21 Years of the 17 HMR

They called it the Hummer, and back in 2002, it was the talk of the SHOT Show and around the feed stores and over pickle barrels from Halifax to Hermiston. Marlin and Savage were building rifles and the hardest thing was finding 17 HMR ammunition on the shelves. Those of us who were used to buying a brick (500 rounds) of 22 Long Rifles for $10 gulped before forking over $8.99 for a box of 50, but we soon got over that. Hornady developed the 17 HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire) by necking down the 22 WMR case to accept a .172 diameter projectile. Twenty-one years later, the 17 HMR is all grown up.

My own rifle is the bolt-action CZ 452, which was first chambered for the 17 HMR in 2003. In those days, the gun retailed for $420. The first thing I did was install a set of Warne’s rimfire scope mounts and top it with a good scope. Here was a gun that would reach a lot further than a 22 Long Rifle and make a good shot that I could see in the scope.

What the 17 HMR did for me and my friends in eastern Oregon was increase our effective range on varmints like the Belding’s ground squirrel by a whopping 50 percent over the 22 Long Rifle. We call them sage rats where I live. Elsewhere, they call them squeaks and picket pins and gophers. They are thin-skinned burrowers, long-term hibernators and ardent eaters of the alfalfa, consuming an average of 14.3 pounds of forage between March and July. They are very satisfying to shoot with a 17-grain spitzer humming at 2,650 feet-per-second (fps). Place the bullet just right and the critter gets launched and there is so little recoil, the shooter can call his own shots. I’ve owned the rifle since 2005 and calculate the total round count at about 8,000 rounds.

Know Your Limitations

Wind is the biggest enemy of accuracy for the 17 HMR. A strong gust is going to blow a bullet off course past 100 yards. But that is part of the fun of shooting varmints anyway. There are times when shooting over a field of alfalfa when a 40-grain 22 LR or a 22 WMR is going to deliver more consistent first-round hits. But when the wind settles back to 6 mph or less, watch out sage rats.

It didn’t take long for a lot of us newly-minted 17 HMR enthusiasts to test the upper limit of the 17’s effectiveness. At first glance, I reckoned the 17 HMR would be a good rockchuck gun, and I shot a lot of them and so did my wife. The 17 HMR proved a good option in rather built-up areas because the tiny bullet tended to blow apart on a rock rather than ricochet and go spinning off into a new subdivision. Plus, the little bullet made a satisfying sound on a well-hit rockchuck, but the critters tended to get down their holes anyway. In those days, I learned to pack the 17 HMR for the rats and a 257 Roberts or a 243 Winchester for the chucks.

One day out in the Badlands, I shot a coyote that came in to the FoxPro at the 13-minute mark. It came in at a dead run like it had heard the call over in the next county and couldn’t be late for dinner. I had positioned the call so the coyote had to make a hard right turn to get to it and when it spotted the decoy it was broadside. The dog jumped over the decoy and snapped at it and was still airborne with the little whippy fuzztail decoy in its mouth when I shot it in the lungs with the 17 HMR.

It would have been an interesting experiment on how far a lung-shot coyote would go, except my friend, Lee Van Tassell, shot it a half-second later with his 22-250 and that was curtains for that coyote.

My friend, Darren Roe, a waterfowl guide in southern Oregon, was also an early adopter of the Hummer. He carried it everywhere for at least 10 years and, while scouting duck and goose layouts, he had ample opportunity to head-shoot his canine competitors. But Darren would be the first to tell you that the 17 might be sweet, but it’s not the best coyote gun.

If a hunter likes to eat rabbits, the 17 HMR is not the best choice either. It destroys too much meat. Choose a 22 Long Rifle or a 22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire when shooting for the table. I’ve never shot a badger with a 17 HMR, but I have shot one with a 204 Ruger and that was almost not enough gun either. No, we love the 17 HMR out West because it does one thing and it does it exceedingly well. It is dynamite for digger squirrels.

