Keep .17 hmr or get .17 wsm?

Originally Posted By: SlickerThanSnotOriginally Posted By: West.Mass.Hunterno holdover is needed to bust clay pigeons at 100-300 yards.



dang. the drop from 100 to 300 yards is pretty drastic with mine. i must of got a bad one.

Just called him for his setup. Ruger 77/17wsm. He believes it's a 24" barrel, shooting 20 grain poly tip Winchesters. You caught me in a bit of a fib though. The range only goes out to 283 yards
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. So 100-283 yards holding dead on
 
Originally Posted By: coyotejunkie719Newbie here to the forum but I owned the Savage 17WSM. Worst gun I’ve ever owned. Plenty of issues with the bolt and it not wanting to eject cartridges. When it did it work it was a devastating little round but very bad experience. Not a fan of savage now, I know I shouldn’t base it off of that gun but... I havent been here long either but welcome! Sorry to hear you got the all too common junker, but i wouldnt let that get you down on savage all together. Shoot some before you decide to by if you can, but dont be afraid to buy one of their 10/110-16/116 action models or non bmag rimfires. My hmr has been great for me (just wanting more range) and my bro in law only buys savage now. Im trying to have a variety of makers in my locker so i can have my own experience, good or bad.
Originally Posted By: West.Mass.HunterMy father has a Ruger 17wsm and that thing flat out shoots. Impressive when no adjustments are needed and no holdover is needed to bust clay pigeons at 100-300 yards. I was expecting the 77/17 to be a better rifle honestly but its also twice the price as the bmag. I guess there is value in not dealing with headaches though! Glad to hear it shoots well!
 
Savage is my favorite rifles but I still haven’t bought a bmag. There’s so many complaints about the rifle that I’m too hesitant. My savage B17(new version on the 93) is amazing. Dropped coyotes and tons of squirrels. Few grouse. It’s pretty much the bmag I believe but 17 hmr so I may get a new bmag one of these days. The savage 12fv is on sale again for 269 or something so if you want a 6.5 there’s the deal you need to snatch up at cabelas. Or any varmint caliber really.
 
I dropped my first coyote with a B-Mag. But also ended up giving it away to a friend that wanted it because it was inconsistent and threw fliers. Not to mention it was built like a peice of junk. I wish there were more options for the .17 WSM. If CZ built a rifle in this cartridge and they had Varmint barrels I’d buy two of them.

Have you thought about selling the hmr you currently have and buying a CZ 455 in hmr? You’d probably be very happy with it. My 455 chambered in .22 mag is a shooter and built very well. I don’t think I’d ever part with it.
 
Originally Posted By: Bad DawgHave you thought about selling the hmr you currently have and buying a CZ 455 in hmr? You’d probably be very happy with it. My 455 chambered in .22 mag is a shooter and built very well. I don’t think I’d ever part with it.
I havent thot of getting rid of my savage for a cz. Its not the rifle at all that leaves me wanting, just the cartidge. My 93 shoots awesome for me. Ive played with a cz in 204, i forget which model (ed: 527 varmint), and it was a heavy bbl. felt really good, but i just got too good of a deal on my tc compass in 204. If cz comes out with a 17wsm at a decent price i would def consider it at some point also though.
 
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Guys, just to add fuel to the fire...I have a ruger M77/17 WSM. Have had to return it thee times to ruger for work. They were good about sending me a box and free shipping but it just bothers me that I had to send it in TWICE for a head space adjustment. The bolt would freeze up and I could not lift it after firing 10-15 rounds. They finally got it to where I can shoot it but unfortunately, the accuracy is not what I would have expected. It is sub 1 MOA but I was really expecting to be able to clover leaf at 100 yds. Maybe I'm asking too much?? I've shot this from a very stable rest and I can get 3 rounds very very close but then I always have a flier or two. I've tried both 20 and 25 gr and every ammo manufacturer there is. They all have fliers. I have not used a chrono to see how much speed variability there is but someone wrote a good article talking about 200-300 fps variability which might account for my problem. I'm considering bedding it to see if this improves things.
One thing for sure, if the wind is more than 5-8 mph you are going to see an impact on the 17's in either bullet weight!!
 
Originally Posted By: bigdog1West Mass hunter, I call BS on your claim of no holdover out to 300 yards.
Dave

hey now. he admitted he told a little fib. he corrected it to no holdover at 287 yards.
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The 17 WSM, sighted zero at one hundred yards drops 4.1 inches at two hundred yards. I am guessing 10 or 12 inches at Three hundred. (Comments?)
 
the actual size of the clay pigeons were never given. maybe they were those giant 18" clays? lol

best just to let it go. anybody that knows a little bit of anything about ballistics laughed out loud when they read the claim. then they moved on. i have found you need to do that a lot on forums.
 
I have a 17wsm bmag with heavy barrel and Boyd laminate stock and also have a marlin xt17 bull barrel. I can’t remember the last time I took the savage out unless I took someone who needed a rifle. For the hunting/ shooting I do the wsm doesn’t really do anything more than the hmr besides be louder and cost more to feed, plus ammo isn’t as easy to come by where I am. Most of the gopher hunting we do here is driving stubble fields shooting them and without ear plugs the wsm really rings the ears compared to the hmr. To the point that some guys won’t let that rifle in their pickup.

I also agree with most the other posts that the bmag is not near as nice a rifle as the 93r17 or xt17 (basically the same) the bolt handle doesn’t seem positively fixed to the bolt and scares the stock. Accuracy is just so so, the rotary mags are no where near as nice as say a ruger style. If the resale wasn’t so poor I probably wouldn’t have mine anymore.

Can’t speak on the 77/17 but the few I’ve handled seem like really well made rifles! But they cost 2x a savage and 4x my marlin which has stopped me.

Not saying the wsm is a bad round but unless they’ve changed quite a bit I’d avoid the bmag
 
I have had a Bmag skinny barrel since 2013 and have used it for coons mostly . My son and I do daytime coon calling and we usually get around 80+ per season. The wsm kills them just that much better than my sons HMR . I have a suppressor on it now and no ringing ears . Get the WSM , put a can on it and be quieter than the Hummers and shoot farther and with more authority as ballistics easily show . I got a buy on ammo @ 11:50 a box . That included shipping so Hummer ammo is about that anyway.
 
I have a Savage 93 17HMR w/heavy barrel and love it. My buddy has a Savage WSM, and after shooting it, I am not fond of it. The bolt design is weird and hard to get used to. My HMR is more accurate @ 100 yds.
If given the choice, I'd take my HMR any day. JMHO.
 
mihunter, guess we all have different standards and expectations but id be pretty happy with sub moa groups at 100 from a rimfire. The locking up after any amount of rounds is unacceptable though (with reasonable cleaning of course).

Originally Posted By: bigdog1West Mass hunter, I call BS on your claim of no holdover out to 300 yards.
Dave Just played around with the mpbr calculator a bit. Considering 3k fps, .185 bc and 1.5” sight height, hes all good with no holdover out to 283 as long as hes shooting at an 8” target. That is a pretty big clay pigion though.
 
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