17 hmr for fox?

Originally Posted By: muddydogI dont care how good of shot you are. The 17 is marginal on any game bigger than a ground squirrel at best!

Another ignorant pile on comment
 
Originally Posted By: TakemOriginally Posted By: muddydogI dont care how good of shot you are. The 17 is marginal on any game bigger than a ground squirrel at best!

Another ignorant pile on comment

And another followed
 
Originally Posted By: TakemOriginally Posted By: muddydogI dont care how good of shot you are. The 17 is marginal on any game bigger than a ground squirrel at best!

Another ignorant pile on comment

as always you will have difference of opinion than others on a sore subject like this.....nothing educational ever comes from these posts! trust me!

pretty soon, we will have a pi55ing contest on this very thread!
 
I have killed piles of fox with a 22 mag. If I were just hunting fox, thats all I'd use. I gurantee you its plenty of gun under 100 yards (for fox). I used the 40 grain hollow points. Never had a problem with them running off. I have seen them killed just as dead with the 17 though too. I like the 22 mag over the 17 myself. Thats just me though.
 
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Fun to shoot, not my first choice for killing! Seen some well placed shots work and some good shots not work. If you reload load down some .223 and use a less "explosive" bullet if your worried about a fur friendly round.

My 2 cents, which doesn't mean much!
 
jj1980 said:
Fun to shoot, not my first choice for killing! Seen some well placed shots work and some good shots not work. If you reload load down some .223 and use a less "explosive" bullet if your worried about a fur friendly round.



Well said. Best post in this thread
 
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okay well i did some research, and looking at ballistics data a 17 hmr with a 17 grain bullet hits with about 25 more ft lbs of energy at 125 yards (either that or 150yards, forgot) but anyways, so i think that the numbers speak for themselves. a lot of guys around here use the 17 for fox and i was just trying to get some more opinions. after trapping several fox and interacting close with them i have little doubt that a 17 wouldnt be enough for them. once the skin is off, they are smaller than a stray cat almost. i plan on only taking good shots and not just flinging bullets. as to coons, heck! i cant even kill em with a 12 gauge half the time! coons are TOUGH! and very fatty. sometimes they just have a will not to die. my buddy that coon hunts said often it takes 6-7 body shots to get one to fall out of the tree, and after that they are still often alive. i shot one once with my bow 4 times, and it walked off with all my arrows, until i got him pinned with the 5th. hopefully i will see for myself how it works
 
a 40 grain pill out of a 22wmr is deadly!

best thing you can do is like you said! go see for yourself!

good luck!


lonnie
 
Guys use FMJ's on TV and are praised for it by their peers. Lots of comments about, "if its legal" dont knock it. Some that approve one thing as ethical will knock something else that they deem not as ethicle. If its legal, apparently it should be used. This is where personal education comes in. Research it, use what you think is best. Good luck.
 
Originally Posted By: davejohnson3 a lot of guys around here use the 17 for fox and i was just trying to get some more opinions. after trapping several fox and interacting close with them i have little doubt that a 17 wouldnt be enough for them.

Soooo,,,, you had already done your research and pretty much had your mind made up before you asked the question, but asked it anyway just to see the fur fly?

Very well done!!!
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I for one,,,, never get tired of the Hummer threads.
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Hey we have to have something to get us fired up every now and then. Hey its a gun so it aint all bad! To each his own and good luck with your 17.
 
The biggest animal I expect to kill every time I shoot one with my .17HMR is a badger.I won't make shots on them if they're past 75 yards though and I think 75 yards is even pushin the limit.It wouldn't be a bad idea to set a limit to how far you'll shoot at a different types of critters based on how confident you are with your rifle and also the size of the animal you plan on killing.For example I could hit a prairie dog out to 200 yards with a 17gr. V-Max and kill it easier than I could a badger at 200 yards using the same type of bullet.
I've seen alot of critters take hits from the .17HMR and die right on the spot.That list of critters includes starlings,prairie dogs,armadillos,feral cats,skunks,jackrabbits,porcupines,badgers and a coyote.

Even though I've shot alot of animals with the .17HMR and had them die right on the spot I've also seen some critters take a hit that should have killed them but instead they kept on going like nothin happened.
One example from this year is a feral cat that I shot in the chest with a .17gr V-Max.It didn't stop until it tryed to run up a fairly steep hill.It ran head first into the side of the hill and fell over dead.I also shot a jackrabbit through the neck with a 17gr V-Max and it ran every bit of 40 yards before falling over dead.It wasn't no flesh wound either.It was easy to tell where it had been before it piled up because it was bleedin like a stuck hog.But that doesn't mean the .17HMR aint any good.Because you probably know just as well as I do that every once in a while you're gonna run into a critter that seems a little tougher than normal.