In the Rifle Rack

One of the first guns chambered for the 17 HMR was the Ruger Model 96/17, a lever-action rifle based on the Ruger 10/22 design with an 18-inch barrel. I never shot one, but the people that I talked to that owned them tended to keep them. Ruger took the 96/17 out of the catalog, but recently there was one on Gun Broker in new/unfired condition and the asking price was $1,500.

Today, there are a lot of 17 HMR options on the new and used gun market from the likes of Marlin, Ruger, Savage, CZ, Remington, Henry, Browning, Winchester, Volquartsen, Anschutz, Armscor, Steyr, Weihrauch, NEF, Howa, Alexander Arms, Rossi, Magnum Research, Citadel and Bergara. Revolvers and semiauto pistols are made by Taurus, Ruger, Smith & Wesson, Thompson/Center, Anschutz, Chiappa, Volquartsen, Freedom Arms and others.

If I was in the market for a couple of new 17 HMRs and who knows, maybe I am, I would strongly consider a lever action (can’t have enough leverguns) and either a semiauto or a straight-pull bolt like the Anschutz. I have tried several semiautos and the Alexander Arms is far and away my favorite in that category.

2.5 Million Rounds!

My friend, Justin Aamodt, who makes his home outside the bustling burg of Burns, Oregon, still owns the first 17 HMR he ever laid his eyes on. “It was a Savage with a sporter barrel and a plastic stock but it out-shot every 22 Magnum or 22 Long Rifle I’d ever seen.”

The rifle spoke to him about his mission in life. That was 21 years ago. Justin and his wife, Nikki, started their business that same year, calling it Predator Paradise and Diamond A Guides. It is their life’s work to take shooters to the fields where they can do the most good for the farmers that need to protect their orchard grass and alfalfa from the hungry sage rat.

Everyone he met that first year, Aamodt had to tell them about his new 17 HMR – he helped sell a lot of Marlins and Savages. Since that time, Aamodt calculated he has heard 500 rounds of 17 HMR cracked-off per shooter, per day, with an average of four at a time for an average of 60 days per year in 21 years – that’s approximately 2.52 million rounds of the 17 HMR going “BANG” in his hearing. “One day, I loaded 4,700 rounds of 17 HMR all by myself and we shot every bullet on the trailer that day.”

The thing that surprised Aamodt about the 17 HMR when it first came out was how accurate they tended to be. “To be able to grab any 17 – and the manufacturer doesn’t matter – they all shoot, it’s either the scope or the trigger or the person shooting it that is the difference.”

Barrels can be finicky. “The Savage rifles, we clean them every 100 rounds with a snake and we can do that 10 or 15 times before we do a deep cleaning. And I only clean the direction that the bullet travels from the chamber to the muzzle.” The Anschutz 1727 is Aamodt’s favorite action. “I got to see the first three that were ever brought to the United States.”

Aamodt took Jochen Anschutz and friend, Jerry Russell, to a freshly rototilled field that was loaded with sage rats. He loaded steadily through the morning while Anschutz and Russell stayed behind their guns, making hit after hit. Midway through the morning, Jochen Anschutz started banging his fist on the counter saying, “Das ist ver gut! Das ist ver gut!”

The advantage of the 1727 model is the straight-pull action and how a shooter can stay on target while working the bolt. “You can take someone who doesn’t shoot that much and put an Anschutz in their hands and they are instantly staying on target,” Aamodt said.

Aamodt’s favorite load right now is the Hornady 15.5 which is a non-lead option. “They seem to be as accurate as the 17-grainers with less drift. This is kind of strange, but they certainly don’t have more drift. Maybe it’s that it’s almost 2 grains lighter and it’s faster and if it hits a blade of grass, it comes apart. Very safe. Very accurate.”

Ammunition Offerings

If we had known in the early 2000s that the price of 17 HMR would soar to $19.99 for a box of 50 in 2023, we might have laid in more supply. Out here in Oregon, it can be downright difficult to find 17 HMR in the store and nearly impossible in April.

