H&R Sporters .17HMR Input

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aquamarine

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I'm considering making my first purchase of a firearm. We already own a few, but none have been registered under my name, and those that we DO own are from the early 70's and simply farm tools. Nothing all that impressive but they did the job of keeping coyotes off the property.

Now with that being said, I enjoy shooting gophers. Hell, I enjoy just shooting just for the sake of shooting. "Hey, watch me hit that tree!" "Let's see if we can nail that fence-post!" etc etc. So because of that, my two .22's work veyr well as ammo is cheap. This is why I'm a little torn to move to a .17HMR.

On one hand, I'll have to pay a heck of a lot more for ammo (50rnd/$12 at Wholesale Sport compared to 525rnd/$22). One the other hand, this specific model, "The Sportster" is apparently an incredibly accurate rifle (of which my two .22's are not). So in -THEORY- this should mean I use less ammo to tag gophers.

For those of you who own this (not sure if there are many), what is your opinion on it? I've peeked online and would like a first hand review from someone here, not from "Yes, I was sent this gun from H & R to review, and I think it's the best ever!". Not exactly trust-worthy in my opinion. Is it worth the $189? Or should I look into picking up the .22 version to continue using my cheap ammo?

Any thoughts? For those who don't know the rifle, this is the one I'm speaking of:
http://www.hr1871.com/Firearms/Rifles/sportster.aspx

-Aqua
 
Here's some pics of mine:

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These are a stunningly accurate little rifle out to about 200 yards. The .17HMR cartridge is very flat-shooting, and I really enjoy this gun. Scope is a Bushnell Banner 6-18x50.

I would not hesitate to recommend this gun. It's cheap, accurate, and great fun to shoot.:sniper:
 
Had a NEF Handi-Rifle (basically the same) in 17HMR and absolutely loved it. Kicking myself in the azz that I got rid of it. Very worth the $189 tag on them. Accurate as anything I've shot (200+ yards on gophers) heavy enough to be very stable and short enough to be very handy. Don't think you'll be disappointed.
 
I had to go check my safe to see that Beaver didn't somehow steal my rifle ;) Have one as well and this thing is great to shoot. Nice and accurate but she is a bit on the heavy side (but I'm a big lad so I really don't mind lugging her around). My only quibble about it is that about 30% of the time the ejector doesn't kick out the spent case but that could be due to my opening the action gently after I have fired it, a fault of the gun itself, or what have you. Don't really see myself selling my rifle in the near future and I would recommend that you go out and pick one up.
 
I own the NEF in .17 Mach 2 and love it. I have the same setup as Flying Beaver and the ammo for .17 mach 2 is half as cheap and still is flat shooting until 200 metres. A heavy little rifle with all the frills but with a bipod who cares? Give it a thought.

Steve
 
A big box dropped the same off the other day, along with its twin in HM2.
Mounted and bore sighted Bushnel 3 - 9 x 40's on them and went out back to shoot some tin cans.
First impression was "boy are these ever heavy" !!
Now, bearing in mind that they were only boresighted and not fine tuned, I was pleased with the HMR, dissapointed with the HM2. Damn HM2 wouldn't even penetrate a pop can @ 25 yards. The HMR certainly did.
I found that the HMR shot pretty flat ( I also have a Savage HMR ) as expected but the HM2 seemed to drop fast. That might be due to no fine tuning.
Love the HMR, jury is still out on the HM2 until I can get to the range.
 
Just went out this weekend with mine. There was a little bit of cross wind out but at 100m it shot about inch, pretty sure it could do better I'm trying to get use to the trigger. I'm pretty happy with the results.

Here's a picture of mine with a Cabelas Pine Ridge Tacticle scope:

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I bought one of the sportsters last year to shut up an "Uber-dollar Steyr 6PPC shooting benchrest knowitall" at the club after listening to him brag for 45 straight minutes about how much he spent. I told him I could build a rifle that would outshoot his gun at 100m for less than 500.00....INCLUDING optics :)

I boght the gun, did the trigger down to about 8 oz (very easy to do), built a floating block for under the forend, mounted a harris back near the action and put on a simmons 6-24X40 in cheapie rings. That gun, without a word of a lie, will print cloverleafs into a .25" square on a dead calm day.

