Anybody here have a 17HMR that's not happy with it?

I'm looking into getting a Mossberg 17HMR rifle and am wondering if anybody is unhappy with the cartridge? I like the feel of the rifle, it fits me well, but none of the shops around here have indoor ranges that I could try one out on.

I have 2 of the newer Mossberg bolt action 802 .22's that are a lot like the .17's, they are a little rough around the edges, but they have worked fine.
I also have a couple of 17hmr's, as long as you are not planning on using it on anything much bigger than a groundhog you will not be dissapointed. I have not heard of any 17hmr's from any brand that would not shoot well, the only problems I hear about are on semi-autos.

that's what I've heard through word of mouth, I just wanted to hear directly from those who actually have one. I'll be using it mainly on squirrels and rabbits, and probably the occasional soda/beer can.

I have a Savage in 17 HMR that both me and my son love to shoot. It is very accurate, shoots flat for quite a ways, and kills God's little pest creatures dead at 100 yards. Mine is a bolt action. Like someone mentioned above, the semi-autos are problematic and I am guessing that's because of the ammo.

The 17HMR is fine, the Mossberg isn't. The new Mossberg rimfires are cheaply made in Brazil. A good gun for a kid or a starter gun but not a very good one.

Look at Savage or Marlin for a better choice.

I've had three of the Savage .17HMR bolt guns in the past. One non-Accutrigger and two Accutriggers. They all shot very well and the little .17HMR will vaporize a gopher. If you hunt with one, do head shots as the 17 will blow little critters up.

I owned a 17HMR for a couple of months. I used it on small animals during hunting season (armadillos, ect.....). I was less than pleased with the effectiveness of the cartridge. I sold the rifle.

Accountant

What was it that you didn't like about it?

I have a savage 93 in 17. It's a laser, and kills shit dead. It'll handle all small game, even yotes. Distance/wind being the factor. Do a side by side comparison, if you can. When I bought mine, it was between the savage and marlin. The savage trigger was hands down better. Don't know anything about the mossberg, sorry.

My Marlin 917VS has a permanent spot in the safe. Though, since my wife laid claim to it, I don't get to shoot it anymore. I plan on one-upping her with a new 17 Hornet(she will probably claim that one too)

I'm going to assume that he meant it doesn't work to well on armadillos. Personally, the largest critter I drilled with the ones I had was a jackrabbit. It dropped in it's tracks, but a 'jack is a pretty soft target. The 17 wouldn't be my choice for coyotes for example.
Bullets for the 17 are very light and usually explode on contact and don't penetrate well at all. The FMJ's do a little better, but not much.

I have a Savage 93 17hmr, it shoots very flat, and is very accurate, kills small game dead 125yds or less. The largest things I have killed with it are Jack Rabbits and wood chucks, kills them dead in their tracks. I agree on something an armadillo it would not be my first choice the rounds don't penetrate at all, basically the little bullet explodes on impact.

I haven't killed anything with mine other than some neighborhood cats, but it works well on those. I'm happy with my rifle, a Savage bolt gun.

I have that mossberg 17hmr... It is a cheap rifle but mine shoots great and is very accurate. Doesn't look as nice or feel as smooth as my buddies savage but shoots just as straight.

Have killed tons of rabbits and squirrels with the 17hmr. Took a hiatus from the hmr for the last 5-6 years and have just in the last 6-8 months gotten another one.

This time around I went for a CZ 452 Varmint in .17hmr and I'm absolutely loving this gun.

Well, I've been sold on the Savage 93R17F. I made a short notice trip to my local outdoor range this afternoon (my buddy called to let me know they were open due to most of the snow being melted) and there was a guy there that had one. I took the lane next to him and broke out my Marlin XT22TR and Ruger Mini-14. He initiated a conversation about the stock on my Mini (ATI Strikeforce) and asked to try a few rounds. So after he popped off about 10 rounds he mentioned how much he liked the feel of it. I asked what he had brought to shoot (at the time he had a Savage 116 Bear Hunter in 300 Win Mag on the bench) and he brought out his 93R17F. I mentioned I was looking at getting one and he let me shoot a few mags through it. Wow, that's all I can say. First time shooting the rifle and I made 2 5-shot groups at 50 yards of under 3/4", and 1 under 1/2". I'm sold on it and will be ordering it once my tax return gets into my bank account. Thanks everybody for your input, once I take mine to the range I'll post some pics of my groups.

go with the savage its an awesome gun

My buddy got a savage ac trigger 17hmr for Xmas. We went plinking with it and a little rabbit hunting. It well out performed my 10/22.

