Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Is the 17MKII a dead caliber?

When the ammo supply for rimfires quits being stupid, I wish the manufacturers would start making 22 Rimfire, with 30 to 40 grain plastic tip bullets...or Jacketed HPs...

Good Friend, Mike Bellm, use to go out Squirrel Shooting with me, and had an Encore in 17M2...he later bored it out to 17 Fireball just due to ammo availability, IIRC...

which is another round, I'd like to play with... load it for a friend, who bought the Encore from Mike when he moved from Oregon...

Havent had a Mach II for a few years but had the very first one that rolled into my buddy's shop. Bought 2 cases of ammo when I got it and shot the snot outta that heavy barreled Marlin. Had a trigger put in it. Little booger shot like crazy way out for such a tiny round. Killed quite a few bushy tails and even dropped 2 song dogs DRT, 1 was shot right above a line that connects the peepers and one shot directly in the chest as he sat right there and watched me shoot him. Wish I had that gun back and a stock of ammo. Never heard any of those bullets whistle through the air after I poked a squirrel in the head. Perfect round for shooting squirrels in the trees with all of the houses out in the country now. Safer than a solid RN 22 LR by far.

that means you can shoot 10 sighter shots, then still kill 90 squirrels.

i shoot a lot of 1-shot groups from Mach2's...

Thanks for posting that. When the II came out I figured it would be absolutely PERFECT squirrel medicine. ( the 17 Hummer is a bit much...)
You have confirmed my suspicions.

Now, what hasn't the popularity taken off?

Dang Gerald! You need to post those pics over on the Dead Critter, and varmint thread! Nice looking property too!

Awesome!!!


DMc

I hope not. I love mine....

When the HMR ammo was $10.00 & Mach2 $4.00 it was a no-brainer in the gopher fields.
Now, when you can find it, it's at least $7.00+ retail and I am down to 1 Hm2.
I love it, though.


P.S. if you have a buddy at a Pawn Shop, ask him to save all Hm2 ammo for you. The one I have a connection at says he has trouble moving it, because most folks do not know what it is.
He is glad to have a guaranteed sale & profit when he takes some in.
Been working for me.

I would love to have a Marlin 917V in 17HM2, but they didnt make very many of them. Savage still make 17HM2 with standard and bull barrel. Have talked to guys in PA that have no problem with 80 yard head shots on grey squirrels with 17HM2.

I used to own a cz 452 in 17 hm2 that was easily my most accurate gun ever.
My then 8-10 year old son could shoot sub MOA groups,one after another, off the bench with it.
I bought it from a member here,and sold it to a different one.

I kicked myself for not buying a Ruger 77 in the HM2 while they were available locally for less than $400....

i remember CDNN clearing out some 1885 low walls in Mach2 priced in the mid 500's, and the stainless/laminate rugger 77 17M2's priced in the mid $400's...kinda always wanted both of those, never got either.

I picked up a sako quad in 17HM2.

Friggin accurate rig

I have 3 Mach 2's.. a Magnum Research Carbon fiber, a Savage Bolt and a Marlin 917 auto.. all of them are shooters. The Magnum Research is my favorite.. it has accounted for 5 coyotes... all I had with me at the time.. dropped all but 1 in his tracks. I still kick myself in the butt for not stocking up on ammo when Natchez had it for $39 a brick!!!

One of these days I will post up pictures of my rimfire shooting system... It consists of a CZ 455, a 4x12x40 AO Leupold and Lilja barrels with corresponding CDS dials tailored to their favorite loads in 22LR, 17 MachII, 22 WMR, and 17 HMR............The 17 MachII is my favorite!


X-VERMINATOR

That is something I'd really like to see!

Have a 17M2.....Savage SS/lam w/heavy bbl...Basix trigger...

Bought new quite a while ago....quiet & very accurate

Use Eley ammo......smells good....have enough for many years..

works great on feral cats...one shot even out to 100 yds..

I'll post something up as soon as I get it back...



X-VERMINATOR

Tikkanut: I have noticed the distinctively different smell of the Eley 17 Mach2 ammunition myself.
It is a vastly different and more pronounced (more pungent!) odor than the Hornady ammo.
The Remington ammo (of which I have only fired a little) smells quite similar to the Eley stuff IIRC.
My good friend and retired gunsmith (with an F.F.L.) here in my town bought 10,000 rounds of ELEY 17 Mach2 ammo about 3 years ago - at under $3.00 per box (not counting shipping).
Oh how I wish I would have joined in on that bargain!
I bought a big cardboard box full of Eley 17 Mach2 ammo myself at the Bozeman Gunshow last year for $240.00 I think it has 40 boxes of the Eley stuff in it - I am going down to my gunvault and check on that amount - I haven't broken in to it as yet for shooting.
Yeah that carton has 40 boxes of 50 rounds each Eley ammo in it.
That was at $6.00 per box.
Only reasonable price I have paid for the stuff in over 2 1/2 years!
Now I can't even find the stuff on stores shelves at all.
Heres hoping for improvement in availability in the future.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Looking forward to it!

And Go Cards! Not a fan of the recent trade or losing Neshek, but I have high hopes again for this year.

My brother and I always take time off from deer hunting to break out our 17M2s for squirrel. The 17s and his rat terrier make for a great morning in the creek bottoms.

When the 17HMR came out I hoped they would make a 17 off the .22 LR case. The 17M2 is more practical as a small game round. As far as ammo goes the best thing I can say is buy it when you find it.