My 17HMR Grouse Hunting Experience... :)

Camp Cook

Camp Cook

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I have to share my grouse hunting experience with my 17HMR this last week...

I have for appr 40 years now shot grouse while out hunting big game with a 22 S/L/LR/quite shells and have shot hundreds & hundreds of grouse.

This last week my 3 1/2 year old son and I headed out for a deer hunt we were gone for 6 days and only came back because the weather was raining more than not so it was not much fun for him.

After only shooting 4 grouse we had a problem with the 22 rifle I had set up for him, it was crazy after 15 years of owning the rifle the hammer spring broke so we were forced to park the rifle.

Several years ago I had bought a Marlin s/s fluted 917 in 17HMR to shoot gophers with while in Alberta and had not pulled it out of the safe since last summer for some reason I felt guilty for not shooting it so I had thrown it into the truck on this trip so dug it out and strapped it to the quad.

This rifle is amazingly accurate I have even shot gophers out to 200 yards with it but I was totally concerned that I would blow grouse up if I shot them with this high velocity rimfire.

WOW was I ever wrong... out of 16 ruff/blue grouse I shot with it I only damaged the top edge of one breast and I was shooting them out past 50 yards (aimed for the neck/head).

I will definitely be using this gun/cartridge combo for grouse again and if my buddies are along I won't tell them what I'm shooting...


:D
 
Don't get me wrong if I hit them in the breast it would have been hamburger but like I said due to the accuracy of this rifle/cartridge combo I was able to take up close 10/15 yard shots and also reach out to 50+ yards with instant clean kills I just made sure I hit them in the head/neck.
 
and I definitely second that...

The positive results I was getting have shown me that this rifle will always be with me on my future hunts just not going to tell anyone else what cartridge it is so they are amazed at my shooting skills... :p


:D
 
cool, will give our's a try at that this season, in the past we have always taken a 410 or a 20 or a 12 with 7 1/2's for upland game birds.
 
I have to fully agree with your findings on the .17 for grouse,I was able to shoot two out of three sharptails off a round bale the other day,missed one but neck shots on the others at about 75 yards.Great fun.
 
I was using the 17gr bullets only reason I am using them more is I have about 20 boxes of them and only 3 or 4 of the 20's...


:)
 
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