On a lighter, less intelligent note, I have fired .17 HMR's out of my .22 Mag Sportster (don't ask) and could not hit anything.
OK, since you asked (I said don't ask!!) here is how the above Faux pas came about. At the time I had both my .22 Mag Sportster and my 17 HMR set up exactly the same way, they looked almost identical. I grabbed my .17 HMR ammo and what I thought was my .17 HMR Sportster, along with a couple of shotguns and some slugs and off to the range. After I finished the few slugs from each of the shotguns I then grabbed the rifle, put in a .17 HMR and expected to hit the target, not a mark!!. I shot a couple more and then walked down expecting they were all in one hole in the center (only 50 yards to start), nothing on the paper.
I bore sighted it, right on, meved the target up to 25 yards, nothing. Only by luck did I notice there were no .17 fired cases on the ground behind me. But there were, only they were blown out to look like .22 caliber cases...not to good on the accuracy department, .17 HMR's out a .22 Mag rifle....<><....
(to this day I don't know why I did not notice my error when I boresighted it)