Any 17HMR hunting reports?

[yankytrash]

Stopped by the gun store today to gab awhile. Hearing local reports the 17HMR is passing through woodchucks, allowing them to escape into their burrows.

Mysteriously, no word on what yardage this might be happening at.

Anybody here got any 17HMR huntin stories to tell, good or bad?

 

[Coltdriver]

Under 100 yards and the bullet has the energy to fragment.

Much of anything over that and it stays together hence the problem of passing right through.

Everyone is going to have some variance on that, but that is what I am seeing with mine.

The over 100 yard and 100 yard plus shots that are effective are due to the accuracy with which you can shoot the round.

So, you hear of people dropping a coyote at 100+ yards with this round and I think thats only because you could reliably put it in the coyotes ear.

There are some pretty strong opinions out there on this round so I don't want to start any flame wars. But since we all have one, heres my opinion.

The 17 HMR is a great small game round at anything under 100 yards. Over that and IMNSHO you should go to a centerfire round. Just my two cents worth.

 

[griz]

Unless they are talking about very long range, I have a hard time believeing that a 17HMR would pass through a ground hog. From what I've seen the bullet goes to pieces at all normal ranges. I shot a crow with mine. The range was about 50 yards. No exit! I thought it would penetrate a little further than that.

I've got some more old phone books, Maybe I'll try it at longer range.

 

[Al Thompson]

Don't know what ammo he's using, but a friend is using it as a crow round and reports great results. HTH

 

[goosegunner]

passing through woodchucks, allowing them to escape into their burrows.

a good excuse for a close miss

 

[cratz2]

What sort of result/penetration did you have with the crow at 50 yards? I've shot plenty of them with 22 Magnums and I've never found more than a sliver of bullet. More often than not there's nothing left of the bullet so I stopped even looking. I mean, it's not like a 40 Gr VMax from a 223 or anything but the crow's usually pretty mangled. I use Winchester Supreme.

I used to shoot quite a few crows at my inlaws property but I've ceased doing that as I recently found out that crows are protected as a migratory bird except for two long-ish seasons where they can be controlled id damaging crops. At least in Indiana. How any government can be so short-sighted or nonsensical as to pass a nationwide law protecting crows I'll never understand.

 

[griz]

What sort of result/penetration did you have with the crow at 50 yards?

The only result was a DRT crow. I didn't check inside for penetration but it did not exit. The shot was from the side so it did push through the wing feathers, not the bone, before entering the body.

Here is a picture of an informal test I did to check on expansion. The water filled cans were in line when shot and of course the less torn up one was the second. I can't tell if the bullet exited the second can since the backside is torn where it crumpled. In the quest to recover a bullet I shot the two liter bottle from the bottom. There was definitely no exit and as you can see it didn’t have enough energy to totally split open the bottle. For reference, a 223 HP shot into the same bottle would open it up almost as much as these cans were. Unfortunately for my recovery attempts all the water, and most of the bullet fragments, squirted out the hole in the bottom. This caused the bottle to shoot straight away. Only a few slivers of jacket remained in the bottle. Both shots were at close range, only about 10 yards.

I will try again to recover a bullet and will post a picture of the pieces if you are interested.

 

[PATH]

I'm glad I found thuis thread! I just got the 77/17 and was looking for some info. I intend to use it for small game and as soon as I get to use it I'll report back.