I'm tempted to try my 17 HMR and go for head shots.

Thoughts ?

did your 22 fail you? Mine never did and I love the HMR for stuff your not going to eat

I've had a squirrel or two fall and crawl into a stump or someplace I can't find him, so I'm tempted to eliminate it.

I hope to find out, next yr. Don't own a HMR, yet, but intend to rectify that, in the next 2 mos. Read somewhere that the 20 gr. Game point doesn't tear the squirrels up, as bad as the 17 gr. V-max.


maddog

If your rifle likes them the 20gr FMJ's eliminate decapitation yet still kill cleanly with headshots. That being said, I still prefer something quieter than the HMR in the squirrel woods. The .17HM2 is the "grail" of squirrel cartridges if you ask me....



X=VERMINATOR

it is the bomb-diggity.

i think back to the times as a kid when i hunted a big, open pecan orchard behind my grandparents house where i could see squirrels at a hundred yards...and they could see me.
not that it wasnt fun banging away at them with an old iron sighted 22, but i was more of a nuisance than a threat.

if i'd had a scoped mach2 back then, squirrels might be extinct in that area.

I hear ya.....A good set of binoculars, a quality 4x12 with a fine duplex or target dot, and an accurate rifle chambered in 17HM2 is as deadly a tree rat trio as you can get. I hope it survives!


X-VERMINATOR

My mom demanded cleaned, head-shot squirrels if she was going to cook them up for us. We used a Mossberg that is still in my gun safe, a 4x Lyman Alaskan in Weaver mounts sat on top and we used shorts only. We learned a couple of important life lessons, patience, trigger squeeze, and that Mom really was the best teacher that we had.

Terry

I used my HMR on limb chickens a few times and didn't like it. Way more than neccesary at woods ranges {that's where squacks live here} in power, destruction and trajectory with expanding bullets and FMJ's don't kill as well as .22 LR HP's. The phuckin' thing is neither hay nor grass for squirrels as far as I can tell.

I'm forbidden from my Brother-in-Law to shoot them in the body with my .17 HMR. He says they area mess to clean. But I still prefer it over the .22. They don't get away LOL. I vote for whatever your heart desires. Variety is the spice of life!