Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Why 22mag when 17HMR is so much better?

My opinions on the hitting power of the two rounds is based on a lot of trigger time on gophers mostly. It is pretty obvious that the 22 Mag explodes gophers a lot better at close range. There is less of a difference out past 100 yards. I admit that my hitting percentage past 100 yards goes up with the 17 due to it's flatter trajectory.

The thoughts on rotational energy creating some extra hitting power has been pretty much discredited. It amounts to very little extra energy. Again to me the KE pretty much explains the tissue destruction I have witnessed.

How that compares is prarphrased below from Chuck Hawk's site

FROM CHUCK HAWK
* .17 HMR, 17 grain V-Max = ME 245 ft. lbs., 185 ft. lbs. at 50 yards, 136 ft. lbs. at 100 yards, 99 ft. lbs. at 150 yards, 72 ft. lbs. at 200 yards.
* .17 HMR, 20 grain XTP = ME 250 ft. lbs., 187 ft. lbs. at 50 yards, 137 ft. lbs. at 100 yards, 99 ft. lbs. at 150 yards, 72 ft. lbs. at 200 yards.
* .22 WMR, 30 grain TNT = ME 325 ft. lbs., 200 ft. lbs. at 50 yards, 120 ft. lbs. at 100 yards, 80 ft. lbs. at 150 yards.
* .22 WMR, 40 grain JHP = ME 324 ft. lbs., 230 ft. lbs. at 50 yards, 162 ft. lbs. at 100 yards.

Here we see a different story. The .22 WMR starts with about a 75 ft. lb. advantage in kinetic energy at the muzzle. At 50 yards the 40 grain .22 bullet is carrying about 45 more ft. lbs., and at 100 yards the 40 grain .22 bullet still has a 25 ft. lb. advantage over the .17 bullets. At 150 yards the .17 HMR has an energy advantage of about 20 ft. lbs. over the 30 grain .22 bullet, and we have no figures for the 40 grain bullet beyond 100 yards."