Its a fun little rifle. I will be buying one.

Beautiful.

I have been looking at a few of the CZ models as well. I am very impressed by the overall feel of the rimfire models. They offer a true full-size rifle, in rimfire chamberings. Many other manufacturers make their rimfire rifles as light as possible, which is sometimes nice, especially when you hiking long distances. Other times though, it is nice to have a rifle that feels like a full-size rifle instead of a light-weight.

-PC-

I have had a Marlin 17VS for about 8 years and it is one of the most accurate rifles I own. I glass bedded it and installed a Rifle Basix trigger in it. I have shot a fly walking on my paper target at 35 yards. The shot was witnessed by my son and daughter. The .17 HMR round is explosive on small critters so if you plan on eating them you must make head shots.

A few years ago I bought a Rogue Rifle Co. Chipmunk in .17 HMR for my growing boys to learn to shoot with.
It was only 140 bucks, so it wasn't really a BIG mistake...but it was still a mistake.
Ammo is too expensive for plinking, compared to bulk .22 stuff.
The rifle really isn't very accurate, and isn't suited for scope mounting even if it were.

I should have gotten a 10/22 with a short stock instead for the boys and a Savage or CZ for me.

Of course, all that is not a criticism of the cartridge itself. It's a neat little round.

On of my good friends has a Marlin 17HMR ( I don't know model designation, magazine fed bolt action with wood stock and bull barrel). It's a tack driver and great on prairie dogs and rabbits etc.. We used to take it out shooting Pdogs all the time back in middleschool/highschool. About the only issues he had with it was getting a small enough cleaning rod and ammo prices vs. .22lr.

I have H&R handi-rifle in .17hmr. with a 10x Bushnell. I dusted a lot of Prairie dogs this summer, not spectacular blowups like my .223, it kills them good enough. It's real great a red-misting ground squirrels inside of 75 yards. I find having a single shot makes me concentrate on hitting the first round. Shooting two hundred rounds in 4 hours with a break action is kinda painful though

I have a Savage bolt 17hmr w/accutrigger. Very accurate. The 17 is a good little round if used within it's limitations. I don't consider it a coyote cartridge. Not saying it won't kill a coyote, just too many limitations for using in that role for me. Small varmints it does well.

Yeah, I wouldn't try to take a coyote with it unless I was within about 5-10 yards. But, I carry a Winchester 94 when I hunt so I would end up using that instead at that range.

The .17HMR isn't a cartridge, it's a cult. Come, come with us. You'll be happier. We promise...

Oh, I'm in, lol. My Savage 93 is getting ordered tomorrow.

Why would you want a .17 HMR over a .22 Mag? Ammo cost is about the same, but you can get much heavier bullets w/ the Mag.

Accountant

flat trajectory, and decent range without over-penetration.

Depends what you're looking for but the .17 HMR tends to be much more accurate from the examples I've seen.. Both are nice rounds though.

Savage for the win!!! Probably one of the most fun guns I've ever owned. Great trigger, amazingly accurate, and watching the expression on your buddies face when you crank your target scope to 20X and repeatedly set off 12ga rounds with primer hits at 100yds is PRICELESS!

I'm curious what you guys were up to, I have an idea, but I'm not entirely sure

I bought matching Marlin 917 rifles. One in .17HMR, and the other in .17M2. The HMR was very accurate and I had the trigger tuned very nicely, but sold it. I could reload .223 that greatly outperformed the HMR, for the same price or cheaper. The .17M2 remains one of my most used rifles. People laugh when they see the necked down .22lr but I have dropped more jaws then I can count., everybody is impressed with the M2 It really cleans up on squirrels, rock chucks, ground hogs, etc.

