Is .17hmr a worthy upgrade for ruffed grouse over .22LR?

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bisonviril

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For the past 15 years, I have used a shotgun for all my grouse hunting. As I am not a very good hunter, my hearing is still mostly intact. I would like to keep it that way. I am also not interested in wearing ear protection while walking 8-12km during the day.

My questions are

1- Would you recommend .17hmr over .22LR? Why or why not?

2- Is .17hmr much louder than a .22LR hunting load? Enough to warrant ear pro for maybe 2-3 shots a day?

3- What rifle and scope/dot combo could you recommend for hunting in thick woods, unused logging sites and alongside old logging roads? I do a fair amount of unoading and loading to pass obstacles.

Thank you for your attention.
 
bisonviril said:
Is .17hmr much louder than a .22LR hunting load? Enough to warrant ear pro for maybe 2-3 shots a day?
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22 LR is right at the threshold for hearing damage. Anything louder will cause some hearing damage over time. It would take a lot of rounds of 17 HMR from a long barrelled rifle to add up to any serious hearing damage but each shot will contribute.
 
bisonviril said:
For the past 15 years, I have used a shotgun for all my grouse hunting. As I am not a very good hunter, my hearing is still mostly intact. I would like to keep it that way. I am also not interested in wearing ear protection while walking 8-12km during the day.

My questions are

1- Would you recommend .17hmr over .22LR? Why or why not?

2- Is .17hmr much louder than a .22LR hunting load? Enough to warrant ear pro for maybe 2-3 shots a day?

3- What rifle and scope/dot combo could you recommend for hunting in thick woods, unused logging sites and alongside old logging roads? I do a fair amount of unoading and loading to pass obstacles.

Thank you for your attention.
Click to expand...
Save your money and keep your .22.....
 
The 17HMR is overkill for grouse, IMHO. If you can’t make consistent head shots, it will make a mess of that fine table fare.

The 17HMR is significantly louder and more expensive to shoot, too. But each to their own.

Personally, I use a 20ga shotgun with light target loads for wing shooting (when using my dogs to flush birds) or a .22LR with subsonic ammo when on the quad. CCI Quiet is my personal favourite right now…with no hearing protection needed.

A quick AI query shows CCI Quiet at 75 dB and standard 17HMR at 148 dB.
 
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Even a 22 shooting high velocity ammo will damage your hearing eventually without ear protection. I'd recommend using subsonic 22 lr ammo and an accurate gun you shoot well. You won't get much better than a cz 457 and a low powered scope.
Unless you're a crackshot, don't try for head shots, instead go for the upper body, very little meat damage that way and a much bigger target. I like to think I'm a pretty good shot but going for head shots in the past has meant too many misses.
 
Hmr is way louder than a 22lr. However I dont wear hp when hunting with any rifle or shotgun. However for work I must and I find the surefire sonic defenders extremely comfortable and dont realize im wearing them
For grouse id say with a 22lr or a 17hm2. The hmr will obliterate a grouse if you hit the body by mistake. 22lr with cci quiets body shots don't ruin the breast meat so shots can be taken even when you cant see their heads. My eye sight has gone bad so using open sights I need body shots now I just cant see the heads clearly enough. I've moved to scoped rifles
The mach2 is my preferred small game rimfire
 
If you’re talking 25 yard distances even a 22 short anchors them and out of a barrel 20”+ like on vintage beauties, sound can get down into fart range.

Re: dB sound pressures, the scale isn’t linear. Every 3dB the intensity doubles. Learning this to do workplace monitoring in a heavy duty truck shop, made things more clear to understand examples used to compare in the literature.
 
As others have said, 17 hmr is overkill for grouse and significantly louder. 22 is more than sufficient at any practical hunting distance, and bullet drop won't be a factor.

What distances do you anticipate shooting at? If you're figuring on 25 yards or less, I'd skip the scope and go with a decent red dot with a 2 MOA dot. Vitals on a grouse are quite small-- depending on your confidence in taking offhand shots, shooting with a sling or using a hiking pole monopod might help increase your hits.
 
TJCote said:
The 17HMR is overkill for grouse, IMHO. If you can’t make consistent head shots, it will make a mess of that fine table fare.

The 17HMR is significantly louder and more expensive to shoot, too. But each to their own.

Personally, I use a 20ga shotgun with light target loads for wing shooting (when using my dogs to flush birds) or a .22LR with subsonic ammo when on the quad. CCI Quiet is my personal favourite right now…with no hearing protection needed.

A quick AI query shows CCI Quiet at 75 dB and standard 17HMR at 148 dB.
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Thank you for your answer. I have some experience with CCI quiets for plinking. Lovely round. Now I just need to find a rifle I can fit a scope onto.
 
HighSpeedLowDrag2023 said:
As others have said, 17 hmr is overkill for grouse and significantly louder. 22 is more than sufficient at any practical hunting distance, and bullet drop won't be a factor.

What distances do you anticipate shooting at? If you're figuring on 25 yards or less, I'd skip the scope and go with a decent red dot with a 2 MOA dot. Vitals on a grouse are quite small-- depending on your confidence in taking offhand shots, shooting with a sling or using a hiking pole monopod might help increase your hits.
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Yes I will keep my shots to 25 yards or less. The hiking pole is a great suggestion. I allmost always bring them while hiking. I guess I'll bring one hunting too.
What red dot would you recommend?
 
brybenn said:
Hmr is way louder than a 22lr. However I dont wear hp when hunting with any rifle or shotgun. However for work I must and I find the surefire sonic defenders extremely comfortable and dont realize im wearing them
For grouse id say with a 22lr or a 17hm2. The hmr will obliterate a grouse if you hit the body by mistake. 22lr with cci quiets body shots don't ruin the breast meat so shots can be taken even when you cant see their heads. My eye sight has gone bad so using open sights I need body shots now I just cant see the heads clearly enough. I've moved to scoped rifles
The mach2 is my preferred small game rimfire
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I willlook into those surefires. Thanks!
 
LarryG said:
Even a 22 shooting high velocity ammo will damage your hearing eventually without ear protection. I'd recommend using subsonic 22 lr ammo and an accurate gun you shoot well. You won't get much better than a cz 457 and a low powered scope.
Unless you're a crackshot, don't try for head shots, instead go for the upper body, very little meat damage that way and a much bigger target. I like to think I'm a pretty good shot but going for head shots in the past has meant too many misses.
Click to expand...
Damn those CZ look lovely!
 
As mentioned 17 hmr is noticeably louder than 22lr. For grouse CCI subsonics work great and I have found them more consistent than CCI quiets. Eley subsonic 38 grain hollow points are even better but a little pricier.
 
TJCote said:
A quick AI query shows CCI Quiet at 75 dB and standard 17HMR at 148 dB.
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There is no firearm that is 75dB, even with a suppressor. That is loudish conversation level. A stupendously quiet suppressed .22lr will be ~110-112dB. That is so quiet it sounds like a pellet gun when shooting it and is pretty much Hollywood quiet.

Subsonic .22lr out of a rifle barrel is around 140dB, depending on the details of the ammo and gun. As IDCAY says, that is borderline hearing safe and will take a fair number of shots to do much damage to your hearing. It would certainly be a reasonable way to go for grouse hunting, where you will only fire a few rounds in a day.


Mark
 
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