Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 17 HMR rifles

I picked up on your A17 experience awhile back and have been shooting it in my Marlin 917s, Savage 93R17s, and the rebarreled Savage-Anschutz 141M. Around here, Wal-Mart has the best every day retail price, just under $50 for the 200 round box, while Cabela's regularly has the 50 round boxes priced around $13.

Have seen some consistently good prices on A17 ammo since the election! Before then it was often $60 or more for the 200-round packs.

This is taped to the objective bell of the Leupold 3.5-10X40 B&C on my 17HMR. This is only as complicated as you make it.

Any trajectory program will get you close, then it's a simple matter of verifying and tweaking drops. Same as for a BG rifle.



P.S. Sorry it is so large.

I have the Pride Fowler mounted on my CZ452 Varmint. After I did the trigger and free floated the barrel; it's a hammer. I have made first shot hits on gophers at 225 yards. As you say, the reticle is dead on. I am quite pleased with this rig.

Annie 1717 is a good one. I just put this vintage B&L scope on mine. One of these days, may look into a scope with a dedicated .17 HMR reticle. Unfortumately, I don't get a chance at PD's like you guys. Wish I did.

Some years ago, I was Pronghorn hunting in NM, drove into a PD town. WOW! I could have spent the evening there, forgot about Speed Goats...

DF



This one likes CCI, TNT's. Does good with tipped bullets, but not quite like this.

I have been looking at the Savage A17`s.I need to have something to shoot the Hornady 17 ammo I bought for 9.99 for fifty.Got 1000 of them.

The Savage A17 won't reliably function with standard Hornady .17 HMR ammo--the reason for the hotter A17 ammo.

You do realize you are forcing me to buy two 17HMR`s now.

Huntz,

And the problem with that is?

Did not know that about the A17 ammo.

A-17 ammo at Sportsmans is 16.99 / box, .17 HMR is 12.99, not sure if that is typical but 12.99 is already pretty expensive.

Was out shooting Sage rats yesterday over near KFalls...

With the 17HMR

Several shots... bang/flop.

Took several shots with one of the 223s, with 40 grain V Maxes....
Bang/KaBlooEy! Sage rats parts all over the place....

I put the 17 HMR up and had fun the rest of the afternoon...

seagulls came in and started to eat hardy...

17 HMR suck when you've become addicted to red mist, and exploding varmints...

post mortum pics available if you need to see the difference...

Evaporating more fun than just killing....

DF

They are not being evaporated.... its more along the lines of what democRATS describe as redistribution...

the carcass flying 8 or 10 feet also adds to the rewards....

after seeing that, bang flop is just so boring...

But, the less noisy 17 HMR can function in situations where a louder rifle may raise eyebrows.

Redistribution of vermin parts sounds about right. I like the analogy.

Vaporization more the work of a Swift or .22-250 with light bullets. Red mist, even smaller and more numerous redistributed parts.

It's all good.

DF

John,

Sorry about the dumb question... What is A17 ammo? Who makes it? Never heard of it.

Thanks,

Dick

CCI makes the A17 ammo. It was developed because the A17 Savage rifle did not cycle properly with regular ammo. CCI hopped the ammo up by 100 fps and the Savage cycles properly. The side effect of the A17 ammo is that it develops more than 100 extra fps in a bolt .17 HMR. Mule Deer reports velocity of 2800 fps or higher. It is also as accurate as the standard ammo and normally shoots to or close to the same zero as standard ammo.

I wonder if .17 HMR ammo may one day reflect A17 performance.

If A17 is as accurate as std. ammo and shoots 200 fps faster, why not make all .17 HMR ammo to that standard.

Just asking...

DF

Goes for $49.95 for a 200 round box at Walmart and a few other stores where I'm at.

D F

I honestly don't have hardly any opportunities to use a 17 HMR, 204, et.al. There aren't very many varmints round here.

I have friends in/on 3-4 deer leases where 'shooting' is NO problem BUT it's all timber land (piney woods of varying stages). More of the 'crop' is too large for visibility. Clearcuts are great but there aren't that many of them and good shooting only last 4-5 yrs each.

That's one thing I really MISS about living in La. I had access to 1000S of acres of timber land, not leased. There were lots of opportunities for varminting. I don't have that any more.

Jerry