Looking for a new 17 HMR, lets get some opinions!

Canadiankeeper

Canadiankeeper

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Fine gentlemen,

I have decided a 17 HMR is required. The ease for hunting, and accuracy for plinking on a budget is appealing.

I am kinda bouncing between a Tikka T1X (for its crispy trigger, smooth action and guaranteed accuracy) but I have also been looking at the ruger precision rimfire in 17, for the required adjustability, comes with a rail, tacticool looks. I kind of hate the trigger though. The adjustability and the rail will save me some coin. As I wouldnt have to drop it in a chasis or buy a rail.

Thoughts? Any other contenders I have over looked ? Other then CZ? Maybe a Heavy Barrel CZ but I feel like they are not as good as Tikka, with the same problems though.

Anyways, lets hear it! Thought?!
 
The fancy, big budget option is to go with a Zermatt RimX.

I run the RPR as my main gopher rifle. I like it a lot. 15 round magazines, pistol grip that is replaceable with my favorite AR-style grip (I use the rubber Ergo), and easy to mount an ARCA rail to the fore-end. I use the rail all the time because I normally shoot gophers from standing, clipped into a tripod.

One trick with the rimfire RPRs is to remove the 'trigger dingus'. This reduces the trigger pull weight by quite a bit.

The T1X is a nice rifle, too.
 
My CZ 457 Synthetic served me well, thing was an absolute laser with cheap bulk Federal BYOB JHP and I never really had to clean it either. Flawless operation 100% of the time.

I ended up replacing it though with a Winchester Xpert 17 WSM because I wanted even more bang from my rimfires, ammo actually seems available these days.
 
Tikka is a good choice. I have in 17hmr and 22lr. Both are accurate. Easy to lighten trigger if wanted.

I have shot a friend's Ruger and liked my Tikka more. Tikka was more accurate. Bolt was nicer as well. Stock on the Ruger was better. Ruger reminded my of a Savage 22 that I had, no longer with me.

My oldest daughter has claimed the 17hmr Tikka as hers . Good thing I have a couple other 17hmr to use for gophers.
 
The Browning T-Bolt is what I have. I love the straight pull action. I did pull the bolt apart and used jewlers rouge to polish a few of the ride surfaces. That has fixed the trigger feel for my liking. The advantages of keeping your sight on target while cycling the bolt are IMHO far greater than the only slightly heavy trigger. Jard does make a trigger for it but I'm happy with it's performance since polishing some of the tooling marks from the relevant bearing surfaces. I topped it with a 4-12x40 VX-Freedom 30mm. It's just an amazing little firecracker... Cheers
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Canadiankeeper said:
Fine gentlemen,

I have decided a 17 HMR is required. The ease for hunting, and accuracy for plinking on a budget is appealing.

I am kinda bouncing between a Tikka T1X (for its crispy trigger, smooth action and guaranteed accuracy) but I have also been looking at the ruger precision rimfire in 17, for the required adjustability, comes with a rail, tacticool looks. I kind of hate the trigger though. The adjustability and the rail will save me some coin. As I wouldnt have to drop it in a chasis or buy a rail.

Thoughts? Any other contenders I have over looked ? Other then CZ? Maybe a Heavy Barrel CZ but I feel like they are not as good as Tikka, with the same problems though.

Anyways, lets hear it! ThoughtCZ
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Lots of good choices, I had a CZ455, even Savage shot well. I sent the 455 down the road not because of the rifle, but because of inconsistent ammo. I had a lot of split cases from federal, some from Hornaday, CCI was OK, Remington was the most accurate and reliable.
 
I have a Tikka t1x in 22LR. Great rifle, sh^tty mags.

I have a CZ455 in 17HMR. Great all around. You can get metal or plastic mags in 5 and 10 rounds.

Get a used 455 or a new 457 for the better angle and throw on the bolt handle.
 
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Anything but a Savage
Had a 93r17 when they first came out it was a lazer - could hit a 30-06 case at 100 yards. Foolishly sold it the next two I bought were duds inconsistant grouping and over all disappointing. CZ or Tikka would is the only decison you need to make.
 
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I will say it's the least-used rimfire caliber in my life, but I also 100% get the appeal. Not to complicate the question, but it's been my experience that the 17gr. ammo and 20gr. ammo have different terminal effects on small game/varmints...so maybe worth a look to see if one make/model shows a strong preference for one or the other? One rifle I wish I hadn't sold was a 452 Varmint that shot the best group I've ever shot using 20gr. Hornady HPs. A buddy's Savage shot 17gr. into tiny groups and into a lot of barn pigeons with remarkable results=wanted a 17gr shooter too.

Making the decision would depend greatly on the intended use, but I know CK isn't new at this. lol HMR will heat up a barrel if you're hammering gophers back-to-back with it. I will say, I've had a RPR in my hand (rimfire and CF) a number of times and have shot gophers with one in 6.5CM. Not my cup of tea, and don't come close to the quality of a CZ to Tikka in my opinion. Like thumbhole stocks, I suggest you go handle an RPR if you haven't and make sure it's what you were expecting.

Anyway, I've found the Tikka's to be the easiest (by far) to do a trigger spring swap, and the MTR/black stock fits me pretty well and works great with heavy bags target shooting. A gun maybe worth considering might be the T1x UPR, or, at least get one in your hands and check it out. Pretty sure they make a UPR in 17HMR. The stock feels very light/ridid, it's fibreglass with carbon fibre bedding according to the spec. T1x's have a Med. contour barrel, are physically not large or heavy/lumpy things. For gophers, you come to appreciate a light/agile rifle for about a dozen reasons. CZ's synthetic stocks don't compare in any way if you ask me, and the UPR stock might seem like a huge up-charge until you actually use one. Awesome to me, streamlined, not snaggy, in/out of soft case with one hand=that light.
 
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I went with a Tikka. nice trigger after adjusting it. accuracy is good with 17 gr showing a little better than 20 gr, but both provide enough accuracy for hunting. still experimenting with different loads to see if there is one it really likes.
 
The ruger definitely felt a little cheap in the hands. (went and fondled one for a bit)
The tikka mag issues, is this just over reported? How is everyone doing with their 17hmr mags?
I had almost settled on a 457 Varmint, (can swap triggers and stocks with CZ easily enough) but 22LR reminded me of the UPR Tikka's

I am not shooting as much as I used to, my range does not really have a 50 yard line for rimfire... Id have to go to another one that is set up for that but I always work on their open days to go for a meet and great/sign up.

So for the ease of 100 yards/hunting and really only shooting 500 rounds or less a year. 17 seems much easier to do all three still on a budget friendly ish to ammo. Premium 22lr ammo has got crazy now also tho lol
 
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