Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires 17 Mach2 Ammo Question

At the introduction of 17M2, I already had a 17HMR, but the introductory pricing of 17M2 ammo was lower than the bullets in the cartridge.
At 8 cents a shot in 2008, I could pull the Vmax bullets and be ahead.
I bought a 17M2 reamer and a 17M2 barrel and bolt for the 10/22.
That was a bust. A rim blow out is going to happen, more than once.
My brother built a 17M2 bolt action with my reamer, and then moved to a prairie dog area. The 17M2 is no prairie dog cartridge. Maybe ground squirrel, but not prairie dog.
So now I have 11 bricks [$440 in 2008] and have fired a dozen rounds in 7 years.
But I have not given up.
I have a 17 Mach IV reamer and a barrel.

You ever want to sell any of those bricks, please let me know.

I've seen some good results on PDs depending on the distance. About the same with the .17HMR which obviously has a little more legs.

Well, when I bought a MkII it was a Sako Quad and I also got a 17 HMR barrel and barrels in .22 LR and .22 Mag. I also bought up a schitload of ammo for the MkII cause I kinda wondered how long it would be around. Turns out I've used the rifle more with the MkII barrel than anything...great little round.

.Killed 2 starlings with one of mine this morning..

Possibly the ultimate starling round.

We used to shoot them by the bucketful. We baited them in winter and shot them with airguns. We shot them with .22s during the nesting season in PA. The most fun was wingshooting the flocks in the wintertime. Those feathered rats can really fly!

My brother even popped one with a 185gr hollerpoint out of his AMT Hardballer.

There is another issue preventing 17HM2 ammo from production. This may have been solved as of late, but it was still a topic at SHOT.

CZ does runs of 452's for us every year. We requested 500 17HM2's in addition to our regular order. We met with them and the ammo manufacturer. We didn't want the guns if they couldn't deliver a big quantity of ammo.

Long story short, the ammo company wouldn't commit to a run until they could anneal the necks before priming. They said the necks were too brittle in their current form. The firearm manufacturers had been pounding them over the last several years because of split necks. They were even concerned about shelf life of existing ammo. They said it should harden and become more brittle over time creating additional issues in the future.

FWIW -- this may have been a story concocted as an excuse because they couldn't keep up with everything else, but they sure went into tons of detail to say "not at this time".

I've seen necks crack on .17HM2s. But no more than the 17HMR to be honest.

I'm starting to see Ruger 10-22 barrel chambered in the Mach-2 for sale on EBAY

From what I've seen, 10/22 conversions to 17HM2 are potentially dangerous under the best of circumstances and bombs under less than the best of circumstances. I converted three of them and even though I kept them spotlessly clean, never had so much as a bulged case, I decided that safety concerns dictated that a return to .22 LR was the smart thing to do.

I just removed a Majestic 17M2 barrel from a 10/22 this week and put a 22LR Bentz Green Mountain barrel on.

I currently have no 17M2 guns, but I have a reamer, and I will build one.



THis 1947 Winchester 75 looks like a good candidate [already been touched by Bubba]. Much better chamber support than the 10/22.