TRnCO,
Well, you can handload .17 Hornets for "way less" than the .17 HMR if you use inexpensive hollow-points, but as I noted above, 20-grain HP's do not shoot nearly as flat, and drift a lot more in the wind, than 20-grain plastic tips, whether the V-Max or Tipped Varmageddon. If handloading plastic-tips in the .17 Hornet, it's hard to beat the price of HMR's. Also, the newer A17 ammo for the Savage semiauto .17 HMR usually gets around 2850-2900 fps in bolt actions. This ups the performance of the .17 HMR considerably, since it comes very close to the .17 WSM in performance.
I also live where about half the "small rodent" varmint shooting is Columbian or Richardson's ground squirrels, which are rarely shot beyond .,17 HMR range--which is why I've never even considered giving up my .17 HMR, and with the advent of A17 ammo am even happier.
But I also spend enough time handloading all sorts of other cartridges that it doesn't make sense to handload when I don't have to--and with the .17 HMR I don't have to for a BUNCH of my rodent shooting.