Just sharing my personal experience, I'm sure you will enjoy the HMR.

How loud is a suppressed 17HMR? Hearing safe?

QUITE.....

Well after some delays I got my Savage 93 ordered last night from Buds. The HB has only an extra $8 so I got it instead of the standard weight barrel. Should be here next week, then hopefully the weather will cooperate so I can hit the range with it.

QUITE QUIET.....

Well, it got delivered today and I'll be picking it up tomorrow, I got the paperwork done earlier this week, so I just have to swing by and get it. Scope and sling are waiting and ready for it. I'll post up some pictures tomorrow or Saturday.

Let us know how the range goes. My wife just picked me one up from cabelas for my birthday. Waiting on my scope mount and scope then I will hit the range. I have a good variety of ammo to figure what mine will like

Funny part is I wanted a Savage TRR SR in 22LR and ended up getting a 17HMR instead because everywhere was out of stock.

Picked it up today and boy is it nice. Even with the heavy barrel it isn't too heavy, I love the balance it has. Even with 2 scopes it fits into my case with my Marlin XT22TR.




I'm not sure when I'll be able to make it to the range, probably not for a couple weeks, but when I do I'll be sure to post pictures of the trip.

I'll be honest, while I've heard a lot of good things about the 17 HMR, and the Savage rifles in particular, I have a 9317-BTVS that has never shot well at all. I was a stubborn bastard after I bought it and tried different scopes/mounts/bedding/ammo etc. until well after the warranty expired. Now I'm stuck with a rifle that won't put 5 rounds into an inch at 50 yards . I can do better than that with my 10/22 shooting Federal bulk packs.

That said, most people seem to be very satisfied with their rifles, and I wouldn't necessarily let my bad experience turn you off of the rifle/round. Just trying to add a data point.

I like the cartridge.
For shooting at unknown distances it is great because of lazer beam like trajectory.

Kind of dumb for plinking and stuff due to the added expence for ammo when compared to 22lr

I have a Marlin that is none to smooth (OK it is real rough) and the trigger sucked. I bought a aftermarket trigger and that really never worked
out real good either. Wish I had bought a better gun , this one kind of sucks all around.

For hacking around the 17hrm is interesting but if you reload consider the 17hornet . It is another step up in performance

i have always been impressed with mine, the action of the savage is really smooth, and the accutrigger is great. also, what other rifle can decapitate a jackrabbit at 100 yards?

That's a bummer. Out of curiosity how many rounds do you have through it? Reason I ask is at first I was kind of disappointed with the accuracy of my Savage. After about 3 boxes of bullets my groups tightened up dramatically. Also mine seems to shoot slightly better with 20 gr. bullets which is ok by me.

Regarding the OPs original question about having any complaints about the .17 hmr. I have one about my Savage. I got it out last week to check zero and it appeared I was missing the target about 1/4 of my shots. Upon closer inspection it was just putting the other shots in the same hole. Stupid rifle.

Well, I finally got some time to head out to the range. I'll be going out tomorrow morning for a few hours and put a couple boxes through it. I got a box of Hornady 17gr V-Max and a box of Winchester 20gr JHP to see which works better. I'll post pictures sometime tomorrow.

Yup still love shooting it. Went out today and ran about 50 rounds playing around.
I need to paint it already...

Same pack of ammo that I have there. Do you have a 10/22 with you? or are those 3 mags for something else?

A buddy and I both bought Rem 597 magnum rifles in .17HMR back in ~2005.

Both of our rifles were crazy accurate, and I give a +100 to the "only take headshots" comments. When we were thinning the flock of Guinea fowl on my friend's farm, a headshot at about 50yds with hollowpoint CCIs left a cone-shaped exit wound almost the same size as the bird's head.

While I liked the accuracy and terminal performance, the Rem mags sucked and I had an OOB kaboom that nearly cost me an eye. Rem replaced the receiver of my rifle, but that ended it for me

WOW, Remington has a recall on their 17 HMRs to turn them into 22 mags, Glad you are allright.

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