gnoahhh,
Have killed enought "grarly tough old groundhogs" with various cartridges in the East (along with rockchucks in the West) to have full confidence in the .17 Hornet out to 250-300 yards.
In my CZ 527, 7.0 grains of 5744 gets around 2100 fps with 20-grain bullets, with head-shot squirrel accuracy out to 100 yards. With hollow-points (which are less explosive than plastic-tips) it works fine for small game. Essentially it's a centerfire version of the .17 Mach 2.
