Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Winchester 17 super magnum

I saw some 17 Super Magnum ammo in a local gun store last week. What's going on with this cartridge? I can't remember hearing anything about it, but the ballistics look good. Is it already dead in it's tracks? Apparently, Winchester doesn't chamber a rifle for it, which seems pretty odd.

Royce

You'll have to go Savage B-mag and they have been having some problems with accuracy. It may be ammo related, but the rifle just isn't up to par with anything out there right now as far as I'm concerned. To put it as nicely as I can: They are a cheap POS.....If you do end up getting a B-mag, look for the heavy barreled one. They still won't shoot as well as you'd hope for though..

The .17 WSM had the bad luck to appear about the time of the Great Rimfire Shortage, but apparently it's finally catching on. Not only Winchester but Federal and Hornady now offer ammo, though the rumor is it's all made by Winchester.

One of the other problems is the only two rifles originally chambered for the round were the Savage B.Mag, which had its early problems, and the Browning Low Wall, which was expensive and apparently not very available early on. (Since Browning and Winchester are essentially the same company, there's your "Winchester" rifle. Winchester Ammunition and Winchester Repeating Arms aren't the same company.)

Ruger announced a bolt-action .17 WSM at the SHOT Show this year, and so far I've heard very good reports on its accuracy. Also, Savage seems to be solving the problems with its .17 WSM rifles, now offering a couple of heavy-barrel versions that seem to shoot more consistently than the thin-barreled sporter.

John, my friend had a pencil barreled B-mag and it shot like chit. He sent it back and they sent him a heavy barreled rifle at no charge. I guess they are trying to make it right with customers...His heavy barreled rifle still doesn't shoot as well as any 17 HMR I've fired or even my new RAR 22 magnum... Go figure??

I'm becoming curious enough about the whole deal to buy some sort of .17 WSM soon. Might be the newest Savage, the laminated-stock "target" model.

When they shoot, the cartridge works great. One buddy recently bought a Ruger that's a tack-driver, right out of the box, and is in love with the round. I've seen ammo for as little as $15 a box, which is what a lot of .17 HMR ammo retails for these days.

If they'd quit screwing around and make a go of it with some nice rifles I'd buy one. Like you say, ammo is around and it's hot!

Would it work in a Contender, or is the rim too far out to be struck by the firing pin?

I'd like to see Ruger put it in the RAR rim fire.

I like the idea of the round, especially with it priced about the same as the HMR. I don't like the B mag and Ruger's 77/17 is a bit pricy for me.

Yeah, I'm hoping for an RAR .17 WSM myself.

Have had good luck with other Savages, but most centerfires work fine as long as I Dyna Bore-Coat the barrels. Apparently the synthetic stock on the B Mag's isn't so hot, one reason I'm thinking of trying the laminated-stock target model.

I have always liked savages for the price but the B Mag leaves me cold. I know a few guys who have had them and had accuracy trouble, a lot of that I believe is the flimsy stock but I don't like the rough as a cob cock on close action and the magazine seems to have some feeding issues in the couple I've been around.

It's a shame such a neat round ended up in a rifle that was almost totally geared towards the lowest possible price.

Anybody else having Deja vu thinking about the 5mm Remington?

The 5mm Remington was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the 17 WSM and no rifles on the rack for the cartridge.

It's not the ammo. Locally several H&R single shots have been reamed from 17HMR to 17WSM and the accuracy reports have been very good.

They should be. Ruger shows it on their website with a MSRP of $999. Yes, that's three nines between the dollar sign and the decimal point.

Someone would have to explain to me why WSM is better than Hornet.

no interest until a Left Hand Rifle hits the market . Every store around here has the ammo in stock , but i guess no one has anything to shoot it in, and that is why.

OlongJohnson,

Part of the reason for the development .17 WSM were regulations in some Eastern states, where centerfire cartridges aren't legal for hunting outside of deer season. Coyotes are becoming far more numerous in the East, and there was a perceived need for a more powerful, longer-ranged rimfire than the .22 Magnum. Also, as I recall at least one Eastern state also has a regulation against shooting centerfires at night.

There's no doubt the .17 Hornady Hornet is superior ballistically to the .17 WSM. But it also costs twice as much to shoot factory ammo, and even if you handload and really watch bullet and primer sales, it's almost as expensive to shoot as the .17 WSM. Then there's the time required to reloading .17 Hornets. Some people don't care about that, but some do.

In fact I've run into a bunch of people who buy .17 Hornet factory ammo to shoot ground squirrels and prairie dogs, then sell the once-fired brass to handloaders, rather than spend time handloading hundreds or thousands of rounds.

This is also why the .17 HMR is wildly popular in many Western states. It works great on burrowing rodents to at least 200 yards, which takes in a lot of shooting, especially for ground squirrels. It only costs about as much per round as handloading the .17 Hornet, but you don't have to spend hours at the bench. Instead you just buy 'em and shoot 'em.

.17 WSM ammo isn't much more expensive, and performance is right between the .17 HMR and .17 Hornet. If you own an accurate rifle what's not to like?

Aside from the new Ruger (which like anything else actually retails for 10-15% less than MSRP), Savage is apparently solving the accuracy problems so common in early BMags. One of my friends runs a big shooting store and reports that out of a PILE of BMag's he's sold in the past year, only three have been returned because they wouldn't shoot. Most recent customers are very happy with the accuracy.

I'm in, just as soon as Ruger gets one out in the American series...

John,

Do you know if the newer manufactured b mags with the pencil barrel are shooting better or if it's just the heavier barreled models?

I believe it's all of 'em, but you might ask shortactionsmoker, as he's who provided the report.