Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires What's the most accurate ammo in your 17 HMR?

You can't copy this unless you own an Annie. Only owners can use the word Annie. Yea, if your Annie is shooting .5" then it has to be the ammo. Just say'n

Winchester

DF,

How many bullets per group?

The reason I ask is on the first near-windless day I shot my CZ 452 back in 2003, the initial group at 100 yards was with the 17-grain CCI/Speer TNT load, and measured .24"--but was only 3 shots.

That impressed me, but the next group was shot with the 17 V-Max Hornady load, and the first 4 went into exactly half an inch, with the 5th shot a "flier" to make the final group 3/4".

Haven't shot another paper group with the 17 TNT load since then, though have killed quite a few varmints with it. I have far more faith in 5-shot groups as a real measure of a rifle's accuracy than 3-shot anymore, but also know benchrest shooters use hollow-point bullets instead of plastic-tips!

Anything with a 17 grain plastic tip bullet.

I find that the Anschutz, Marlins, Savages, and GM barreled Savage are pretty insensitive to ammo brand/lot changes, while the Ruger 10/22 Magnum conversions seems to be VERY lot sensitive.

Not required to shoot unleaded, yet, and have .22 Magnums to shoot anything I'd probably want to shoot with a 20 grain 17 HMR bullet.

Unlike the 17HM2, Eley never made 17HMR, so there wasn't anything to miss when it was gone.

Jeff

When the 17's came out in the 90s,I jumped on the 17 bandwagon also.

After shooting several yotes with it, I sold it to a buddy. Went back shooting them with the 22mag. It did a better job.

Yea, the first time I took out the HMR.17 hunting, it worked good on little squirrels but when I shot a big jack rabbit it took two shots to get him to drop, the first shot he just shook his big ears at me so when I looked at the shots were about a inch apart... I then purchased the .22 mag and been happy ever since.

Yea, that's my feeling. The 17 is too destructive on the small critters and not enough "smack" for the larger critters. But you know, it takes a lot of shooting/killing to prove this to some people. Here again, I am just reporting real world experience, lots of it.

There is one use for a 17 I can think of. If, and I mean if, you are the kind that is hell bent on shooting crows in a relatively populated rural area. Sending a 17gr or 20gr up in the air is not as bad.

Before somebody say's something. The 17's ricochet just as bad as a 22mag's. They all ricochet.

Yea, and I like eating the squirrels I shoot, so unless you do head shots its a waste.

The 17HMR came out when Hodgdon introduced Lil'gun powder to the public and ammo manufactures. It was now capable to design a cartridge with the desirable specifications and keep the pressures where they needed it using a rimfire case. That's when the CCI Velocitor came out also. Now the Velocitor is a great cartridge.

Three, of course.

Why mess up a good group with four or five shots...

DF

Well, yeah!

But then, why mess up a perfect group with more than one shot?

I hear ya.

But when ya got three almost touching, just hard to touch off another.

Just too purdy to mess up...

DF

Of course!

Tell him Hi for me!

To update this thread, here's a photo of my Annie 1717 and the CCI TNT three shot 100 yd. group.

DF

Gee! I only measured the first 3-shot 100-yard group out of my CZ to two places and it was .24". Maybe we'll have to have a shoot-off someday....

Ha!

That would be fun. Five shot groups...?

DF

Sure.

Aggregate of multiple loads?

My Annie doesn't like some of the plastic tipped .17's. It liked the Winchester Supreme (.340") not so much the Hornady stuff, some groups going 3/4" to 1".

So, unless we have a still Louisiana day and a windy Montana day, this Annie and I could get multiple load aggregate embarrasssed...

DF

I had the same experience out of my Annies and now cannot find the TNT. Sold both Annies but willing to try one again. Have a CZ.