which rimfire cal for varmints

Brocolt

Brocolt

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thought we could talk about this before the spring season, which cal would be best for varmint and why? .22wmr or .17hmr

I for one like to see the impact of a gopher / squirrel blowing up, So based on impact, connectic energy, wind factor and what ever else might need to be talked about.

I have been talking to a few varmint hunters as of late and some are liking the .22 mag more then the .17hmr when it comes to blowing up a varmint.
 
I dunno about the 22mag but I had a 17hmr in a savage and other than it not firing in -10 or lower without stripping to bolt and re-lubing it yourself...I lost 2 coyotes in less that 15min because of misfiring 2 out of 3 rounds and these were dream shots. As far as gophers go it would lift them up and move them many feet behind where they had been standing or split them wide open. They are amazing on jack rabbits...they would fall down at up to 100yrds no problem. I really enjoyed it except for the price of the rounds.
 
I have a .22 mag. It's my small game hunting rifle. If it's pest control, I'd stick to the tacticool .22LR rifle, the ammo is infinitely cheaper.
 
I had to make the same decision last year, and picked a .22 Mag over the HMR. Ammo is cheaper, the heavier bullet is a bit better on 'yotes, and it is a huge step up from the .22 LR on groundhogs. If velocity is your thing, the new high speed loads from Remington and Winchester have given the Mag a bit of new lease on life in order to compete with the .17. PS - I got a Savage and it is a tack-driver to 125 yards.
 
See trends seem to be on the side of the .22 mag these days. I'm at a cross roads my self where I'm jumping on a new savage when it comes out but can't deside on the cal. both have positive sides. I'm all about watching s**t blow up like with a gopher and I here the HMR doesn't happen that often unless you do head shots.

Any of you .22 mag shooters use the massave hollowpoints from CCI I think there called the TNT these have a very large hollow point. you would think these bullets would tumble or buck the wind because of the large opening. What are your thought on this ammo? Like the idea of using .22 mag for yotes.

Any .17HMR shooters want to chime in...
 
I'll sound like a stuck record with this spech but what the Hell...

I bought two matching rifles, both Savage 93's, one in .22 WMR and one in .17 HMR. I wanted to put them both through the wringer and give them a fair chance. The WMR blows things right to ####. You hit a gopher with it it's toast. We shot one and it blew it's entire opposite half away leaving the other half there, heart still beating. (I could report worse stories, trust me.) The .17 just killed them. Don't get me wrong, dead is dead, but any hits were far less spectacular. The .17 was horrible in the wind, too. If you missed, that little bullet didn't kick up enough dust to show the hit. I never shot a coyote with the .17, but I have a feeling it would kill them just as dead as the .22 WMR or even the .22 LR, however with that little bullet I wouldn't shoot at them any farther then i would with the LR.
 
pharaoh2 said:
We shot one and it blew it's entire opposite half away leaving the other half there, heart still beating.
Click to expand...

LMAO

that was another thing I've been hearing about alot is that the wind plays alot with the HMR round do to the lite weight. what I can say about the good part was aren't the 17hmr vmax tips frangible? that would be a good thing when shooting near farm livestock. I have a relative who has horses and he has lots of gophers. he won't let enyone shoot on this farm because he's worries about bullet ricochet. So in this case .22 LR & .22 mag would be out.
 
Why? Don't shoot towards the horses.

Chances are the guys whining about the .17 bullet in wind never owned or even shot one. (Paging 710 haters)

The bullet is moving faster, therefore it has less time to be affected by the wind. My complaint isn't about wind drift, it's about spotting your misses.
 
Brocolt, I tried a few .22 mag rounds and found that the Winchester 40g HP worked best in my Savage 93F. It shoots tiney little groups. I tried some of the lighter faster bullets and they made bigger groups. I plan on trying some more this next summer, but for now Winchester wins.
 
Me and my Old Man have been using a couple .17 HMRs for a couple years and solid hit will reward the shooter with comprehensive display of gopher innards out to about 125 yards. Past that the hits still kill the gopher but with less impressive results. The .17 HMR shoots flat and makes longer shots way easier than the .22LR rifles we had been using (and still use but slightly less often).

However, Pharoah2's comments are still valid as it is hard to spot misses in the wind and ammo cost and availability in smaller stores (Co-op and UFA) is sometimes an issue. We have also had issues with Hornady Vmax bullets passing through gophers and leaving a .17 hole in the critter with no expansion. I think I'll be picking up a .22 WMR in the next few days for more bullet weight, ammo availablity and to see if it really does aputate as well as the Lord of the Fudds claims it does.
 
I went the other way. I had a .22 Magnum and sold it for a .17 HMR. I just got real tired of not hitting at what I was aiming for.

As far as spectacular hits....... to me it seemed they were the same.
 
pharaoh2 said:
My complaint isn't about wind drift, it's about spotting your misses.
Click to expand...

I did come across the same complaint from a person who owns a 17hmr. about a month ago.

the reason for the post was to narrow down the choice between the 2 as well as help others who might be in the same boat for next spring. I for one have a 10/22 build on the go which will not pop there heads off but will give me tons of practice and cheap shooting & I just ordered a .223 so I can shoot the Barnes VG & Hornady Vmax bullets for the fun of it.. Now I just want to get something to fill the gap so it's between the 2 cals right now.
 
I guess I'll be the dissenting voice, but I like the .17 HMR for the simple reason that I find it so deadly accurate, you can get those eyeballs peeking out of holes at 100 yrds. If I want some little critter to blow up, I'll shoot it with my .308 and be done with.....just my 1/50 of a $.
 
The .17hmr shoots flatter and is less effected by the wind than a 22wmr is.
You'll likely hit more of what you're shooting at.

The .17hmr 17 grain v-max splatters gophers, but not in that spectacular, turn them to scraps, 22-250 style.
 
im guessing you must be out west shooting those itty bitty ratlike things that pass for varmints over there?

neither .22wmr nor .17hmr are blowing up our morbidly obese Ontario groundhogs. theyre so #%@$ing fat that even .223 varmint rounds are disappointing on them. i switched to .25-06 last year, despite the ammo cost increase, because i wanted to actually detonate them
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