Had this rifle for yeas and really never shot it much. Bought the rifle way back when they were dumping them cheap and going to the
accu trigger.
I am planning a prairie dog hunt in a few weeks and had a couple fo questions for you guys.
What kind of accuracy are you guys seeing at 100 yards typically? I will be using CCI 17 grain HP's. Also with the thin barrel does it heat up pretty quickly? I have rarely been in a situation where I had to stop shooting because the barrels on my heavy barrel varmint rifles got to hot but not sure about the thin barrel. i will be using this rifle as my or walk and stalk shooter rather than a setup and shoot bench rest.
thanks
Accuracy in the 17HMR is very dependent upon the ammo, and the lot # of the ammo. Since you are going to be using the rifle in the walk & stalk mode, I would not think barrel over heating would be a problem unless you get behind enemy lines, and they try to over take your position. 5 quick shots should not be a problem, but sustained fire due to them rushing your position could pose problems other than over heating the barrel.
I assume you've tested the group sizes for various ammo, if not it may be a good idea. Mine groups 20g FMJ best and the 17gr ballistic tips are worst. But I know other shooters who's 17s have the exact opposite grouping trends.Originally Posted by thumbs
Actually for this rifle I have not tried anything but cci 17 gr hollow points. That was years ago. I have no idea what to expect. I understand each rifle likes different ammo but I was trying to get a handle as to how these rifles shoot. Should I expect MOA accuracy Is 3moa to be expected? I have no idea. Should I even consider taking this rifle along for a prairie dog hunt. Is it accurate enough to take a prairie dog at 150 yards. I know about the ballistics and the trajectory but is the accuracy there? If I find the hold over and do my part will the rifle put the rounds on target? That is really my question.
This caliber is rimfire ammo, so you cannot "tune" the ammo via handloads. Treat it like a 22lr, and find the "preferred" brand and bullet weight that it shoots the best. IMO, 150 yds is the outer limit of killing power for the HMR. I would consider using it from 0-100 yds only on pdogs. I shot my 17hmr on sage rats earlier this month from 50 -125 yds (estimates only) and kill shots are easy, BUT sage rats are smaller than pdogs. At longer distances, the effectiveness drops. You will probably need head shots at 150 for humane kills. JMO
What power optics do you have on the rifle? I have a 2-7 Crossfire II on my 93R17. Part of it is my own shooting ability, but I wouldn`t engage a live target beyond 100 yards with my set up. At that range I can group sub-MOA, but not every time. Accuracy ( POA vs. POI ) averages .5" to .8". That`s with CCI VMAX and TNT 17 grain loads. Beyond that I would not be comfortable with either the ballistics, my shooting, or my gun/scope set up. Some of the claims of consistent 200 yard accuracy and such with .17 HMR? Well.....I`ve seen personally more claims than actual proof in video. If you have a 9 power scope or greater, MAYBE you can hit out to 150, but I`d sure put in a lot of practice first. With a hit even then, ballistics have become pretty questionable for a humane kill.
Oh I hear you guys. It's upstairs and I'm not so not exactly the power. Again if I remember correctly it went to 12 or 14. Twelve is about as high as I take it.
The reason I say 150 is I dont expect to come close to that range but if I will group well enough there so be it. I want to use this rifle as a walk and stalk thing. I know from past exp the shots are long. Occasionally I'll get something around 50 to 100 yards but most are 175 to 300. Not with the 17Hmr however. For me at 300 yards the conditions and the setup have to be right. 250 to 275 that I am pretty comfortable. Wind is the major problem. Im just hoping I can get some shots in with the HMR. It may be a wast of time to even take it but we will see.
Good luck! I know for me, if I`m going to shoot at anything 150+, I`d be reaching for my 110 Storm .223 !
