17 hmr

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stovepipe699

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Stead, MB
I have my first 17 hmr on the way, and I'm wondering what bullets to choose. I would like to shoot jack rabbit, beaver, as well as crows and magpies. The rifle is a marlin vs, bolt action. Any suggestions?
 
Congrats on the 17hmr. I bought a savage 93 in 17hmr last year and am loving it. I've tried most of what I could get my hands on and didn't really see a difference in performance, with the exception of some Winchester rounds I purchased on sale for $10/50. I had a few failures to fire out of that batch but performance was close or same as others. The 17hmr rounds are VERY different from a .22 round when it hits small game. The v-max rounds will disintegrate whatever it hits - there are some great youtube comparisons on 17hmr vs .22 LR on oranges. If you want to harvest, then headshots with solid, gamepoints are your go-to round. I've tried the federal, remington, cci, hornady and winchesters. All are about the same. I read somewhere that most of the 17hmr rounds are produced by one or two factories and just rebranded. Not sure if that's true but based on my non-scientific testing, it feels true.

Happy trails.
 
I have little experience shooting critters, but I've understood that the 20gr gamepoints hold together better. There are 3 bullets in the hmr ammo- the hornady tipped vmax, the speer 17gr hollow point and the speer 20gr gamepoint. The loaded ammo from any manufacturer has one of these bullets in it. I can say that the vmax bullets come apart violently...
 
stovepipe699 said:
Looks like it's pretty much a 17 grain TNT or a 17 grain V-max. Does one hold together any better than the other?
Click to expand...

17 grain TNT is tougher by a bit for sure than v max. 20 grain is tougher again. Just buy a box or two of every type and check it out. Winchester sucks.

All others are good. When you find one or two types that are your favorite, go back and buy that lot number in large quantities.
 
Congrats I have the same rifle and it loves the 17grain v max bullets. It also just obliterates grouse it has become my favorite grouse getter.
 
I bought a Savage 93r17 BVSS about a month ago and love it. (stainless steel, grey laminate, bull barrel) I have tried Winchester , and Remington so far, and it shoots BOTH well.
Tonight I got a little surprise from Tardy Santa.........................My Taurus Tracker 17hmr revolver. AWESOME COMPANION GUN.
 
I find that the 20 gr hollow points act alot like an fmj, they twist and deform but no mushrooming, the 17 gr tipped bullets just fragment.

I tried catching 17 hmr bullets with 1/32" sheet metal, 3/8 plywood and 6 layers of drywall of spaced out about 1". I only caught one hollow point which was intact but twisted. The 5th and 6th layers of drywall caught alot of jacket and tip fragments. I have also shot 1/4" steel, the 20 gr go through but the 17 gr don't.

For hunting I prefer the HP, they don't blow up small game like the tipped bullets. Obviously the opposite for varminting. My Savage does shoot the Federal tipped ammo the best though, sub moa. All ammo is under 1.5".
 
I've got the Marlin VSL. Awesome gun. I've tried 8 different types of bullets and the only one it likes are the Federal v shok. All the other ones grouped about 1.5 inches while the Federal shot just under an inch @ 100 yards. Only thing that sucks is that they're the more expensive ones.
 
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