Verminator 2.0

[MacTech]

A while back, I had "Verminator", a .22LR H&R Sportster with a Bushnell Rimfire 3-9X scope and Shooter's Ridge 9-13" bipod, great little gun, accurate, reliable, and fun to shoot, it netted me a big female woodchuck that had been raiding my small garden that summer, after that kill, I dubbed it "The Verminator"

a few months later, I was laid off from my job as a Mac repair tech, due to the bad economy and a *massive* drop-off in customer traffic, so I had to sell some guns to shore up my dwindling bank account, sadly, The Verminator was one of them

Things are looking up now, have a nice job with a stable, secure company that's actually *still hiring* in this economy, so I figured it was time to replace The Verminator

I had some Christmas money and a gift card to KTP to put towards the gun, I had a spare Bushnell 4-15X AO Trophy and the Shooter's Ridge bipod still around, so all i'd need is the gun itself

So, last night, I stopped in at KTP, and picked up a rather nice little H&R Sportster with the heavy .17HMR bull barrel, and in a departure from my normal firearm purchases, this one was new, plus, thanks to my Christmas money, it cost me nothing out of pocket

I got it home, attached the bipod and scope, and Verminator 2.0 was born , it's sure a heavy little beast as well, with the scope and bipod mounted, it tips the scales at 10 pounds, with all that weight and the heavy bull barrel, it should have no recoil at all

From what I've read about the .17HMR cartridge, and the HMR H&R Sportster, I think I'm gonna enjoy it, the inherent accuracy, the sheer fun of making produce get all 'splodey (potatoes, cukes, tomatoes, citrus and the like), and the terminal effects on woodchucks and other varmints

I love the heavy bull barrel, I think that it will definitely help keep the groups tiny, but I'm kinda' torn on the furniture, I'm a wood-and-steel kinda' guy (preferably walnut and bluing), the standard poly furniture the Sportster wears just leaves me cold, it's nothing special, plain, boring, and mundane, but it *is* durable and weather resistant, still, it doesn't have the warmth, character, or weight of wood

OTOH, in it's current incarnation, in it's poly furniture, it has a kind of "Sniper-y" EBR-esque look to it....

I'm leaning more towards picking up the Buffalo Classic furniture for it, give it a kind of "Mannlicher-esque" look, or maybe even a nice thumbhole stock and matching fore-end

Hopefully, if the wind left over from the blizzard will go away, I may be able to spend the long New Years weekend at the range trying out Verminator 2.0

Pics later...

[je265]

Congrats on the purchase. I assume KTP means Kittery Trading Post, I live about an hour away and my wife claims it is my home away from home. I have an older .17 HMR and also replaced the synthetic stocks with standard pallet wood monte carlo stocks. It is a fun rifle to shoot and as long as the wind isn't howling it is real accurate. You should be able to really test the accuracy with that scope you have, I only have a 2-7x on mine and mostly shoot 50 yards and in. At this distance I don't really exploit the potential of this round but I'ts alot of fun to mess around with.

[MacTech]

Ayuh, KTP=Kittery Trading Post, I live about 10 minutes away from them

And the pics;

[MacTech]

First range shots, after getting the gun more or less sighted in on paper (I had it boresighted at KTP to get it "on paper") it was pretty much dead-on from boresighting, needing only 4 clicks to the left and two clicks down, it required the least amount of correction of any rifle I had boresighted yet

here are the pics, in the order I shot them, all five shot groups with Hornady 17 grain V-Max cartridges





group #4 was the tightest one yet

My first shot in this group was absolute dead-center on the crosshairs in the middle of the pie wedges, at first I thought I had missed the paper, but then I saw that tiny .17 caliber hole....

Bear in mind this is from a *BRAND NEW* gun that I have never shot before...

It did take around 25 rounds for the gun to settle into the accuracy you're seeing here, and I'm sure it'll get better the more I shoot it

I resisted the .17HMR for the longest time, thinking it would be a fad, a flash in the pan, but I was wrong, the .17HMR is a bloody good round and is just as accurate as they say it is

Once I'm comfortable with 50 Yard shooting, I'll plan on doing mostly 100 yard shooting with the .17HMR, as it's too boringly accurate at 50Y

[MSP Ret]

Congratulations in the .17 HMR, you will find it VERY accurate at 100 yards and more. It is good crow, fox, and even coyote medicine at that distance with head shots (easy) or even a heart shot with the right ammo. I really enjoy KTP now. I did not like it after the redo a few years ago, preferred the old setup, but it has grown on me and I stop in every time I pass by headed north to my camp and than again headed southbound to get home. I'll be headed north to the camp again in about two weeks, so please don't buy every good gun there ....<><....

[MacTech]

What a difference a sunshade makes....





Strangely enough, the black poly furniture is actually ......growing.... on me, it may not have the warmth and weight of a nice walnut or beechwood stock, but it has a certain ....evil charm.... of it's own, and besides, at around ten pounds as you see it there, i really don't think adding any more weight would do anything other than making freehand shooting more difficult due to supporting a ten pound weapon

I think the only thing this rifle needs, aside from more ammo and more range time, is a set of flip-up caps, and that's mainly to protect the glass at both ends of the scope tube, this is going to stay a strictly *functional* rifle, I have no plans to "Tacti-cool" it out by adding a lot of extraneous useless add-ons, everything currently on it is on it for a functional reason

This is my precision/benchrest rig, I've tried supporting it on a front sandbag/rest and with the bipod, there's practically no difference in accuracy there, too many other variables, wind, temperature, shooter ability for bags/bipod to make any appreciable difference

Bipod; there for support when shooting from a bench, the ground, or other solid, flat surface
Scope; the HMR has no irons, so a scope is the only viable option, and as it's going to be used for both varminting and paper punching at ranges from 25 feet to 100+ yards, AO was a requirement
Sunshade; keeps lens flare to a minimum when varminting
Hammer Extension; needed to be able to thumb back hammer when action is closed

Since I'm looking for pure functionality with this gun, me putting wood furniture on it would be a purely cosmetic reason, and not a functional reason, so even though I prefer wood, in this case, wood furniture could be seen as a "useless cosmetic accessory", it does nothing that the stock poly furniture doesn't already do except look nicer

Bear in mind that the last paragraph is coming from someone who prefers wood and steel over the latest "plastic fantastic" craze, the only poly guns in my collection are this H&R, and my Ruger Mark II 22/45 pistol, everything else is in wood furniture

[bigbird09]

I as well prefer the look of wood over synthetic,  but I'm also a function over form kinda guy as well.  So for a git'r'done no holds barred field rifle synthetic takes it.

[Shu]

Sweet looking rifle, hope it brings years of enjoyment.

The tax man didn't take all my loot so I am going to have to slip out and get one of these.

[bobg]

  I painted my 17 HMR a sand color. Stuck some stencils of maple leaves and beagles on it and hit it with a coat of camo green.
   It doesn't look to bad. Kind of got the idea from Stimpy.