 100.
I have a sako quad 22mag and love it, I have never been tempered to get the hmr as I re ckon they are too wind sensitive past 100.
I have a few vids on youtube using my .22mag under the name of SA Feral Shooter, check it out .
I would go the mag ... I have a friend who was once ranked no. 3 in Aussie Benchrest target shooting he has a hmr and said ....one day he loves it, the next he wants to wrap it around a tree , his rifle is a Cz. and also said that when the wind blows you might as well leave the thing in the safe.

[Vicko]

All great replies again. I'm so on the fence again its ridiculous. Looking forward to getting the August edition to read Nicks article.

I'm aware of the energy evenness between the HMR and WMR once out to around 100. But you also have to be able to hit it...
If someone made decent quality WMR ammo it might be a different story.

Here's some nice graphy liney things:


Sooo.. f*ck knows what I'm going to get now

[bigpete]

Lol - I won't be shooting pigs with a rimfire

Smart.
I own 22lr,22wmr,and 17hmr. In all honesty if I were to buy another 17 rim fire it would be a 17wsm.
Out of all 3 I do own though,the 17hmr gets the most work. Probably a bit to do with it being left to me by my best mate,a bit to do with it being a beautiful rifle,and a lot to do with it just being a bloody good thing. The second most used one is my 22,although that mainly gets used by my offsider.or my son. Unfortunately the 22wmr doesn't get used a lot,but that's not saying it's not accurate or a nice rifle,it just doesn't get a lot of trigger time. And the 17hmr is a good thing for fox pelts,which can indeed still be worth considerable money if you know where to sell them....

[bigpete]

And I'm quite happy to shoot foxes with it out to 150m. I just don't expect a bang flop. Mind you,I've seen foxes run after being hit with a 308,so........

[Bill]

Vicko some pretty graphs but the latest 17gr hmr ammo does 2700fps so it carries alot more energy and is alot flatter than the 22 mag. Foxes aren't bullet proof and you don't need the hold over needed by the 22mag at moderate ranges

[Bill]

Ask a gun shop how much of each ammo they sell too, there's ya answer lol

A few of the 22 Magnum boyz need to get better reading glass cause the CCI A17 clocks 500fps more speed than than the best 22 Magnum ammo

and is within 10% of it energy at the muzzle.

http://www.varminter.com/new-cci-a17-17 ... nd-review/

https://www.americanhunter.org/articles ... ing-loads/

https://www.americanhunter.org/articles ... ing-loads/

and quality 17hmr is around 15% cheaper than quality 22 magnum ammo when you buy bulk 500 packs with CCI 17gr VNT being the best value and also the flatest

[Vicko]

So... Update.

The Ruger 77-17 had already been sold by the time I got there.

'Bugger!'

But I'm kinda happy it wasn't.
Because I then walked around to the 'new' rack to see if they had any 457s in stock yet...
And they did. An American in HMR.. For the same price roughly that the scoped second hand Ruger 77. Felt really nice to the shoulder and well balanced. Very nice build quality and walnut stock. Action was nice even for a tight new rifle. Has the option of a switch barrel if someone decides to produce a decent WMR round at some point. So that kinda sealed it for me. I figure its a 'be what you want it to be' rimfire.

So I made a purchase

I pick it up next weekend. Getting my spare Nikko Stirling 4-9x scope on it through the week.
Going to try a few different rounds through it and see what it prefers so I nabbed a 50 box each of:
Hornady 17gr VMax (2550fps) that seems to be the go to here at the moment according to the LGS,
Hornady 20gr XTP hollow points (2375fps) and
CCI 17 gr VNT (that I think are basically identical to the Vmax other than plastic tip colour but we'll see - they do claim to be 2650fps so maybe just different powder).

Can't wait to pick it up and put a few rounds through!

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Will be sure to post up some results after I've thrown a hundred or so rounds through.

[Bill]

Good stuff vicko, make sure you get a dedicated 1 piece 17 cal cleaning rod. multipiece thingos are no good for your chamber or rifling

[Vicko]

Done

[bigrich]

Congratulations on the new purchase mate , hope you get lots of use and enjoyment out of it

[Bruiser64]

Congratulations. I love the HMR as a round and I think you will enjoy it.

[Stix]

I shot a Tikka T1x in 17hmr for the first time at a rabbit last night...

