It's very good at dispatching varmints like coyotes and small animals like rabbits, prairie dogs, ect at long range, high velocity with excellent ballistics. And when .22 is all sold out and bought up, .17 is still on the shelf.

 

at long range

What kind of range are you talking about? I generally zero my .22 LR's at 50 yards, and 22 Mag at 75 to 100 yards.

 

Lots of vids on YouTube of folks dropping rabbits and whistle pigs in the 300 yard range with the .17 HMR.

 

Humm, something else that goes BANG .
Son has one, he likes his, generally plinking to varmint dispatching.

 

They are excellent at draining your wallet... had one, was less than impressed. That gun was very moody, would start stringing shots for no apparent reason.

 

They are excellent at draining your wallet...

Exactly what I was going to say. You can shoot small stuff with a .22 for a whole lot less money and they will be just as dead.

 

Don't got one but want one. What going to be it's purpose, kill evil paper targets, same purpose most all my rifles are for. Even at 15-17 cents a rounds 17hmr is about the same cost as shooting a .223/5.56 rifle and about half the price of .308 ammo.

 

You can easily double anything that a 22lr will do.
I've had one for 10 months. The ammo can be squirrely, but I'll hang onto it.
Give me a choice of shooting my 22, or my 17, it's no contest. It's the 17.

Good article: .17 HMR

 

Steve we have a heavy barrel stainless Savage with thumb hole laminated stock and love it. Its a one hole gun. My small bore nut buddy has almost a dozen. He head shoots coyotes at 165 yards with thermal and known distances and same with deer right under the ear in the daylight at 100. That's his range limit on critters but he shoots cans and lil bitty targets at longer ranges. He does almost the same at slightly less range with 5mm Rem magnum vintage ammo and .22 win mag though. He's better with a .22 Hornet and can reload it. I like the hmr and would buy another at that price. I also have a nib Ruger in .17 Mach 2 with close to a thousand rounds of ammo that is unfired. I haven't shot my Ruger in .17 hmr either, but I think it will be fine. I'm tempted at the price you posted. I say get it. Great for armadillos but will tear a squirrel or rabbit up too much to eat unless a head shot

 

I,m old fashion , I like 22 lr and if I want more I have 22 mags and 22 Hornets. People like the 17s so they must be good

 

I have one of the Savage MK II BTVSS, it is fun to shoot. Ammo runs around $13 for 50, occasionally cheaper on sale. It came with a 5 round mag, but I got a couple of 10 rounders off ebaay.

 

Love my CZ 453 17HMR. Accurate out to 150 yds if I do my part.
When we were in Oregon we would head out to eastern Oregon and help the farmers out by shooting thier ground squirrels that were eating thier alfapha buds. We would stay out there two to three days camping and it wasn't uncommon to shoot 1000 rds. Yes it was expensive using the 17HMR. I was getting out farther then the guys with the 22lr
It was more fun than anyone should be allowed to have.

 

Did you buy it?

 

I did not. Not yet anyway. I found something I'd been wanting longer, and have a definite use for: a .44 Mag rifle.

 

Congrats on the .44.:101010:. I've got a bunch of .44 rifles and they are a lot of fun to shoot.

 

I sight mine in at 100 yds for prairie dogs. For squirrels i sight in for 50-75 depending on how far my shots will be. In the field, my 17hmr is more accurate and flatter shooting. With prairie dogs i try to keep shoots under 125 to insure an immediate dispatch. Realize you will need a 17 cleaning rod if you don't already have one.

 

Not recommended , but have dispatched wounded buck @ 200yd with hmr.(head shot) Even killed sow hog with a mach2 @ 100 yd.(also head).Shot placement and confidence,and a lot of practice a.17 is a lethel tool

 

I have heard that .17HMR initially messed up rimfire matches something fierce (I don't attend rimfire matches, so that could just be outgassing for all I know). I also heard that from the get go pretty much all .17HMR is match grade ammo, made to higher accuracy standards, unlike .22lr, the vast bulk of which is commodity grade.

 

It's a unique cartridge. It's a fast round that will out perform the .22 distance wise. But if you have a .22 that you love, it's hard to justify getting a .17

A friend of mine absolutely loves his and takes out ***** from hundreds of yards out with a single shot. He loves, loves, loves it.

 

I might be late to the table. However, I purchased a Savage Arms A17 Semi Auto. I already own a number of .22 LR rifles and handguns, but I had been reading a long time about the A17 Semi Auto. There was a number of of pro and cons about this rifle. Of late Savage has addressed the problems, so I bought one. I had a few problems right out of the box the mag kept falling out. I called Savage and they sent me their newly design ones. The gun store I purchased it from said I could use right out the box. Don't do it, the gun needs a complete cleaning and smoothing out. The trigger is awesome (2 lb) pull, the CCI A17 (17 gr.) is designed for this rifle and has cartridge that travels at 2650 fps. I also bought the Butler Creek 25 round mag (also awesome). I did have some issues to failure to eject. That to was was resolved by using Hornady's XTP .17 XTP (20 gr.), super accurate. Killed my first coyote a few nights ago, single shot to head and it dropped where it was standing. The effective range with A17 (17 gr.) is 150 to 200 yards. it will reach out to 300 yards, but you need a good scope and a few practice rounds. Overall, I feel like I made a good investment. Happy Hunting!