Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Scope options for 17HMR

A friend bought a gun in 17HMR. He wants to know what scopes people are using on them. He hopes for something with upper power ranges 12-16x. He says the only rimfire scopes he sees are 2-7, 3-9 in good scopes with BSA etc offering higher powers. Is a rimfire scope (most likely tailore to 22LR) even the way to go?

sbrmike - what is your friend going to do with his .17HMR? You can hunt small game w/2-7X, 3-9X OR you target/varmint shoot with 12-16X. At 16X FOV would be way too small for running rabbits. Homesteader

I have 4-12x and 4-16x scopes on my 17HMRs.

I am not an optics guy, but am liking the Sightron S1 4-12x40AO and the Weaver V16, 4-16x42AO a lot.

I don't particularly see the appeal of a rimfire scope on an HMR as the main advantage is the closer parallax setting. I don't sight my HMR in at 50 or 60 yards so that doesn't seem an advantage to me.
My current Ruger 77-17 is wearing a proven Weaver V10. I feel like 10x works well for small varmints out to 200 yards which is about how far I generally feel comfortable with the HMR. My V10 also has a slightly smaller objective (36mm) which compliments the smaller action.

sbrmike,

As has already been asked, what's he going to use it for?

A "rimfire scope" can either be a scope with the parallax set around 75 yards, or a scope with parallax adjustment. The first is pretty useless for a .17 HMR, since the HMR works at centerfire ranges. The second can be useful, especially if hunting small game at ranges under 100 yards.

My .17 HMR is primarily used for shooting small varmints here in Montana, ground squirrels or prairie dogs. It used to have a 3-9x Burris Fullfield II with Ballistic Plex reticle, which worked fine, but then I got the urge to use it once in a while for head-shooting tree squirrels and put on a 3-12x Cabela's with a side-knob for parallax adjustment.

For ME, an A.O. scope is the only way to go.

I've got a Leupold 3.5X10 A.O. on my 17 HMR and it is "shootable" on 10 power at 20 yards with the parallax adjusted.

Virgil B.

I have a 3.5 X 10 X 50 VariX III on my Savage. No complaints.

I have a Sightron Big Sky 4.5-14 A.O. on mine. I was going to go with a Leupold VX-2 4-12 A.O. But the Sightron fit so well I didn't switch them. As accurate as most HMRs are I like a minimum of 12 power.

Pride-Fowler with the rapid reticle on mine.....

Well I have no idea what he is going to do with it. It is a Savage off of the shelf so I doubt he is competing with it; probably plink/varmint/small game from 10 feet to he thinks 300 yards, but I have no idea. He thinks the gun/caliber is supposed to be accurate to 300 yards. I have serious doubts to killing power and wind bucking ability at that range with such a tiny projectile.

Sounds like any centerfire scope is the way to go.

Weaver V16, 4-16x42AO , I have this on my 17hmr and 22lr. I like something with adjustable objective on my rimfires.

sbrmike - "Sounds like any centerfire scope is the way to go." - pretty much. I've mounted spare center-fire scopes onto rim-fire rifles and they work well. I'm not able to shoot one hole groups with them (due to parallax?) but good enough. BTW - .17HMR at 300 yds would probably have its energy measured in 'ounces' LOL. Homesteader

Oh, the .17 HMR will kill at 300, if it hits the right place. Was shooting prairie dogs with a friend of mine who'd never shot a Hummer before, back when my CZ had the Burris with Ballistic Plex on it. I'd killed PD's out to 250+ with it, so knew where to hold out.

He was so impressed after watching me shoot it (he'd also never seen a multi-point reticle in use before) that he decided to try a long shot the first time he pulled the trigger. By that time we know the ranges to most parts of this small pasture, and he shot at a dog on the far side. It fell over and started doing the head-shot dance. As near as we could laser the range it was 303 yards. This was on a very calm morning, unusual in Montana at that time of year, and according to Sierra's ballistic program retained energy was around 50 foot-pounds.

He was so impressed he had to buy his own .17 HMR and Burris Ballistic-Plex, but apparently he hasn't made any 300-yard PD shots with it.