The shot went off just before i had the reticle on the bunny...

I said "f*** me that triggers' light..."

Owner said ..."yea just like i told you..."

I said..." no you didnt...!!..."

Owner said..."yea i did...just then..!!...


Anyway...i liked it...!!

Id like to have one...& id like to have the spare money to shoot one willy nilly...but i dont, so at (im told) 50c/shot... ...ill stick with a 22lr/204 paddock combo...&/or one day get a hornet & load for it.

[Vicko]

Oh. I'm picking up a WMR barrel with it
Thought I would, while they're available and be done with it. So now I have both!

[Bruiser64]

You would have been mad not to.

[duncan61]

So you now have a Ruger American in .22MAG and .17HMR good for you

[bladeracer]

So you now have a Ruger American in .22MAG and .17HMR good for you

Not Ruger American, CZ American. Ruger Americans have pressed-in barrels that are rather difficult to remove and are certainly not swappable. The Ruger Precision Rimfire though does have easy barrel swappability.

[duncan61]

O.K. I will google that.I did wonder about the barrel switch

[bladeracer]

O.K. I will google that.I did wonder about the barrel switch

Thè Ruger 10/22 (the real one, not my air rifle) has a very easý barrel replacement, the barrel simply slides into the receiver, then a block fits iñto a slot in the underside and is locked against the receiver with two screws. Thè RPR uses a different method similar to the AR platform using a threaded nut around the barrel.

[Elmer]

Oh. I'm picking up a WMR barrel with it
Thought I would, while they're available and be done with it. So now I have both!

Cant argue with your logic.

[Vicko]

So I picked up the 457 yesterday and ran it through its paces. I'm a happy camper. Took a few pics here before, but the build is terrific, feed and action is perfect.

Sighted it in, in what was quite gusty conditions (probably 30-40km/hr winds) and straight off the bat at around 100 yards its grouping at around half to 3/4 an inch vertically (that'll be the rifle) and around an inch horizontally (that'll be me wobbling about and the wind). Only had a chance to try one round through it in between rain showers - the 17gn Hornady Vmax. Seemed to like them well enough, so with the weather closing in we headed back inside for a cuppa.

So we went back out later with the light for a look, and nailed our first fox with it at around the 100 yard mark. Hopefully the one that took some chickens last week... One shot from front 3/4 as it was working a plantation looking for rats I'd imagine. I picked him up about 3 yards from where I shot him. Saw a bunch more foxes but couldn't get a shot at any of them last night. Next time.

So its currently sitting at 100% success rate :bthumb:

[Vicko]

Bit of an update here. Took it to the range for a play last weekend to try some more ammo out and generally check out long range stuff. (Had a shot of a club members 308 out to 500 too which was ace). Even though there was a hefty side wind I figured out that it very much prefers the 17 grn rounds. Not so much the hollow point 20 grn ones..

So I thought I might have another go at home today and glad I did as I'd messed up re-centreing the scope.. was about 6 inches out! Moron. Anyway. As you can see from the pics the first 5 shot group was off the page, but measured 17mm (17/29mm=.58MOA at 100m - by my maths - remember thats metres not yards). Thats with CCI 17grn VNTs. Seems to like them...

I then shot the middle with the same CCIs - I obviously cocked up with one flyer - the rest of the group was similar to the first, adjusted down an MOA, shot the left group with Hornady 20 grn (thats twice now its thrown them around - it did at the range too and worth noting that they're about an MOA lower at 100 than the 17 grn rounds), and then the right group with Hornady 17grn VMax. On the last group I experimented mid group moving my cheek forward and back a bit on the stock to see if it makes any difference.. it obviously did... You can see I repositioned twice. I might have to work on that and find a way to keep my cheek in one spot for consistency.

So anyway, I'm more than happy with that. Its only had probably 60 rounds through it so far, but its an impressive little jigger and should only get better with some more rounds through it.

Also worth mentioning that on the board I was using behind my target (a 30mm MDF sheet) that the hollow points punched a tighter hole. The plastic tipped 17grn slugs fairly tore it up on exit by comparison. Those suckers must expand fairly dramatically.

I'm now looking for a bigger brother for it that can do a bit of long range stuff. Think I've settled on an LA102 in 308.