Thread: Quality of 17 HMR ammo

What do people recommend ?
Is there a "go to" recognised best or do you have to try in your own gun ?
What do you look for ?
Does accuracy differ or is it terminal performance ?

I haven't used the 17HMR much and only CCI V-Max and it seems pretty good for me.

Mates running cci vmax in his tikka. Stupidly accurate out to 150. His hit rate is impressive to the point it's cheaper to run than 22lr.

I have had really good accuracy results with CCI TNT hollow point. Less than .5" at 100m out of my CZ455.

Why do you think CCI make 3 different 17gr ammo ?
Whats the difference between them ?

Originally Posted by Bobba

Mates running cci vmax in his tikka. Stupidly accurate out to 150. His hit rate is impressive to the point it's cheaper to run than 22lr.

I came to this conclusion a long time ago. So much more accurate and flatter shooting than any 22s I have had and the knockdown power is far superior especially on possums. Another advantage is you actually have some chance of hitting rabbits on the run as the required lead is so much less with a bullet travelling twice the speed of a .22. Def costs me less to run a .17HMR for a night. I'm sure someone who is very skilled on a 22 and knows all their drops like the back of their hand shooting rabbits or hares would favour a .22, but thats not me.

Ive always used the hornady 17gr ballistic tips, seem good. Shoot about 1" at 100 which is plenty good enough so havent bothered trying different types. Devastating on small game. At the end of the day you are just going to have to find what works in your gun, for your use. Even two of the same gun make and model of gun might favour different ammo.

Hornady 17gr ballistic tips, Tikka. Smashes the little critters.

My T1x loves Federal, tolerates CCI and hates Hornady...It blows out to 1.5' with Hornady. Doesn't like using bipod, but punch's single holes with a rolled up jacket on Federal.Likes one suppressor but not the other. It's a game of trial and error, or pew pew fun finding the sweet spot.

CCI 20gr.

Wikipedia says that CCI load most 17HMR ammo and use different bullets for each brand.

Hornady say that they have 3 different bullets:
15.5 gr NTX which is lead free ("California Compatible"). https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/r...5.5-gr.-ntx#!/
17 gr V-Max which is plastic tip and lead core https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/r...17-gr-v-max#!/
20 gr XTP Varmint which is hollow point and perhaps expands best at low velocities ("extreme terminal performance") https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/r...r-20-gr-xtp#!/
They sell loose bullets in each style for centrefire reloading.

CCI list 10 different 17 HMR products, https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfi...aliber/17-hmr/
including:
V-Max round under their own brand in 2550 and 2650 fps. It seems to be the Hornady bullet. https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfi...-max/6-49.html
TNT Green with a Speer copper bullet. https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfi...een/6-951.html
Their VNT is another Speer bullet with polymer tip and said to have a very thin jacket. https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfi...t/6-959CC.html
A17 a special round for the Savage A17 semiautomatic, possibly with the V-Max bullet. https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfi...7/6-949CC.html

Had fairly ordinary accuracy with all ammo, Hornady 17g had an extreme spread of over 250 fps at best. So tried cci with much the same results. Only to find all 17hmr ammo is basically made in the same factory, probably part of the reason it's so expensive. Had better success with 20g Hornady with an Es of 78 fps.

Have a Zastava in 17hmr, shoots both Federal and Hornady very well, 12-20 mm, usually stick with 17g, never found a possum which walks away.. Have never chronied loads so have nothing to worry about.

Originally Posted by Bobba

Mates running cci vmax in his tikka. Stupidly accurate out to 150. His hit rate is impressive to the point it's cheaper to run than 22lr.

I agree with this conclusion. 17hmr cheaper in the long run for rabbits. 22 still super fun!

Originally Posted by Juicy

I'm sure someone who is very skilled on a 22 and knows all their drops like the back of their hand shooting rabbits or hares would favour a .22, but thats not me.

I went down that path, I wouldn't say I'm super skilled - more an average shot. But I had a BDC reticule and strelok, and with 22 subs I was getting hits out to 75-100m only to see some of the bigger bunnies/hares crawl away (Aquila and CCI standard subs).

I picked up a Rossi 17hmr new for $349, a few weeks later my son (15) nailed a bunny at 180m (dropped on the spot). He's a fairly new shooter. I feel sorry for my 22s now, they're gathering dust.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

What do people recommend ?
Is there a "go to" recognised best or do you have to try in your own gun ?
What do you look for ?
Does accuracy differ or is it terminal performance ?

I haven't used the 17HMR much and only CCI V-Max and it seems pretty good for me.
Attachment 261143

I hope this was at 100 yards

I've only used Hornady recently and I'd recommend checking point of impact between batches. I've been told that the most recent batch is significantly faster than the older batch. Seems to be the case as I switched between batches the other night and was sending rounds over the top of hares at longer range when earlier in the night I couldn't miss. Yet to verify this on paper. Other than the batch difference I'm very happy with terminal performance.

When I had my old hmr, I found the Remington ammo really good and it had the same point of impact as the Hornady stuff.

I think it's definitely a case of try one and see how it goes, that's the nature of rimfires as it seems.

The picture’s just for fun
I was practicing sitting unsupported.

But, yeah in an ideal world we’d check each new batch at a short range where no wind is a play and a long range for trajectory. And after falling over on your rifle so I dont want to chop and change too much, specially if V-Max is going out of production. Best policy is to buy heaps of the same batch in one go but 1000 HMR is more like a major capital expense, not within quarterly budget plans. Looking for advice which one to try next; I dont want to test several sorts.