Record .17 HMR Kills

utahpredator_7

utahpredator_7

New member
When I first got my .17 two years ago, I was real used to my .22. My record kill for a while was 125 yards, then 150. I was starting to get the hang of it and really started to practice after that. My next record was a jack at 200 yards, 17 grain v-max. Then, this summer I killed a potgut at 250 with the 20 grain winchester hp, the bullet barely expanded. Tonight I killed one jack on the run at 20, then broke my record with a 270 yard kill. The 17 grain v-max (winchester) hit it in the back hips, and didn't exit. Then I hit one twice at 220. the first shot went high through its back, somehow didn't spine it. the next hit it in the gut. I found tons of blood but never the bunny. What are your records with your HMRs? I'm interested to see how far it's been pushed.
 
I was hunting with a kid several years ago, and he was carrying a Marlin 22 with a Simmons 3-9x rifle scope on top. It was actually quite a nice rig for a kids gun. We were walking thru a prairie dog town when i asked him to take a look at it. He handed it to me and i looked thru the optic at the plex reticle. It appeared to measure (subtend) 6 minutes or so to the plex reticle's post tips @ 9x. I told him if he adjusted the optic to 3x it would then be 3 X 6 or 18 minutes to the post tip. I told him that that might get him to about 300 yds. or so. So we get set up on a PD mound off the Harris bipod he had on the rig and i lasered a couple PD's at 290-something. He gets set up and shoots. The bullet impacted low so he readjusted for the drop, and nails this PD. It rolls off the back of the mound, then runs back up and hesitates on the mound's rim. He shoots again and nails it again. It rolls off the back of the mound, and then another dog runs out of the hole to check it out and he nails that 1 too in the next couple shots. Couldn't believe it but we had 2 dead PD's on the back of that mound shot with a 22 rimfire.
 
The farthest that I know of was a prairie dog at 200 yards for me.My .17HMR shoots the CCI Hollowpoints an inch high at 100 yards and I shot another prairie dog holding about 2" over its head and dropped it using the HP's.Im not sure how far that was but it was quite a ways out there.I shot a starling at 150 yards one day using Winchester 17gr.VMaxes.
Me and a buddy of mine always compete to see who can get the most kills out of a box of 50 so I dont really go for the further critters because I dont wanna ruin my shot to kill ratio.
The best I've done so far is 46 critters out of a box of 50 shells.I got 40 prairie dogs,3 jackrabbits and 3 starlings.I shot all three starlings with 1 shot and got braggin rights for a while.I got alot of doubles on prairie dogs that day and one or two triples.I think I missed about 10 times.Thats a little off topic but I just havent had much time to really get out by myself to try for the longer shots.Because if I go shootin with someone they always have to make it into an accuracy competition. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
My uncle shot a prairie dog from 265 yards with his .17HMR though.Thats the farthest shot I've seen with a .17HMR so far. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
I killed a belding ground squirrel (about half the size of a prairie dog) at 287, and another one at 280. I've killed many between 200-250 with my 17 too.
 
Ground squirrel at 158 lasered yards. Contender pistol SU 14 with a bipod, and sandbag under the grip.

No ballistic reticle on that setup, just got lucky on the hold over.

A.G.
 
I have killed quite a few varmints with my Marlin 17V.

Longest rockchuck 140 yards.
Longest Pdog 215 yards.
Longest badger 50 yards.
Longest ground squrl 275 yards.
Longest jackrabbit 175 yards.

I mostly use the 17hmr for ground squrls but when targets of opportunity arise look out.

Mike.
 
I killed a groundhog at 265yds with my CZ 17hmr my buddy has on at 269 we are betting on who will be the first to take one at 300 Great caliber I love mine and unless I am going some where that I can shot more than 300 yds my 222 223 and 243 stay in the safe
 
Thats some pretty fancy shooting with them rimfires! I just may break down and get me one of those .17 some day! But for right now, I sure do like my .22 mag..
 
I now limit my shots to about 150 yards when shooting prairie dogs with a 17 HMR rifle. At 150 yards the 17 Gr V-Max bullet still has about 100 ft/lb of energy and I can get clean kills when shooting the prairie dog at any angle. I have shot p dogs at longer ranges but most of the time they could get back into their holes. Three years ago I shot about 1500 prairie dogs with the 17 HMR rifle. It is a fine little rifle but it has its limits.
 
Steve Chernicky developed the 17 HMR in the early 90's. He had to make the brass by hand by necking down the Federal 22 mag brass and made his own bullets. We tried bullet weights from 15g to 23.5g and he settled on a 18g bullet.

We went on many p. dog trips to S.Dakota before the X was put on the map by the Varmint Hunter Magazine when the dog shooting as a 1000 rounds a day of centerfire.

It was not uncommon to kill dogs from 300-350 yards on a calm day, and dogs at 250 did not have a prayer.

Steve had made an etched glass reticle for a 6-20 leupold that had the hash marks for the various ranges out to 400 yards...what a rig.