For me the little 17 HMR has been the cause of more aggravation and frustration than any other cartridge that I've shot/owned guns for. When I got my first HMR in 2005 (first batch of lefties that left the Savage factory) it was a basic wood stocked heavy barrel model (93R17GV) and the only ammo readily available at that time was the CCI TNT ammo. That ammo just happened to work pretty darn good in that particular rifle and when I did my part it had no problem consistently shooting 3/4 to 1.25" groups at 100 yards.
The next summer I took it out to Nebraska and S. Dakota for some prairie dog fun, but the only ammo I could find for that trip was Hornady 17gr V-Max. The rifle shot it decently, but not near as consistently as the CCI TNT fodder. Memory serves me right I bought 3 or 4 bricks on that trip (still miss the great deals to be had on Hornady stuff from Lock, Stock & Barrel out of Valentine, NE back in those days). It took me quite a few years to burn through it back here in Ohio as the little Hummer just didn't have the punch for our chunky groundhogs much past 100 yards unless you got a clean head shot so I typically grabbed the .223 or .22-250 for those duties.
In 2015 I ended up selling that rifle. The old Savage HMR had served me well, but at that point I was finding it very difficult to find any HMR ammo that it would shoot consistently fair, much less good. Typical "good" 100 yards groups on a given outing at that point were in the 1.5-2" range with many opening up to be as large as 3+ inches. Given how well the rifle had shot early on I just lost interest in it and sent it down the road.
Later that year I picked up a CZ 452 American LH in 17 HMR as a replacement, but sadly I still really struggled to get any kind of decent accuracy out of it either (1 to 1.5" groups were the good ones, 1.5-2" being more the norm). Everyone knows that CZ's (like Savage's) are well known for their accuracy so I was a little perplexed at this point and I started questioning the ammo more and more.
This led me to chronoing a whole bunch of HMR ammo and let me tell ya - the results weren't pretty. I thought 22LR ammo was horribly inconsistent, but it doesn't hold a candle to the inconsistency of 17 HMR ammo.
Not sure if it's still the case, but back in the early years of the HMR CCI made all the ammo no matter who's name was on it. CCI and Federal (and now Remington Ammunition) are all under the same corporate hat, so it's a safe bet CCI is still making all the ammo under those brands. Hornady doesn't offer any rimfire ammo other than 17 HMR and Mach2, so it's a safe bet they're still contracting that production out to CCI as well. No clue on Browning and Winchester, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're subcontracting that production as well.
Sure would be nice if Eley, Lapua, Norma or SK would come out with some good consistent ammo for the little Hummer. In the meantime my HMR will likely continue to spend most of it's time in the safe as I just don't enjoy shooting it with the lack-luster ammo that's available for it.
"Life' is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." ~ John Wayne
“Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” —Mark Twain
From what I gather, Winchester and CCI are the only manufacturers of 17HMR ammo. There`s more than one poster that asserts that ammo variability is a real issue with 17s. I enjoy shooting mine, probably because I don`t take it super seriously. It is indeed a challenge, far more so than my .223.
I had one that would consistently shoot 1 1/4-1 1/2” groups at 100 yards. I sold it to get a threaded model and that one shoots 3” at 50 yards and I’m about to wrap it around a tree. I agree with the other guys that you need to test multiple weight ammo. Lot numbers with rimfire ammo also mean a lot
This is a older thread but I (and several friends) went through the " process" of figuring out what brand of ammo shot best. But we found an additional step in the process that significantly tightened up the groups. Take your torque wrench to the range with you and torque the stock down in intervals of 2.5 lbs. until you find the sweet spot Start around 10 lbs. and work up to about 20 lbs. This helped to greatly increase the accuracy . Good luck and have fun.
Hesitant to start adjusting action screws. My 93R17 FV had been shooting sub-MOA groups ( not all, but regularly ) and averaging .6" accuracy ( POA vs POI ) at 100 yards. Now, with a lot change in its preferred load ( CCi TNT ), 2" groups and I haven`t even bothered to measure the accuracy. Don`t think it`s the gun.
No need to torque with that accuracy.
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