It is a fantastic varmint round.
It was very popular among varmint shooters right out of the gate. But it has ridiculous pressure spikes and a lot of semi-autos were recalled accordingly.
If you can get one in a bolt gun or single shot, and lay in a good supply of ammo, they are well worth the effort. But I will add that it is awful in high winds and some modern 22LR gives an equivalent "pop" on a rat or rabbit.
They are insanely accurate. Typically.
The 17HM2 seems like it would be the perfect round for shooting iguanas at long range down your way or for shooting armadillos in the southwest.
It would be dynamite on iguana but it would be too loud for the places I hunt.
It's pretty schitty for long range IME. But it is a sure thing 75yds and under.
I've shot fox squirrels at 100 yards or so when they were out in corn fields harvesting ears that didn't make it into the combine's feeder house. Where is was safe to do so, I've shot black walnut out of the trees that they grew on out to 125 yards, but I needed a little hold over past 100 yards.
I was thinking that a suppressed 17HM2 would be safer than a suppressed .22 LR because the 17HM2 bullets are fragile and not prone to ricochets.