I know BSA kind of has the market on the sweet 17 scope, just wish more companies would follow that same path. I don't care for BSA scopes, but wouldn't mind a zeiss, leupold, burris or Nikon with the same set-up as the sweet 17... Just a thunk...

i had a 4-12x40 3200 Elite on my 17 HMR and found it about perfect for my needs. however i never had any intentions of shooting past 100 yrds or so with mine. i also will give a thumbs up on those Sightron's mentioned above. your friend will get more out of any scope he buys if he steps up on quality over power range, my .02 on the matter anyway. its a fun round and as long as the wind isn't gusting much it is an accurate little SOB

When I first bought my Savage, I took it on a few PD trips. I quit doing that. I was getting cripples, and more than a few and not at very long range. I remember several woundings and later recoveries where the penetration was severely lacking. Yeah, the .17HMR can kill PDs; but not consistently enough to satisfy my needs.

I was using the 17 grain V Max.

Of course, I know guys that shoot PDs with 22 Long Rifles and they are perfectly happy with that. Different strokes.

If you are getting cripples at 'not very long range', it means you ain't putting the pill where it needs to be...... it's either the gun or you, as a bunch of others don't seem to have that problem.

When it comes to varmints, I've never given much thought to their survival. Blow 'em apart with 204 Ruger or wound them with a 17HM2, they will eventually die and be eaten, thus completing the circle of life think. I have seldom bothered to pick up dead pdogs or gsquirrels, unless the land owner specifically asked me to do so, and when passing those same killing fields on the following days, I never saw any bodies festering in the sun. After all, protein is protein to a scavenger.

John - I believe you concerning being lethal at 300 yards. Had I checked the Hornady site I would have learned 300 yard energy for 17gr pill is 42 fpe @ 1056 fps. Much more than my guess of "ounces" - pardon me while I remove foot from mouth LOL. Homesteader.

Sbrmike: I have a Weaver V-16 (variable 4 to 16 power) on my Ruger 77/17 V/T.
Several of my friends over the years have "copied" this heavy barreled Weaver scoped set-up and all are happy as clams.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Homesteader,

Hey, downrange ballistics are always something of a semi-mystery, and I suspect it doesn't matter much with head-shots!

No doubt the Hornady ballistic tables use "standard atmospheric conditions," 59 degrees F. at sea level. I figured the 50+ foot-pounds in my post with a ballistic program at 75 degrees at 4000 feet above sea level--about the conditions we were shooting in when my partner made the 303-yard shot.

Also, Hornady .17 HMR ammo is loaded with Li'l Gun powder (or at least was, when I visited the factory where it's made a while back). Li'l Gun is good stuff but not particularly temperature-resistant. I've chronographed 17-grain ammo on 85-90 degree days, not unusual when shooting small rodents here in Montana, and gotten over 2700 fps. At 110 degrees it might come close to 3000!

John - my post is good reason to ask Santa for a chronograph this year. SWAG's, in this day & age, just don't cut it anymore.
BTW - is "foot/ounces" a legitimate measurement term - LOL?
Homesteader

I would certainly apply foot-ounces to the ballistics of "mouse guns"....

I recently put Weaver 3-9x32 AO RV-9's on my 17 HMR and a couple of 22 LR's. Seems like a decent scope for the money, though doesn't meet your friend's magnification requirements...

JGray - +1 IMO, those are sensible scopes for the intended purpose. Take a CZ452FS as a example - would you want to mount a scope w/ high power & 56mm objective on such a svelte piece?

That would be akin to the Hubble telescope and better suited to counting the rings of Saturn. Sure, you could do it but it would look a bit odd. Mine has a older Weaver 2-7X remounted from a M600 in .308W. It just looks 'right'. Homesteader

I believe that because of the location of the rear sight on a 452FS, you've got to use medium or higher rings in order to allow any objective larger than 28mm to clear the top of the rear sight. I have Weaver RV7s, 2.5-7x28, on my 452FS' because they fit better than any others that I have tried.

I had a couple of Mueller 4.5-14's on rimfires until recently - just to damn big. I do like the smaller size of the Weaver, but in all honesty, my favorite scope for varminting (rimfires and centerfires) is a Leupold 4-12 AO.