The biggest downside to the rifle,is the Walnut stock. Living wood sucks ass as a handle material and should be reserved expressly for a fireplace.
Tough to beat a 77/22 for rugged reliability and laminate Trumps living wood,by lightyears. It'd be a match made in heaven,to find a sucker foolish enough to accept Walnut in trade for their laminate.
All of the 77/22 VT's have too much barrel length on them and a chop job really brings the platform around,whether 22LR,Mag,Hummer,Whizzum or Hornet/K-Hornet. 20" is a nice place to be for balance/handling...in all of those chamberings.
The 17WSM chambering in and of itself,is simply fabulous. It's blend of Precision and Performance,simply must be seen,to be believed. Have shot several flavors of ammo through the chronograph and it's consistency is surprisingly good,while hauling ass.
Assuming some attention to the 77/22 stock's inlet,some bedding and a trigger tweak(the stone/re-spring is as effective as Aftermarket and I've got SpecTech,Dayton Traister,Rifle Basix and Timney),the rifles settle right down in their consistency.
With 5 minute epoxy it's a 10 minute job,trim everything purty then yada,yada...yada,the usual. These all tend tend to like a CH of tip pressure and most of mine get FL bedded in accordance. The OEM handles are often really loaded with tip pressure. Hint.
With a 10x MQ zero-stopped in the saddle,steering 20gr V-Max at 3000fps,one can crank .5 MOA 100yd clusters,if that is their idea of fun. With a 150yd zero(+.7" at 100yds),the windshield will take you to the 675yd line. 5 Mils of full value 10mph wind,transpires at the 650yd line. The chambering is a mind blower and a real Hammer.
200yd paper will happily toss sub MOA clusters,assuming an Operator with a clue.
They are BAD Bitches...............