Which 17 for pest controll

[pastorp]

I've been reading on the joys & griefs of the 17 caliber. It depends on who you read. Some love it others hate them. Anyone use one enough to have a opinion. Rimfire & center fire both interest me at the moment.

I know I'm buying a left hand model for my grandson as soon as I can find one. Probably a HMR.

What's your opinion. Especially the 17 Remington for me.

[Bugflipper]

There's also a new 17 rimfire that uses nail gun brass. May want to see what the ammo for those are before commiting to the hmr. I read an article a while back but there wasn't any ammo out to see how much it was. Looks like a bridge between the hmr and 17 peewee.

[Oldshooter]

I like the hmr and the mach II and have both. my little mach II is a 10-22 conversion and the crows, rabbits, and squirrels hate it, Neither cartridge to me has a big enough bullet for anything much larger the hmr will just go out farther. Now the 17 super magnum sounds good with its heavier bullet.
 
http://17winchestersupermagnum.com/

[Bugflipper]

Here's that round I was talking about.
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2013/01/winchesters-new-3000-fps-17-win-super-mag-rimfire/

[SHOOTALL]

Never had a 17 CF , buddy did and after a few ground hog hunts went back to a 22-250. The 17 HMR I have and it is a nice gun/round very accurate unless the wind is high. Fun gun to shoot . Wouldn't care for the short one . The new one by Winchester looks best but I have not shot one.
 For pest control the light 17 bullets is a good choice for safety . It works on things as big as crows, fox, ground hogs and small yotes. One thing though it is louder than a 22 magnum if that is a concern.

[mcwoodduck]

I use the 17HMR,
Ammo is available.  The round works well on ground squirrels, rats, and other vermin.
I live in So California and the land is rocky.  I really like how the bullets come apart if they hit anything solid like a rock, where the 22 Caliber versions you hear the movie Zip zing of a richochet that you never know where they will end up. 
 

[D Fischer]

My son got a 17 rimfire several years ago. He love's it but the ammo is really expensive. I don't shoot rimfires much but when I do, I'll stick to my old mod 62A

[tuck2]

I m a 17 Cal fan and have used the 17 HM2, 17 HMR, 17 Fireball, and 17 Rem rifles.  I have a CZ varmint 17 Hornet ordered and should accurate rifle be made cambered for the Win SM 17 RF I ll get one.  If you are going after coyotes get a 17 Rem. Should the pest weigh less than a coyote get a 17 Fireball.  Most all of my shooting is at prairie dogs and I stopped using the 17 Rem for shooting them after getting the 17 Fireball.

[tobster]

In my experience the 17HMR has earned the reputation for being very accurate. I appreciate the fact that the bullets are super explosive as I shoot quite a bit in urban areas and don't want to worry about ricochets.  Most of the ammunition I have has been purchased on sale for around $10.00 a box. While maybe not cheap, I sure wouldn't call it cost prohibitive and it's kinda nice not picking up empty brass after each shot. Once you get your hands on one you will probably wonder what took you so long.

[mcwoodduck]

In my experience the 17HMR has earned the reputation for being very accurate. I appreciate the fact that the bullets are super explosive as I shoot quite a bit in urban areas and don't want to worry about ricochets.  Most of the ammunition I have has been purchased on sale for around $10.00 a box. While maybe not cheap, I sure wouldn't call it cost prohibitive and it's kinda nice not picking up empty brass after each shot. Once you get your hands on one you will probably wonder what took you so long.

+1 on the round.
The only thing I can tell you about the Marlin rifles is to buy the Stainless bolt action and not go with the 917V.  My buddy has the stainless one and I have the 917V.  The stainless has a real trigger and mine has a plastic one,  the stock is a little better on the stainless one and the gun is a little heavier and I like that.
What I saved on the 917V I will spend more to put in a steel trigger into mine than if I had not cheaped out and gotten the plastic trigger that has too much over travle in the flex of the trigger.  It breaks crisp but the trigger its self it squishy. 

[Oldshooter]

+1 on the Marlin, I didn't know the SS version was any different.
 