Recently a buddy bought an el cheapo marlin in 17 HMR. I lapped the barrel for him and did a trigger job, bedded the recoil lug. He mounted BSA's best 8-32 scope on it, and I put out targets for 100-300 yards in 50 yard increments. I put some auto pen striping material around the target dial and marked the target knobs out to 300 yards with actual shooting. It was simply amazing how the rifle shot at 300 yards.

The guy is killing about everything that walks, flies, swims, and crawls with the rifle now. He brags on what a supurb turtle rifle it is and how easy it is to kill beavers that are swimming across a pond with it due to the bullet's speed. He is hoping that they will come out with a FMJ bullet for it so he can head shoot deer.
 
Quote:
Steve Chernicky developed the 17 HMR in the early 90's. He had to make the brass by hand by necking down the Federal 22 mag brass and made his own bullets. We tried bullet weights from 15g to 23.5g and he settled on a 18g bullet.

We went on many p. dog trips to S.Dakota before the X was put on the map by the Varmint Hunter Magazine when the dog shooting as a 1000 rounds a day of centerfire.

It was not uncommon to kill dogs from 300-350 yards on a calm day, and dogs at 250 did not have a prayer.

Steve had made an etched glass reticle for a 6-20 leupold that had the hash marks for the various ranges out to 400 yards...what a rig.

Recently a buddy bought an el cheapo marlin in 17 HMR. I lapped the barrel for him and did a trigger job, bedded the recoil lug. He mounted BSA's best 8-32 scope on it, and I put out targets for 100-300 yards in 50 yard increments. I put some auto pen striping material around the target dial and marked the target knobs out to 300 yards with actual shooting. It was simply amazing how the rifle shot at 300 yards.

The guy is killing about everything that walks, flies, swims, and crawls with the rifle now. He brags on what a supurb turtle rifle it is and how easy it is to kill beavers that are swimming across a pond with it due to the bullet's speed. He is hoping that they will come out with a FMJ bullet for it so he can head shoot deer.



Apparently old Steve there is the luckiest dude on this half the country. I shoot pds all the time and a day that is calm enough to use a .17 HMR to make shots at 350 yds. is as rare as hens teeth and something to truly appreciate.

Your buddies deer hunting idea is lame beyond all comprehension tho.
 
Last edited:
They do have a FMJ bullet for the .17 HMR. And i would never think about hunting deer with a .17 HMR. They do kill deer, i know some poachers they have done it, but i would never rely on one for hunting deer.
 
Well just yesterday as a matter of fact I was out in the front yard raking leaves. I look up and there is a huge cape buffalo bull running right down the middle of the road! I know it's hard to believe, but by golly it's true. Cape buff season opened last weekend so I ran in the house and grabbed the trusty ole Savage 17hmr. I run back out front, load the mag with only one round cuz mr. buff is way out there now and getting farther. I estimate he's about 350 yards now. I woof him to a stop. Slowly pull the trigger and DRT right there by golly. I owe it all to the Accutrigger. I'm having a full body mount done. I'll post pics when I get it back.
 
I hope the guy that said he was going to head shoot deer was just joking.And if he is'nt you should definately tell him to not use FMJ bullets.I got a box of CCI 20gr. FMJ's last year and decided to test them on prairie dogs so I went out to my friends house.While he was gathering his stuff up I went into his backyard to test a few FMJ's out on some sparrows.Pretty soon a sparrow landed 30 yards away so I put it in the crosshairs and squeezed the trigger.I saw feathers fly off of the bird but so did the bird.It flew up into a dead tree for about 30 seconds and then fell down dead as a doornail.I walked up and it had a pretty good sized hole through its chest which was was the exit and a small hole through its back which was where the bullet entered.I figured it was just a tough sparrow so I tryed again on a sparrow about the same distance as the first.Again the bird flew off and I figured I missed.So when it landed I shot it through the head with the FMJ and that killed it.When I walked up to it there was a small hole under the left wing and a slightly larger hole under the right wing.I lost several prairie dogs and a few jackrabbits required a second shot that day.The next day I went back out there and tryed some Winchester 17gr. V-Maxes.The first thing I shot with those was another sparrow.I found a wing and its head and that was it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Im not sure why your buddy wouldnt just shoot deer in the head with a Centerfire rifle but to each his own. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
Quote:
Well just yesterday as a matter of fact I was out in the front yard raking leaves. I look up and there is a huge cape buffalo bull running right down the middle of the road! I know it's hard to believe, but by golly it's true. Cape buff season opened last weekend so I ran in the house and grabbed the trusty ole Savage 17hmr. I run back out front, load the mag with only one round cuz mr. buff is way out there now and getting farther. I estimate he's about 350 yards now. I woof him to a stop. Slowly pull the trigger and DRT right there by golly. I owe it all to the Accutrigger. I'm having a full body mount done. I'll post pics when I get it back.



Was it fur friendly ? Cross wind of 25 mph? Did you find that bullet to be too destructive ? Can you post a pic of the 'call' you used ? In case that happens in my neighborhood I want to be prepared.
 
Back
Top