And the best part is, when the guy and I had our "shoot-off", I waited for him to print 5 groups of five, gave my scope 1/2" of elevation (it was set to 100) and used his uppermost hole for each group as my aiming point....I smoked him :D

Great gun for the money, buy it, do the trigger, then go shooting.
 
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Just out of curiousity, why would you want a single shot if you plan to use it for gophers? Is it because it makes it more of a challenge?
 
Slithery said:
Just out of curiousity, why would you want a single shot if you plan to use it for gophers? Is it because it makes it more of a challenge?
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:DYUP!! Them's dangerous little buggers!--need a least a 25 rd magazine & maybe you'll down or or three afor they get to ya;) flesh eatin l'il bastards:sniper:
 
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Slithery said:
Just out of curiousity, why would you want a single shot if you plan to use it for gophers? Is it because it makes it more of a challenge?
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Well I'm used to going through 300-400 rounds of .22 per day when just out 'shooting at' gophers. I'd prefer to use as little as possible. My .22 semi is worse than a bolt action as it jams -EVERY- shot, so I need to pull the action back, dig out each shell, then thumb in another one. My bolt feeds fine enough using copper-jackets, but the damn thing isn't accurate worth a darn (had four people try and sight it who know what they were doing and none were successful).

Hence why I'm looking towards this H&R rifle. It's heavy, feels good, .17HMR so will make quick work of gophers (should I hit them) and is apparently incredibly accurate. I would just need to save up some more cash after that and pick up a scope as it's only a rail on-top (although I'd really prefer to use open sights, but oh well)
 
Flying Beaver said:
That's why your guide carries a .416 Rigby for backup. :D
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And a Howdah-pistol too, no doubt. :)

aquamarine said:
Well I'm used to going through 300-400 rounds of .22 per day when just out 'shooting at' gophers. I'd prefer to use as little as possible. My .22 semi is worse than a bolt action as it jams -EVERY- shot, so I need to pull the action back, dig out each shell, then thumb in another one.

Have you tried higher-velocity ammo? Just a thought. Minimags, Velocitors, Stingers?

My bolt feeds fine enough using copper-jackets, but the damn thing isn't accurate worth a darn (had four people try and sight it who know what they were doing and none were successful).

I'd recommend just picking up an expensive boltie - esp. a Cooey boltie - from the E & E. If the barrel is not shot-out, it'd be plenty good for gophering.;)
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But, by all means, do get a .17 HMR too. But be aware plenty of good .22's are out there, and inexpensively, too. :)
 
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I have the same setup the lots of you have. Big old tactical scope and .17 Mach 2 calibre. I love the rifle, tis a tad heavy with all the bells and whistles. Bipod or sling will help. I read a post a few minutes ago about a fellow member who didn't think the penetration was good with the Mach 2 round. I found it pretty damn good and will take it out gopher hunting this weekend. I'll let everyone know if anything fun happens.
 
I am on a limited budget. Back in university so I'm looking at something under $200 that will shoot straight. Plus the fact that I'm moving back over-seas in July 2009 to a country that doesn't really allow firearms (rather, it's incredibly difficult and annoying to own them).

While at Wholesale sport, the young gent behind the counter said that there was nothing else 'worth it' under the $200-240 mark other than the Ruger 10/22 but that gun is INCREDIBLY small. I held it and... yea, I don't like the feel of it. That's why I'm looking towards this H&R, I just wish it had iron-sights so I didn't need to invest in a bloody scope as well.
 
the regular H&R sportster comes with iron sites. it also comes in .22wmr but not .17hmr. i say just go with a model60, 597, maybe 795(i haven't heard many people having one, but its supposed to be just the model60 in mag form), and maybe the plinkster(its just so cheap at 140 bucks). all of these should be under 200 bucks after tax and have open sites. and like i said last night, i dont think open sites on a gopher would be using a .17hmr to its full potential. maybe if you were using peep sites, personally can barely even tell the difference between a gopher and brown grass.
 
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