Seafire John,
I'm pretty new to the HMR, and my only rifle in .17 HMR is a Ruger 96. It took me a while to find one ($350
) My "need" for one was to clear the diggers off my property, without undue sharing of the projectiles with my neighbors. It was a noble and wholly worthwhile thought process. But alas, as it turns out, a Marlin 57M in 22 magnum facilitated their extinction before I could locate my preference in a .17. No neighbors braying about tinkling on the roof, so I guess we're good.
Marty and I slayed desert bunnies this winter with various rifles, but the little .17 HMR in the Ruger lever action platform is THE TICKET for busting running Jacks! Whew!
Like most gun cranks, I've used jackrabbits as testing medium for all of my small caliber rifles with great elation and glee. I speak only for myself and not the bunnies on that topic!!
A custom .17 Ackley Hornet I built years ago on an Anschutz action absolutely murdered small animals, with body parts such as ears and legs normally finding their way off the poor critters as often as not. But, as my affinity for lever actions blossomed around a wonderful Savage 99 in .375 Winchester, which I still own by the way, the sleek little .17 bolt gun went looking for greener pastures full of pups.
Many other 224 centerfires came and went for the purposes of general fauna mayhem, with the Sako Vixen Fireball finding a permanent and unshakable place in the desert gun stable. But it mostly sees coyote duty.
The .17 HMR ammo available to me locally was the CCI 17 gr V-Max. I don't remember the group size while sighting in initially, but I remember thinking I could do a bunny in the eye or surrounding tissue at 80 yards, no problemo. Perhaps I should try some of this super duper ammo mentioned in this thread and see what they old lever gun will really do...
One things for sure, while diminutive in stature, the HMR is ginormous in fun value, outsized in effectiveness, and downright practical in close proximity work, which so many find themselves concerned with nowadays. I look forward to testing more of the variety of ammo available, if I can convince myself my little Ruger 96 package needs improving on. I could benefit from a scope upgrade in the future, perhaps I should start there in the accuracy quest.