Like I said before my 10=22 conversion is a sweet shooter, a hundred yards is a hold on dead shot for it. If the ammo was cheaper I  wouldn't shoot 22 long rifle anymore. I just wish I could get an HMR in a semi auto like that.
 

[geezerbiker]

Perhaps I'm just a reloading junkie but I went for the .17 hornet.  I like the being able to roll my own loads...

Tony

[Bugflipper]

I've had the 17 rem for over 20 years I guess. It's a nice fur round and decent varmint blower upper round. The worst thing I can say about it is It's a little sensitive to gusty wind. I used to limit my range on windy days. Now I just leave it home alltogether and take a 17 ppc. It's not like a 17 rem blows off as bad as a 22lr in the wind. But if you are sitting in a big field and a coyote runs in you've got enough to deal with in leading him, kinda hard to do that and compute in the hold for wind as well when the shoot window may be very small.
I have several 17 wildcats including the mach iv which is pretty near a fireball in ballistics. I see the fireball as more of a hop on the hmr heals and try and ride out this 17 popularity kinda thing. They quit producing 17 rems to try and get the fireball more popular. The thing about it is you can load down a rem and get fireball velocities, while keeping accuracy. But you can't load up a fireball and get rem power. The rem will take down coyote 100-150 yards further than the fireball. Not knocking the fireball it makes a good little mid range predator round, just seems to be a lot of hype out there on it from Rem.

[petemi]

I had an H&R .17 HMR and I sold it.  I live in fairly open farm country and the wind blows hard 99.9 percent of the time.  It just drifted too far on the long shots.  I use my Handi .223 or .22-250 for the long shots and my Marlin and Handi .32-20s for anything inside 200 yards.  I prefer centerfires I can reload rather than factory rimfires.  My .22 mag. rarely gets used.  I can use a .32-20 at the same cost or less and tailor my load.

Pete

[SHOOTALL]

FWIW the new Winchester 17 ammo is around $15.00 a box of 50.

[petemi]

I have to sit down and do the math, but I think I can reload .223 for less than that.  The brass is paid for, so it's just primer, powder and bullet.  My wife and I shoot a lot .38s out of our maxis.  They seem to be cheaper to reload than buying rimfire ammo at today's prices...if you can find it.  The .32-20s are the same.  I couldn't afford to shoot most of my guns if I didn't reload.  Now, the same pressure that is driving up the cost of Factory Ammo is doing the same with components.  I'm sure the Obamaians won't be satisfied until none of us can squeeze a trigger.  I think all this recent government buying was just an expedient, no vote required, way to keep ammo and components out of our hands.  They need all that ammo almost as much as we need the flu.

Pete

[SHOOTALL]

I think the beauty of the 17 is the 17 - 20 gr bullets than won't cause as much down range damage if they are deflected and miss the target or won't pass thru. to do damage. This is more important in populated areas than open spaces.

[no guns here]

I think for ground squirrels and such, the range should be pretty short and the mach II sounds just about perfect.  I don't have any .17's but a couple are on my list...  any thing bigger than ground squirrels and such I'd jump up to HMR.  That new .17 Winchester Super Mag on the .27 power driver casing sounds pretty spiffy.  20 grains at 3000 fps is not going to get past the first impact with a branch, ground, rock or what ever.  I can't see any ricochet potential from that round.  Of course isn't that about the deal with any .17
 
 
NGH
 
 
 

[tuck2]

What size of  pests to be controlled and at what distance  they are shot  should be the main reasons when selecting a cartridge to be used.  There is not one ideal  cartridge  for shooting all the different  pests- varmints  located  and hunting conditions  in various areas within the United States.  That's why people may like different cartridges.  I m an old timer and have tried out 17 HM2, 17 HMR, 17 Hornet, 17 Fireball, 17 Remington, 204 Ruger, 22 RF, 22WMR, 22 Hornet, 221 Fireball, 222 Rem, 223 Rem, 22-250 Rem, 220 Swift, 243 Win, and some big game cartridges for shooting pest- varmints.  Even the lower power 17, 20, and 22 caliber air rifles  that I  have are at times are handy to have.  At any given distance shot the bullet or pellet must have the energy level to kill the pest-varmint shot. So which 17 cartridge for pest control , could be none ,or it could be any one of them.