Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game for " The Kid"

Those are Texas pigs. Yeah, I gotta travel for them.

What distance did you engage said swine?

Most shots were from 50 to 80 yards.

Cool thread, ingwe! I'm torn between having/not having those vermin up here
OTOH, I have a nephew and several friends there in the "3rd" largest stale. Have a Rem classic in 17 Rem available that could be utilized. Hmmmm...
"darn you anyway😎"

FWIW the rifle pictured IS a Rem 700 Classic...I just plopped it into a BDL stock to save the original stock from getting marred.


Did I mention we called one later in the trip while calling predators? This one caught a 25 Vmax...

Wondered about the stock😉

The 17 I have spent most of it's life bagging fox in Minnesota, till I took it away from one of my friends. It has 3 or 4 coyotes under it's belt and that's all I have done with it. Got overly heavy to pack on 5mile hikes so now use a 223. There is no denying the Classic is a shooter though.

A couple that I know has already taken 30 of the vermin off their TX. ranch this year and I have a long-standing offer to come help with same. You sir might have struck a 🔥 in me that will have to be "recognized" with. Thanks? 😀

By all means GO! I shot 21 pigs on this last trip, between my .17 and my .222 Too much fun!

I have shot a lot of coyotes with the 25gr Hor HPs (.17 Mach IV) and the lack of penatration was a selling point. Usually no exit on chest shots even broadside rib shots.

What kind of penatration does it give on a chest shot pig?

My old Oregon Kimber 84 sits in the safe without an optic and thread like this make me want to get it back up and running.

It will penetrate far enough to scramble the lungs. No exit and no blood trail of course but they don’t go far. I even shot a southbound pig at the root of the tail with one and it penetrated deep enough to break the spine and put his back legs out of commission.

My 17 mentor bought one of the first ones to hit the state of Alaska back in 72 or 73. He liked the 25gr Hornady slowed down to about 3750-3800 because it was a little easier on fox. But he also killed 17 wolves and 7 bull caribou with the same load with chest shots. Lost one wolf through it all.

I got 3800fps for the 25gr in the .17 Mach IV.

Never shot anything bigger than a coyote with that rifle but I should get an optic on it just for fun.

That is my exact experience with the 25 Gr Horn HP from my .17 REM on about 100 or so coyotes. It rarely if ever exited and always killed quickly. I really don’t even recall any runners. They’d spin a couple times and go down. It didn’t seem to matter what angle they were at, or if bone was hit as long as they were chest shot. From (literally) bayonet range to 500ish yards.

The 20 VMAX, not so much. That bullet is fit for prairie dogs and that is about it as far as I am concerned. Maybe it would be better slowed down in a .17 Hornet or something. I am unsure if I ever played with the 25 VMAX or not.

Glad the Kid filled you in on this one, Ive never shot a pig with the .17 Rem anyplace but the brain.

And fwiw I do not throttle mine down. I run the 25s over a max charge of CFE223 for almost 4100fps.

Like TInman I haven’t found the 20Vmax to be very useful at 17Rem speeds. I did have pretty good luck on foxes with it as it wouldn’t exit. But we don’t have foxes in the area I live in now so I don’t even bother with them anymore.

I lost one or 2 coyotes but shot placement was not "optimal".

The 25gr Hor HP was my first experience with HP in a rifle and they did work well.

Looks like Hornady quit making them. I have a few hundred somewhere and the thought of a plastic tip is not exactly confidence inspiring given only 25grs.

I have seen enough 40gr VMAXs blow up on coyote shoulders to not trust a 25gr VMAX.

Somebody needs to get Tom drunk and steal his stash of 30gr Bergers. I'll bet he has a few thousand just gathering dust. Enough to supply the 24hr CF for many years.

I think I have about 500 of the 25 grain HPs stashed away, but haven't played with that rifle in a couple years. Never hunted anything bigger than 'yotes with it. I ditched the wood stock and Nikon scope, threw it in a McMillan Hunter Edge, put a FXII 6x36 onboard and continued to fill Arks with it, in the off season.

I should break it back out.

I havent used a 25 Vmax on a coyote yet...I dont often hunt them and when I do I usually take more horsepower.

My stash of 30 gr Bergers is smaller than you might think, but you'll never know till I'm good and drunk. Buffalo Trace might be the truth serum....hint.

I just recently handled a Hunters Edge and loved it...if you're not using yours........