So
Anyone have experience with shooting the 17 wsm on p dogs ?
Your thoughts on the performance?
Thanks

I got one put together but haven't been to the dog fields yet. I'm afraid I'm going to find that the 17 HMR and the 17 Hornet bracket it and may render it extra to me.

OSU Sig nailed it......

that said, after using one, I don't mind 'brackets' as I have the M2, HMR, WSM and hornet.....

A few "wussy 'em" critters...

Shot along side a good buddy with a few WSM's.

Results seemed closer to a .223 than a .17hmr.

YMMV.

You're just having way too damn much fun.

WSM makes a great first gun to start with on a dog town. If the pdogs are giving you shots from zero muzzle sucking to 200 yards. It makes sense to me to use the rimfire.

Not much gained hitting a dog at close range with a cf, except the added cost, IMO.

🦫

I have a Ruger 77 in both 17 Hornet and 17 WSM. I have used both in prairie dog towns. Have Leupold 1" 4.5-14 AO scopes with wind plex reticles on them. The WSM is effective out to 300 yards depending on wind. Rifles both have trigger adjustments and are both quite accurate for prairie dogs. Had a magazine modified by a gunsmith to be a single shot that fits both rifles and makes shooting off a bench faster than reloading magazines for me. Mine shoots the Federal ammo slightly better than Hornady. Splits the difference between 17 HMR and 17 Hornet but is probably redundant if you have both of the others. Availability of ammo might be a factor in your area.

Are you finding prairie dogs in Iowa now?

It gives you a little more range over the HMR for pdogs, inside 200yd it kills them just as well as HMR. The advantage is between 200-300 yds, the pdogs continue to drop. We found the WSM accuracy varied more from batch to batch. When the A17 in WSM comes out it’ll be the go to pdog gun.

This is my experience as well--though I eventually started using the .17 HMR A17 ammo, designed for the semi-auto Savage A17 rifle. It gets very close to the .17 WSM ballistics, but cost less than .17 WSM ammo--at least at that time. It also shot to the same POI at 100 yards as standard .17 HMR ammo in my very accurate CZ 452, but is several inches flatter at 200 and beyond.

I WSM'ed the hell outta them again today....

Just a smidge faster than the WSM is the reloadable 17 CCM. An amazing, yet unknown member of the 17 family…

what rifle ya got there Huntsman ?

seems I'm behind the times on this 17wsm business....

RimX

Tell me about it, please.

That’s a pretty nice looking 17. 😊

Here it is between a 17 HMR and a 17 Hornet. It is a fantastic little cartridge, suited best to gophers. The brag of rimfires on prairie dogs is not as real as some try to make it. Prairie dogs get too skittish to hang around to get shot with many rimfires.

sorry guys...too rich for my shootin'

Using old inventory..40 gr V max bullet @ .14 each...in this 20-222

Plus primer & charge...$.024 a shot

55-60 rds per hour

17 WSM not happening

Nothing wrong with that rig. You choose this over the 204 Ruger?

been down the 204R road

I like different stuff

20 Fireball (Vartarg)

20-223 (20 Practical)

This 20-222....9 twist.....original chamber was a 20 BR

Got bored with that fast..ran 55 Bergers...

What Hornady needs to design is a 50 grain V Max in 20 caliber

Thinking I might look into a 20 Practical. I have a couple of 204 Rugers but have a wandering eye...

That is not a good thing. The more that eye wanders, the more it costs.

My wandering eye has cost 10's of thousand$ as I am not limited to varmint rifles and I like old guns as well...

I hear that and am guilty as charged.

Back on track..... the 20 gr vmax is a wicked pill at close range.




shot him in the side of the face at 63 yards. not much left above the chest, but scalp and a couple bone shards... the whole brain was laying about 10 behind the mound.

I put a hurt on pdogs a couple weeks ago with my .17 wsm, had a riot. Mine is a simple savage model but on a dead calm morning I can punch holes in a playing card at 235 yards.
I did not shoot pdogs out that far, maybe a touch over 175 was the longest. I have the leupold fx3 6x42 on top. Mine does best with 25 grain heads. Great times.

Osky

A suppressed WSM over some P-Dogs that haven't been shot at very much is too much fun! You can spend a lot of time shooting over them before they get skittish. Probably my favorite caliber during the first day or two of our hunts.