I posted this the other day on Rimfire Central concerning my new rifle and hope you don't mind I just copied and pasted the same posting:
Mossberg 817 did not meet my expectations. Yes that's right. The model 817 Brazilian import .17 HMR failed to meet even one of my expectations! I expected it to have a horrible trigger pull because it cost way less than what I really wanted- a Savage or Marlin heavy barrel. But the trigger pull was quite nice. Iexpected it to not even hit paper at 50 yards because I had not bore sighted the BSA 3x9 that I mounted- but it hit paper and was about 6 inches left and 1 inch high. Wind conditions were not good so I really was not planning on sighting in too closely on this trip. I expected to group very large if I did find the paper but found that the shots were grouping well and followed my scope adjustments well. I walked it into the bullseye area of the target and left it at that for the day. Groups in the half-dollar range and with proper cleaning and breaking in and ammo experimentation I hope to get it down considerably. I expected to have a couple of FTF but dang it every round fired like it was supposed to. I also expected the rounds not to cycle with the bolt very well but again I was wrong. The 5 rd mag feeds well and the bolt cycles well and extracts very well. I am very excited about this purchase and look forward to a happy future with the .17 HMR. What a neat little round. I still want the Savage Heavy barrel and am going to try to buy one in the Spring sometime.
