wolfhowlsatmoon
Member
- Location
- kamloops BC
Hey all, I love the site and love my rimfires and plan on doing a good bit of hunting this season with my CZ Canadian 17hmr. Already taken a couple limits of rabbits to get me warmed up for big game and am loving the gun and the caliber, but as always on the internet there are so many opinions and ideas on what is best and what should be used for what. Where I am in Canada I can regularly find 4 types of CCI ammo, 17 grain VMAX, 17 grain JHP tnt, 20 grain JSP, and 20 grain FMJ. The internet experts worldwide like to share their opinions on what each on is capable of and what not so I decided to get some of my own first hand data about each on and make the decision myself so I did. I bought 40 boxes of Knox gelatin and make one big block of ballistic gel, followed the steps and made it so it was reasonable close to spec (a .177 BB going 595fps went in just under 4"). Then I decided that unlike many of the gel tests online I didn't want it to be at 10 yards, because most of my shooting is much farther away. I placed the block at 100 yards and took 4 shots one with each bullet and went from there. I was surprised and excited and had way too much fun.
Heres some photos and the data collected. (I do not have a chronograph or a good camera but Ill share what I have).
17gr VMAX, most people say too destructive, I think not. at 100 yards there was no expansion and much less damage to the block than expected. 13" of penetration max 0.5'' wide.
20gr FMJ. Did not recover the bullet as expected but it did far more damage than the vmax, first shot caused a good bit of damage then exited the side so I fired again, pass through 15'' of gel causing good damage up to 1.5" wide for the first half of the block and small channel in the last bit.
20gr JSP. I expected a lot from this one and hoped it did well as I wanted to use my 17 for yotes and bobcat and lynx which are plentiful here. Penetrated 12'' with good damage though the whole wound channel and decent expansion, more of a flower than mushroom.
17gr JHP. It is called the TNT so naturally I expected Vmax (or what I thought) like results. It did far far better. I tried to get some good photos but it knocked the block off the rock and the channel was in a spot that I couldn't get an accurate photo. But the data is still good. 9'' of penetration, immediate expansion (0.25") and the first 5 inches were jello up to 3" wide, the last few inches were good too up to 1'' wide. It shed a bit of its jacket but when it came to rest it was the best mushroom of them all.
Here they are side by side.
Take away from this what you will, at closer range or longer range of course different results will occur, I know live targets are full of bones and blood and the bullets would react differently but this is a good representation of what the bullets will do at a distance that I will be shooting regularly. I had a ton of fun doing this and hope it helps some of the rimfire community out.
Happy hunting and safe shooting.
CB
Heres some photos and the data collected. (I do not have a chronograph or a good camera but Ill share what I have).
17gr VMAX, most people say too destructive, I think not. at 100 yards there was no expansion and much less damage to the block than expected. 13" of penetration max 0.5'' wide.
20gr FMJ. Did not recover the bullet as expected but it did far more damage than the vmax, first shot caused a good bit of damage then exited the side so I fired again, pass through 15'' of gel causing good damage up to 1.5" wide for the first half of the block and small channel in the last bit.
20gr JSP. I expected a lot from this one and hoped it did well as I wanted to use my 17 for yotes and bobcat and lynx which are plentiful here. Penetrated 12'' with good damage though the whole wound channel and decent expansion, more of a flower than mushroom.
17gr JHP. It is called the TNT so naturally I expected Vmax (or what I thought) like results. It did far far better. I tried to get some good photos but it knocked the block off the rock and the channel was in a spot that I couldn't get an accurate photo. But the data is still good. 9'' of penetration, immediate expansion (0.25") and the first 5 inches were jello up to 3" wide, the last few inches were good too up to 1'' wide. It shed a bit of its jacket but when it came to rest it was the best mushroom of them all.
Here they are side by side.
Take away from this what you will, at closer range or longer range of course different results will occur, I know live targets are full of bones and blood and the bullets would react differently but this is a good representation of what the bullets will do at a distance that I will be shooting regularly. I had a ton of fun doing this and hope it helps some of the rimfire community out.
Happy hunting and safe shooting.
CB
