17 HMR unscientific ammo test

Avro125

Avro125

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North of the French and Mattawa Rivers
Had some time a few weeks ago and decided to take my 17 HMR out to the range and test all of the ammo I had on hand. I think I have just about every brand and weight that's commonly available.

Excluded from the test was the Winchester 17gr and 20gr stuff. While cheap and plentiful, I'd finally gotten rid of it all as it was nothing but misfires and split cases.

Anyway, here's what I had to test:
Hornady 17gr V-Max (polymer tip)
Hornady 20gr XTP (JHP)
Hornady 15.5gr NTX (lead-free polymer tip)
Federal Premium 17gr V-Max (polymer tip)
Remington Premier 17gr Accutip-V (polymer tip)
CCI TNT 17gr (JHP)
CCI Gamepoint 20gr (JSP)

All shots were taken from a rest at 50 yards. The rifle is a Savage 93R17 BTVS, and the scope is a Nikon 3-9x40 Buck Master. Stock photo of the rifle:



I'm the first to admit that I'm hardly an expert. I was just trying to figure out which ammo the gun liked the best. Here's what I did: I warmed the rifle up with five shots of random ammo, and then proceeded to take five-shot groups of each brand. I shot all seven brands and weights, and then re-shot the three best. The results are fairly clear. I wasn't surprised at the 'winner' as the rifle seems to prefer the 20gr projectile.

The first target board:

50 yards from the shooting bench


The first shoot for the seven different types of ammo. The battery in my calipers was getting low and I couldn't get a good photo, so I put the ruler in for perspective. You'll just have to trust the measurements.














Now the re-shoot of the three best results.

Federal Premium. No idea why this opened up so much:


Remington Premiere. Also a little fatter:


And the winner! CCI Gamepoint 20gr:


Posted primarily for interest sake. Your mileage will of course vary. I was really surprised at the consistency and grouping of the Gamepoint. I've since stocked up on that type, and will likely rid myself of the rest.

 
Nice test, I did a test a few weeks ago. 17grain CCI TnT, and 17grain Federal V-max. were the winners. You should try different lot numbers of those 20grain Gamepoints and post the results!!!
 
Well done test. That took a lot of work.

Are you planning on going out to 100+ yards? I find 17hmr really shines when 22lr starts to wimper out. Mine are sighted in for 150m.
 
Very nice presentation, one of the best I've seen actually. Thanks for putting it together.

I was always more interested in the 17gr. Hornady on varmints, but kind of gave-up on HMR when the rifles I had (all 3) shot 20gr. Hornady the best. If I could find a heavy-barrel HMR that shot 17gr. as well as these long-gone HMRs shot the 20gr., I'd be tempted to get back into the game.
 
CCI 20gr gamepoints are the most accurate in my savage as well, have 850 locked up and getting harder to find for me

if you can find the CCI 20gr fmj they are the most accurate for me, but game points are just a hair behind
 
my groups open msybe 1/4 to 3/8" from 50-100 on a calm day, obviously wind will open the group more but rarely larger than one inch at 100

50 yds (minus my flier, my fault)



100 yds

 
I'll probably re-zero the scope with the GamePoints and move out to 100 yards.

I'll admit that I was waiting until I secured enough GamePoint ammo for myself before I posted this. :cool: Thanks ammosupply.ca !!.

The test was done at 50 yards for two reasons. a) the 50-yd range at my club is actually quite nice, no one is ever there, and it's surrounded by tall berms to cut down on the wind, and b) at 100 yards, the biggest variable (me) is a lot more prevalent.

I wanted this to be a test of the ammo, with as little of 'me' factored in.

If there's a calm day coming up, I'll try again at 100.
 
My savage likes the 20gr hornady the best. Had a pretty consistent string of less then 1" at 100, so I bought 2 cases of the same lot number, drops the yotes like a hammer out to 100 yards.
 
My savage seems to prefer 20grn stuff over teh 17grn also. Unfortunately, the only 20grn stuff I have found locally is the winchester grey label. It still shoots it pretty darn good and I don't get any split cases but I would really like to try some 20grn cci or hornady through it.
 
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