Savage 93r .17 HMR. A few questions about .17's

Madmardigan

Madmardigan

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I was invited to go shooting gopers this weekend at my sister-in-laws parents farm. They dont like centerfire, and I dont really have a suitable .22 for gophers, so I picked up one of these because I heard they are fairly decent.



This is my first time buying a gun for a reason other than it looks cool. lol. I actually like it a lot, it dose feel a bit "cheap", but I've heard lots good about it, and that .17 hmr is devistating on gophers.
I'm new to the .17 hmr. I just have a few questions. Is there a certin didtance I should be sighting it in at? Is there specific cleaning tools for it? I havent tried yet, but I dont think my cleaning rod is going to fit in the bore. And whats a good ammunition to use. My brother gave me some winchester, but he said he was getting split cases in his 93r with it. I'm not so sure I want to try it in my rifle, and was thinking of getting something else. Is there a particular brand that works best in this rifle. I was thinking of getting some of that Hornady 17 grain V-max.
 
I use federal and Hornady 17gr. Not sure you can go wrong with anything though. If you sight in at 25, you'll be bang on at 100. This is my go to gopher gun.
 
Sight in for 100 yards/meters. Stray away from winchester ammo it is crap in most guns. Lots of reports of split cases, ftf, fte. Shoot anything else in it. I like hornady and cci but federal is cheapest here.
 
When I owned a .17 I found hornady ammo to be very good. Prices on the ammo were hovering around $17/box when I sold mine.... It was actually the first factory new rifle I bought after bill c-68.... Savage 93R17. I shot it from summer of 04 till 10. Usually 2000+ rnds a summer.

Absolutely a blast to shoot! Accurate and devastating on varmints! I also found it lost a lot of its poop out past 175y. It worked but it wasn't as "dramatic". I also found it was almost impossible to get hits on small targets past 125y if the wind was up.....

You will need a .17 cleaning rod, patches etc. I found I had to clean my 17 twice per brick of ammo (approx every 250 rnds) or accuracy went to poo.....

I had fun with my 17, but ammo prices pushed it out of the fun zone for me. I can shoot centre fire pretty much anywhere and I can reload .223 for about the same or less $ as factory 17.

I found I was getting huge differences is impact from different ammo. So my only really good advice when you own a hummer, buy 4 or 5 bricks of ammo in the spring, all the same manufacture, and lot. Zero the rifle and shoot all summer! Re-zero next spring.......

Cheers!
 
Can't really comment on the .17 as a calibre, but I have the same rifle in .22WMR...though the tupperware stock does make it feel a bit light (cheap??) the action and barrel are excellent on the Savage products.
I will add my two cents on the Winchester ammo. It was the worst shooting of everything I tried in my gun. And yes, that included split cases.
I really don't know how they get away with it.
You can't go wrong with the Hornady in any of the magnum rimfires IMO.
 
Hornady, CCI or Federal (in that order)...forget Winchester. Some 17s will shoot 20gr. better than 17gr., my last Savage HMR did. 17gr. has the best reputation for gopher explodey-ness (new word :) so I'd start with that. I never liked cleaning rods unless they're Deweys, so for my current 17 (a 17M2) I used a Patchworm. Bottom of the page here; ht tp://20-20.8m.com/patchworm.html
 
Yeah 100 seems to be the standard for these 17's.

Ive only tried hornady and federals in my rifle and they both do well for me.
 
Thanks for all the great info guys! I went with the Hornady 17 grain. I had the rifle out yesterday for some gopher hunting. In all I'm very happy with the accuracy, and the damage it dose on gophers. The only issue I has was the scope mounts had loosened off towards the end of the hunt. When I got home I took out the screws and put a dab of blue locktite on the threads. I shouldn't have that problem again.
I should also mention that my brother has the exact same rifle. While we were sighting them in my brother has a issue. There was a accidental discharge when he closed the bolt. He assured me his finger wasent on the trigger, and it just happened right as the bolt closed. We were lucky he had it pointed down range when it happened, but it was a bit scary for him. Has anybody else ever heard of this happining with the savage 93 rifles?
 
Madmardigan said:
Thanks for all the great info guys! I went with the Hornady 17 grain. I had the rifle out yesterday for some gopher hunting. In all I'm very happy with the accuracy, and the damage it dose on gophers. The only issue I has was the scope mounts had loosened off towards the end of the hunt. When I got home I took out the screws and put a dab of blue locktite on the threads. I shouldn't have that problem again.
I should also mention that my brother has the exact same rifle. While we were sighting them in my brother has a issue. There was a accidental discharge when he closed the bolt. He assured me his finger wasent on the trigger, and it just happened right as the bolt closed. We were lucky he had it pointed down range when it happened, but it was a bit scary for him. Has anybody else ever heard of this happining with the savage 93 rifles?
Click to expand...

Has happened to me with my 93 a few times. If you google it there are many links stating the same problem with all rifles that have the accutrigger.
 
In all my HMR's Hornady 20 XTP's shoot better than the 17 V-Max... I gave up on Winchester ammo due to split necks and spotty accuracy. The only "slam bangs" I have had were two guns that I installed Rifle Basix triggers in... the sear adjustments tend to lighten with shooting until they slip release with closing the bolt... just have to take them apart and turn down the adjustments a tad.
 
Donny Fenn1 said:
In all of mine I have just bore sighted/shot at 25 to make sure they are on paper and then gone to 100.
Click to expand...

when i need to sight in my 22 because of a scope swap or messed up settings, i go right to 100 yards and shoot into a sandy berm at the scope's lowest magnification. the impact and puff of sand will show me where the bullet hit w.r.t where my crosshairs are. it doesn't take more than 5-10 shots to get it close enough to then go onto a 1"-grid paper at 100yd for fine-tuning.

a giant swath of a "reactive target" is great for this!
 
I'm sighted in at 130 yards using Remington ammo.
At 100 yards it printed the same as hornady and cci 17 gr but a half inch higher.
 
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