So, my father pointed me to another excuse to spend money I ought be saving for something, and I thought I’d ask around before I have to explain another firearms purchase to Intaglio.
He pointed me to the Savage Arms 93R17, a sweet-looking rifle with a fairly modest price tag, chambered for the .17HMR. I looked around a bit, and found this: 30R17. Sweeet rifle! But should I bother?
Has anyone here fired a rifle chambered for the .17 HMR? This is a tiny little round, about 4.3mm, but the numbers on the ammunition sites are pretty respectable. Anyone know anything about this round?
Is it worth my trouble to follow up, or should I toss this on the heap with all the other ‘great ideas’ that don’t go anywhere?
Another rifle I might try, in the same caliber: Remington 597
Depends on what you want to put holes in. I have the 8.3" barreled Smith & Wesson .17HMR revolver just for target shooting, have had it about a month. I had wanted a .22WMR revolver for a long time but went for the .17 when I heard about it being available (I heard on this board! You all owe me your share of $540). One problem (?) is that this gun heats up fast, after just a dozen or 18 shots, and doesn’t seem to be accurate at all when it’s hot. I have a couple of other issues of my own also (grips too small, I need a scope), but they are fixable. The heating thing I can’t find a way around except to carry some sort of battery-powered fan… I have a Ruger MkII Gov’t Target 6-7/8" pistol also (.22LR); I can fire twenty shots from that and it doesn’t get as hot as the S&W does from just six shots. I have not had any problem in my area (St Louis) finding .17HMR ammo, but people in the west/south US still have shortages.
As far as the rifles go, I don’t got none yet, try here: http://rimfirecentral.com/forums/
-Note the .17HMR forum-
The Remington 597 is the only factory .17HMR semiauto rifle available right now. I’d want a varmint-style heavy barrel semiauto if/when I get a rifle, and I haven’t seen any kits for doing that to a Rem597 at all. You can convert a Ruger 10/22 Magnum to a .17HMR a couple of different ways (a drop-in custom barrel or a 77/17 barrel with a special shim), but many people are noting bulged and occasional burst cases with these conversion guns. Various conversion barrels cost $140, $200 and $300++.
Ruger has not yet released a .17HMR version of the 10/22 but showed one in a printed magazine advertisement a few months back.
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The heating issue is likely due to the much higher pressure & energy levels combined with a smaller radiating surface. I wonder what a fluted barrel would do with this issue? This actually encourages me to avoid a semi-auto, as that tempts the shooter to put more down-range more quickly. A bolt action or single-shot would enforce fire discipline, slowing heat buildup. OTOH, one of the Savage Arms rifles, the Model 93R17 has a free-floating bull-barre varient, and that now sounds like a better and better idea. The Model 30R17 or some similar falling-block single shot also sounds better now
Oh, btw: I’m a paper-puncher for the most part. Looking for something inexpensive, but longer range than .22LR, but less expensive than most small-caliber centerfire chamberings.
I’m not sure if H&R / NEF have this chambering in their popular “Handi-Rifle” yet, but if / when they do, it should be a good choice for someone looking for an inexpensive option.
My guess is that many manufacturers will offer heavy barrel and fluted barrel versions of their rifles in this caliber in the very near future.
Well now I see that Remington’s site says the .17 597 already has a heavy barrel. I dunno, I haven’t really looked at one even though the place I got my pistol had one on hand… but the pistol has busted my toy budget flat for a while anyway.
And people at that forum who have tried both have been reporting that (as far as cheap bolt-action rifles go) the Marlin rifles are shooting quite a bit better than the Savages, but they only cost a bit more.
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I wound up buying a CZ-452 chambered in .17 HMR. Sweet stocks, some of the best wood I’ve seen on a rifle (especially an inexpensive one!) in a long time.
Folks,
I have been shopping for a small, target/plinker lately and today I looked at the .17 (reportedly it shoots “flatter” than a .22lr). I have decided (pretty much) to buy a Thompson/Center .22 classic as the .17 is still new and ammo prices have not fallen here yet (I was at Wally World today and a box of 50 .17’s was $9.00). I am going to a big gun show tomorrow to look around but I am pretty sure that I will go pick up the T/C on monday or so (it’s a birthday present, for me!).
Expect a price between US$340 and US$380. I paid a little over US$320, but that’s a bit low.
A little steep for a rimfire, but it holds sweet. I don’t have scopes on it yet, so I don’t have a good target for you. The test target that came with mine patterned a bit over 1" at 100 meters (3.5cm, actually), but I’m thinking I can improve that with a little tuning. Right now, the only shooting I’ve done with it is to get a feel for the action. The trigger creeps a bit, and has a bit of over-travel, but I already know how to fix that. Trigger pull is about 3.5 lbf. Recoil is negligible. The barrel should be free-floating, but a router error has the forend resting lightly against the barrel, on the right side. After a bit of research tells me that this is a common fault for all CZ 452 rifles. This is another fault that can easily be dealt with.
This is a mini-mauser action, with all the blessings of that action type, and the machine-work is superior. There’s a little tasteful checkering on mine, and my stocks are far better than average (better than the picture on the website, actually!). I got lucky in that regard, and got several whistful looks from the guys at the range.
When I get done tuning it to my liking, I expect I’ll have a tack-driver on my hands.
Oh, did I mention that it holds really sweet? Well, it does.
asterion, think .22 WMR, necked down to .17 (BB-size).
