Congratulations... and very kewl Dale. No doubt the 17HMR is a keeper for diggers, and is perfect for them same as it's little sister the 17HM2 is on smaller species. The second Hummer I bought is a Marlin too, but mine is a 17VS I got as soon as they came out in 2002. Gave it a Rifle Basix trigger, BKL mounts and had two custom 5-shot mags made for it before I every shot it. It's my favorite carry "Hummer" for walking up varmints. My first Hummer is the Bullberry prototype I had well before the ammo was even available to the public for sale. I got it and the ammo early to do some field testing for them. This is my long range Hummer off a rest, and is good to past 300 a ways.
Anyway, I enjoy hunt stories and pictures more than anything else I think these days. So I especially enjoyed your pictures that really show the lay of the land you hunted. It's beautiful, and so much different than what I hunt. Hope you don't mind but I'll add some pictures of diggers hunting out west with the Hummers.
1. A tiny Whitetailed Antelope Ground Squirrel shot off the Joshua Tree offhand at about 80 yards on a walking hunt. Box of Hornady V-Max for size comparison.
2. Typical Whitetailed Antelope GS habitat.
3. First test run of the Bullberry Hummer to see how the 17gr V-Max did on flesh on a friends ranch. These are Belding Ground Squirrels shot out the window of the truck from 150 out to just over 200 yards (laser ranged).