Today, ammunition is produced by Hornady, CCI, Federal, Norma, Remington and Winchester. Most of the 17 offerings I was able to find in a recent search are manufactured and labeled in one plant in Lewiston, Idaho, while I believe Winchester makes its own. Still, there are a lot of options including 15.5-grain lead-free, 16-grain TNT Green, 17 grain and 20 grain. Here in Bend, Oregon, I can’t seem to get my hands on the lead-free, but it is available from online retailers like Midway USA. A box of 15.5-grain Hornady NTX goes for upwards of $20 to $23 (.40-46 cents per round) while the CCI 17-grain Speer TNT goes for $16.99 (.34 cents per round).

I stopped in at the local major sporting goods retail store and found zero boxes of 17 HMR on the shelf. When I went to a discount store downtown, they had ample supply, all in 20-grain offerings. I paid $12.99 (sale price) for a box of 50 Hornady XTP to take to the range.

At the Gravel Pit

I took the CZ 17 for an August workout with a clean barrel and five boxes of Norma, CCI and Hornady, which included polymer-tipped, hollowpoints and full metal jackets. I wanted to see what accuracy I could expect in field conditions approximating how we shoot in the spring when the critters are in the crops. I also wanted to see if my barrel was worn out or not. I knew which bullets I preferred (the CCI 17-grain jacketed hollowpoints) but I wanted to know what the gun liked best.

The current scope is an Alpen Apex 4-16x 44mm. I cleaned the objective lens, adjusted the parallax to 100 yards and set out my target. The gun was rested on an MTM Quick Rest padded with a pair of elk skin gloves. I used a bag to steady my elbow. I fired five shots with each load then cleaned the barrel when I changed the targets. To finish, I cleaned again and fired a full series of three-round groups.

CCI’s 20-grain full metal jacket was the most accurate load in this barrel with a group I could cover with a quarter. The Hornady 20-grain hollowpoint XTP was second best. My favorite bullet, the CCI 17-grain jacketed hollowpoint, shot the poorest, averaging 1½ inches in five shots. No, the barrel was not worn out. My assumptions were worn out. Sandbags or a machine rest would have helped tighten the groups, but what was obvious was that with a little work on the trigger I might have a more accurate rifle. Back home, I measured the trigger pull at 4 pounds. With a 3-pound trigger, I could probably hit more diggers next spring.

Ruminations: From Whence Came the 17 HMR

Betwixt the 22 LR and centerfire 17 Remington, there was a void the size of a corn-fed Nebraska prairie dog in the offerings available to the dedicated (or soon-to-be-dedicated) varminter.

The 17 HMR developed out of a desire to meet and exceed the ballistics of the 5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum (manufactured 1970 to 1974). The 17 projectile was an easier project to work on because 17 bullets were commercially available. The 22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire was already a winner in the marketplace so its case was the logical parent for this new kid on the block. All that was necessary for early adopters like Marlin, Ruger and Savage, with 22 WMR firearms in its catalog was a simple barrel change.

Optics for a Varmint Rifle

The old adage that you spend as much on your optics as on your rifle is still in play with the 17 HMR, but the main consideration is a wide adjustment range.

I find myself changing magnification a dozen times in a morning, dialing down for a 20-foot shot, then cranking to 16x on a critter at the fence line at 200-plus yards.

If I was selecting a new scope for the CZ right now, a 4.5-14x would be about right, but I would like to try it first in the store to make sure the adjustment ring is not too tight. Another consideration is ease of focus and parallax adjustment. For varmint shooting, I want the image crisp and tuned to the yardage.

Then There’s the 17 Mach 2

Following the success of the HMR, Hornady launched the 17 HM2 (Hornady Mach 2). This one is based on the 22 Long Rifle Stinger case necked down to 17. The Mach 2 also employs a 17-grain projectile with velocities out of a rifle averaging 2,100 feet per second. The result is a flatter trajectory than a 22 Long Rifle and effective range out to 175 yards or so.

During the latest ammunition crisis, there were months when the 17 Mach 2 was the only thing on the shelf. It is also a great rimfire option and if a person lays in a big enough supply, it can make sense to pick up a new rifle. As if you needed a reason.

Gary’s latest book is Bob Nosler Born Ballistic. For a signed copy, send $30 to Gary Lewis Outdoors, P.O. Box 1364, Bend, OR 97709. Contact Lewis at garylewisoutdoors.com.