DigitalDan: I often think you come with these bizzare-o things you post just to get a rise out of more intelligent folks than yourself!
Well you are getting a rise AND a lesson from me!
Here goes, and pay attention, so in the future when you make your postings people won't laugh at them so often!
I began shooting/Hunting with various 22 "Magnums" back in 1955 - I have owned and shot them all. I still own several 22 "Magnum" Rifles and pistols in fact.
They don't get used much at all anymore.
The 17 HMR so far outperforms the various 22 magnums that its laughable ANYONE is stupid enough to deny this fact!
The speed of the 17 HMR and the flatter trajectory and the ability to shoot straighter in the wind ONLY compliment the enhanced accuracy of the 17 HMR over the various 22 Magnums!
The speed of the 17 HMR's projectiles (both linear and rotational) add a level of lethality to the 17 HMR that no 22 Magnum can even approach!
To date, with my various 17 HMR's, I have killt: Coyotes, Fox, large Porcupines, Raccoons, Rock Chucks, feral cats, Skunks, Jack Rabbits, Prairie Dogs, Snowshoe Hares, large flying Varmints, Ground Squirrels, Weasels and on and on!
I VERY SELDOM have to shoot any of these Varmints twice with the 17 HMR.
Looking back on my extensive experiences with these same class of Varmints and my useage of the various 22 Magnums on them there simply is NO comparison.
The 17 HMR outperforms the 22 Magnums by a significant margin!
Let me relay just ONE recent harvest I made with one of my 17 HMR's.
My friend Jack Veness from Yelm, Washington and I were Hunting Ground Squirrels in a high valley of SW Montana. He was shooting from his swivel bench and I was shooting while standing on the tailgate of my extended cab Dodge diesel truck. I was using the top of my trucks camper shell as a rest for my sandbags/Rifle.
Right in the middle of our shooting up pops the head of a large Badger. He was crouched in his den mouth and looking straight at us with only his head and part of its neck showing.
I thought he will only be there a second or two and I had better shoot. I knew he was a long way off and I held on the crest of his forehead. The 17 grain 17 HMR V-Max bullet struck that Badger in the throat and killed it instantly.
I whooped it up for a moment and grabbed my camera and Leica Laser Rangefinder venturing forth.
Jack and I went out to see if we could retrieve the Badger.
Indeed we could - it was laying on its back in the den mouth stone cold dead right there!
I then lasered back to the grill of my VarmintMobile it read 173 yards!
Add two yards for the length of my VarmintMobile and that is a one shot kill on a BADGER at 175 yards.
The Badger was a large mature Boar and I am guessing weighed 18 to 20 pounds!
I simply could NOT have done that with any of the MANY 22 Magnums I have owned - I know - I have tried!
Pay some more attention there DigitalDan, your lesson is not over!
My friend and I go back to shooting Ground Squirrels with my trophy Badger now resting in a garbage bag in the cooler. About 30 minutes later from the near the same spot ANOTHER Badger emerges from its underground den.
Jack killed that Badger with his 17 HMR Rifle as well. It was about 10 yards closer and was an adult female.
This simply could not have been accomplished with any reliability with the slow projectiles and rainbow trajectory of the 22 Magnums.
PERIOD!
I could go on and on with examples of the superiority of the 17 HMR versus the various 22 Magnums but for now I will let that one example suffice.
I will add this though - I recently posted on this forum my experiences from last spring/summers Varminting. My recent post relayed that I hosted MANY Varmint Hunters at my home this year and Hunted with all of them - mostly for Ground Squirrels, Rock Chucks and Jack Rabbits.
Fully 25 of those Hunters used Rifles and pistols in caliber 17 HMR - not ONE of them brought along a 22 magnum of any stripe!
I am also very close with several men who own Gunshops and they relay this to me (in response to my direct questioning) the 17 HMR arms now outsell 22 Magnums by over 20 to 1 (twenty to one!)!
Maybe everyone else is wrong and YOU are right - NOT!
LOL.
Man, how long is it going to take you to realize when you post your bizarre-o blather that people are going to laugh at you and some will take the time to correct you???
I really got a big laugh out of your bizarre-o land statement where in you reference a "slew of options with better numbers than the 17 HMR"???
Well that "slew of options" does NOT contain a single currently produced rimfire cartridge now does it?
Or are you ignorant enough to be trying to compare centerfire munitions to the 17 HMR???
Sheesh, in either case.
My strong suggestion to you is get yourself out to the range and to the small game and Varmint Hunting fields and get some extended and real world experience with the fine 17 HMR cartridge before you even try to besmirch it again!
Long live the 17 HMR.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