I will also mention the time that I shot a sparrow with a 20gr FMJ and it actually flew up into a tree before it died.And yes I said a sparrow.....as in one of those little birds that you'd think a .20gr bullet would blow in half.Anyway....Like I said it took a hit from a FMJ and it flew up into a tree before falling out of the tree deader than a hammer.If you say you're gonna use FMJ's for huntin with a .17HMR I can make a prediction right now.I'd say 9 times out of 10 you aint gonna find whatever you shoot with them unless you're shootin a paper target or a pop can.I've been called a liar after telling that story before but that's alright I saw it with my own eyes so it doesnt matter.I also had several prairie dogs and jackrabbits run off after gettin hit with bullets out of the same box of shells.Maybe that bird was just one of those critters that was alot tougher than most.I don't know all I can tell you is that in my experiences with them,FMJ's are terrible for anything but target practice.If you don't believe me pick up a box of 20gr FMJ's and go huntin with them is about the only thing I can tell you.If you use a .17HMR for any type of huntin use V-Maxes,HP's or Gamepoints and stay away from shoulder shots on cats or any heavy bodied critters.It'll just splash and make a fairly big hole but it won't kill them.That's about the only good advice I have about all that .17HMR business.
 
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They'll pop a prairie like it's nobodys business too.I killed 3 starlings with 1 shot with one of the TNT's before.The starling first in line had a hole through it.The exit was larger than where the bullet went in but that's probably no big surpise to anyone.The second one got blown in half.And all that was left of the starling at the back of the line was a head and a wing.I guess that a pretty good example of how fast those little bullets expand/break apart.
 
I don't see how people can say "I hit it in the chest or right in the head and it ran off" If it ran off how do you know where you hit? The shot could have been slightly off but you have no way to accuratley tell if there is no recovery. I'm not defending the 17 but I think some people blame their tools rather than think that perhaps they made a less than perfect shot. That being said even a perfect shot doesn't always drop them right there. How many deer are shot with 30-06 every year and run a good distance before expiring.
 
Originally Posted By: RePeteOriginally Posted By: davejohnson3 a lot of guys around here use the 17 for fox and i was just trying to get some more opinions. after trapping several fox and interacting close with them i have little doubt that a 17 wouldnt be enough for them.

Soooo,,,, you had already done your research and pretty much had your mind made up before you asked the question, but asked it anyway just to see the fur fly?

Very well done!!!
laugh.gif


I for one,,,, never get tired of the Hummer threads.
smile.gif


well kinda, i asked this question but then asked around and did some research while it "soaked" on the forum
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i guess its better to argue about a gun than it is to argue about politics
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as to the story about using fmj's and the sparrow, after shooting a ton of critters, i have had experiences like you. i have come to the conclusion that every shot is different, and sometimes, the difference between DRT and the animal running can be only fractions of an inch. for example, i shot a buck with a 30-30 a few years back, thought he should have dropped right there, he ran about 200 yards and dropped. hit him square in the heart. i guess it also depends on the animals adrenaline rush to. ever trail that deer that you think should have bled out by now but hes still goin? adrenaline... one time is also took us 8 shots out of 22 lr's to kill a porcupine, stuff just happens. so after those experiences i have come to the conclusion that (about any weapon) that if people have a bad experience they try to portray that as the rule rather than the exception. its kind of like the news, they only dwell on the bad stuff
 
Some of these comments are amusing to say the least. The hmr has more energy at 150 yards than a 22lr does at the muzzle. MILLIONS of animals in traps have been dispatched cleanly with a .22lr....many of them by me. I can assure you, shooting a coon at point blank range will result in a very dead coon, so it stands to reason an HMR will do the same at short ranges.

As for fox, were talking about a little bitty 10-12# animal. You don't need a .223 to dispatch one at 'normal' calling ranges. The HMR will do just fine.

I shot a called coyote last week at 75 yards with my HMR. Shot him behind the shoulder as he was broadside. He ran about 5-10 yards, started spinning, and died in about 5 seconds. Not a big coyote, probably 30# or so. Anecdotal evidence, you bet.

BTW my main calling rifle is a Sako 75 Hunter in .17 Rem. However, sometimes I prefer the discretion of using a rimfire in populated farm country.

 
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