Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires 17HMR What do you use it for??

Shot around 100 of these with mine this spring. Awesome to around 150 yards. Most are dead right there - must just turn their insides to jello.

The 17HMR makes an excellent practice round. I go to Africa fairly frequently and use my Ruger/Clark Custom 77/17 to shoot off of the sticks at 200 yards as a tune up for the thornbush Kalahari. The lack of recoil and blast allows me to concentrate completely on sight picture, trigger control, and follow-through.

RS

I was hot on it in the beginning but have reverted to .22WMR as 100 yards is max for me. I note that I shoot with a peep sight, no glass.

Do have a 4X Bushnell Banner .22 on the Mossberg 351C .22 LR though.

I resisted the .17 for several years thinking it was yet another pre-obsolete cartridge. I broke down and bought one a few months before ... oh, maybe 2 primer / powder shortages ago. I'd had enough time to accumulate 1000 rounds or more before the shortage hit.

I sat by quietly listening to all the other varmint shooters bitch about the lack of primer and powder while quietly rounding up all the .17 HMR ammo, which was never in short supply here, I could get my hands on. I went into the shortage with 1000 or so rounds, snuck off and shot the crap out of stuff winding up with the best season I ever had, and came out a little bit of ammo ahead of where I started.

The only, ONLY thing I don't like about my HMR is that even after a bit of tuning, the Ruger 77/17 trigger is still heavier than I like.

The coolest thing is 3/4ths inch 100 yard groups all day long with any ammo I've ever tried in it. When I'm done shooting, one solvent patch followed by one dry patch, back in the safe, done for a week. I don't HAVE to reload for it. I don't HAVE to fuss with cleaning. If I want to do those things, I grab a different gun, if I don't, I grab the HMR.

What I shoot with it ... I use it for mice to ground squirrels, occasionally some bigger rabbits or hares. Other things I will not admit to.

Tom

My wife's garden is about 75-90 yds from the house. My CZ 453 keeps the critters away.

And when I want to plink... It'll give me 1 hole ragged groups at 50 yds.

I always thought it would be good for monkeys. I hate monkeys.

Mostly for PDs, Ground squirrels and chipmunks. Blow the little ones all to hell, but it's accurate and easy to shoot. I've heard of people shooting out to 400 yards with them, but I don't know that I've killed anything past 175 yards personally.