Thread: 17hmr

Ive got a Browning T-Bolt. Very accurate with Hornady ammo. Love shooting bunnies with it and the odd wallaby. Surprised by how it knocks wallaby over. Definitely needs the little suppressor its got on it. Wouldn't shoot it without that.

I purchased a CZ varmint some years back which was a big mistake as I didn’t need a varmint barreled rifle for hunting.

Sold that and purchased a CZ452 American from Shooters World in Gore as they often have sharper prices than the big chains, great people to deal with.

I run it with a DPT suppressor as they are a loud wee rimfire!

Longest kill has been just over 200 mtrs but the light pills don’t like wind.

Great fun shooting eggs at 200 mtrs.

It’s an explosive calibre on rabbits and another great thing is no ricochets unlike the .22 as the HMR just explodes on impact

Well, that was a fiddly wee exercise.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Well, that was a fiddly wee exercise.

Attachment 272262

How did they spin up?

I couldnt get any readings from the 17HMR or 22LR.
First: my guage wasnt able to support such a short case.
Second: the bullet is so short there is naff-all bearing surface for the micrometer ball.

Works fine with the 7mm08 and even on the 223 , although the bullet is only 55gr and pretty short there too.

Originally Posted by Shearer

Attachment 272270

Speed wins eh, interesting!

Originally Posted by inglishill

Speed wins eh, interesting!

17gn 17cal projectile has a lot smaller surface area for the wind to act on too. Funny that the myth about excessive drift persists.

Originally Posted by Shearer

17gn 17cal projectile has a lot smaller surface area for the wind to act on too. Funny that the myth about excessive drift persists.

Originally Posted by Shearer

Attachment 272270

Greg from Custom Guns did a utube clip on this a while back, 17 vs 22 and the 17 was most consistent and closest to target

Thanks for everyone’s input.
Wound up purchasing a Savage B17, Supressed with a 3x9-40
Only a few shots on paper so far.

Originally Posted by Gkp

Got some hornady ammo in queenstown if you are looking for some

17GR? How many rounds and how much $?

Originally Posted by Rem1187

Thanks for everyone’s input.
Wound up purchasing a Savage B17, Supressed with a 3x9-40
Only a few shots on paper so far.

Once you get it dialled in, you'll really like it. Instead of guesstimating distance, holdover and walking the bullet to target like with the 22, basically point and shoot. If you think distance is getting out there, hold top of head.

Here it is at 50m, which for me is the optimum working range for 17 HMR.
17gr CCI V Max
1 cm grid.
There's enough margin for my own shooting errors to get a bun at that distance.


Without adjusting the sights, here's a 10 shot group at 100m.
There was a very light breeze, maybe 2m/s from the left, but not measured, from about the 50m mark out to 100.
OK precision but not much to come and go on for a rabbit and I'd better have sorted the elevation and windage.


Interesting a couple of people have mentioned regular fliers.
I would have just accepted I did a bad shot out of 10. I often do.
If others have the same experience could they post a pic or two ?
Also, if anyone has succeeded in sorting their ammo by run out, it would be interesting to see groups shrinking.
Indeed, how could you tell if 17HMR ammo was truly prone to the occasional wild shot unless you shot a number of groups and a number with a known good ammo like Eley Match in 22LR ?

This is a $2000 rifle and $600 scope.

If you shoot more rounds and overlay, I expect that you'll see that the "fliers" just form part of the overall true cone of fire. 10rd just isn't enough of a sample with how inconsistent .17 (rimfire in general) ammunition is.

E.g. this 10rd group is about 50mm, and looks like a tight cluster of 7 with a couple of "fliers"
(Crossed out holes are from shooting at 50 to get roughly centred up)



30 of the same ammo makes it clear that the "fliers" fall within the cone of fire - and the mean radius of 1.5-2cm indicates that the "true" cone of fire should be expected to be 6-8cm if you kept shooting to fill it out.