Here�re some random thoughts on this.
Prior sales - The .17 HMR has taken off like a rocket. It is accurate as all get out, fast and flat out to as far as a lot of folks shoot. America is getting suburbanized; it shoots as far as a lot of people can shoot safely. It has enough power to nail woodchucks, fox and anything smaller and a lot of folks even use it for bigger stuff . Joe Public has come to associate the .17 caliber with fast, flat, cheap and deadly.
This is America. If fast is good, faster is better. If .17 fast is good, .17 lots faster has to be lots better.
Price � lots of people don�t reload, in fact most shooters (aka customers) don�t reload. Price of factory ammo is a big consideration for them, probably a really, really big consideration. The .17 Hornet and whatever might be great, but the cost of a box of centerfire ammo is still higher than a box of rimfire ammo, even if the rimfire ammo is $15 per 50 or whatever it will be.
The Hornet does fit into existing rimfire type rifles. The Ruger 77/22 is chambered for the .22 Hornet and the 77/17 is chambered for the 17 Hornet. I don�t know off the top of my head what other brands are like that, maybe CZ, but anyway, the potential is there to convert existing designs cheaply.
We, the intellectual cr�me de le cr�me of the shooting world, may not leap for joy at another rimfire that doesn�t do anything better than our existing centerfire rounds which we reload cheaply, but we are just a pimple compared to the mountain of potential customers that read and heed Guns and Ammo.
As Yogi Berra once said, �it�s hard to predict stuff, especially about the future�. Folks predicted the immediate death of the .300 WSM, I think you can still find a few of those around. Folks predicted the immediate death of the .17 HMR, again, I think at least one manufacturer still chambers at least one firearm for it, maybe two.
Most folks think about their own needs and wants and then extrapolate the rest of the world from there. But I think Winchester did their market research on this one. Besides, new toys are always good.
