Yea, the first time I took out the HMR.17 hunting, it worked good on little squirrels but when I shot a big jack rabbit it took two shots to get him to drop, the first shot he just shook his big ears at me so when I looked at the shots were about a inch apart... I then purchased the .22 mag and been happy ever since.
Yea, that's my feeling. The 17 is too destructive on the small critters and not enough "smack" for the larger critters. But you know, it takes a lot of shooting/killing to prove this to some people. Here again, I am just reporting real world experience, lots of it.
There is one use for a 17 I can think of. If, and I mean if, you are the kind that is hell bent on shooting crows in a relatively populated rural area. Sending a 17gr or 20gr up in the air is not as bad.
Before somebody say's something. The 17's ricochet just as bad as a 22mag's. They all ricochet.
