How far have you stretched the .17 HMR

stretching the HMR

I have shot mine out to 325 at tagets and their energy is very low by the time they get out there. Any wind at all will throw you off of a 2' x 2' box and the bullet will stop before going all the way through wadded up newspapers in the box. Amazingly the 17 grain hornady v-max does show signs the plastic tip is starting the expansion process, but nothing more that a slight bubble in the jacket. I've heard tales of people going further but the ones I have personally heard got a flag waived at them due to the informants history. Good luck
 
Leatherman, I did the same but at 225yds. Unfortunatly not a spine shot either. Without going into detail on that I won't be repeating shots on any GHs that far with the 17gr ammo anyway. It's hard for me to imagine the heavier ammo wiill do much better.
 
We got a rockchuck at 290 with one but it took two hits to finish it. I wouldn't do it again, ~200 is the max effective range in my opinion depending on conditions.
 
Interesting, you guys seem to have had similar experiences to me, my longest shot is a rabbit at 237 yards, spine shot, it killed it but due to that and other 200+ shots I have decided that 200 is the maximum range of .17HMR,

I am on the verge of deciding that it has no place in my collection and just sticking with the .223
 
i hope you guys get this .new to site and amnot sure if it comes back to the top . i have several crow in the 350 range and 1 at an extimated 400-450 or so it was last fall and i forget the rangefinder reading it was 14 clicks past the 300 yard zero and i did this in front of 2 friends saying i was nuts for trying i had 31'' of deflection dialed in for wind and i zinged it down range and 5 crow flew and the one stayed ..........not dead but hit it took another shot at around 375 to kill him ( he ran diagnally toward me ) i am reloading them now and this spring i am going to try a home turned slug for more effects i built 500 slugs of wax coated iron for pure penitration . spring is nearing .i will be posting on you tube .
 
Farthest kill was a groundhog at ~225 yds. Farthest on target hit was ~275 yds. I just can't seem to get the lil .17 shoot farther then that...I agree with you guys on the killing distance though. I won't shoot anything over 200 yards again. Just doesn't have the punch to efficiently kill anything past that. Thats what the .204 is used for! gun)
 
Me and my brother where shooting @ 220 yds. the other day, and a 5" group was about the best we could do, and we shot some about 8". The wind was variable @ 1.1 - 4.7 mph and switching from 3 - 9 o'clock at our shooting location. Who knows what the heck it was between us and the target lol! We got about a 10" drop @ 220 yds. Height was perfect, but the wind blew the shots all over horizontally. We were using mildots to hold, as dialing a scope in that wind would be a nightmare.

The furthest shot on a groundhog was 160 yds. I shot it in the ear (on purpose) and it dropped right there. Past 200 the wind seems to run your life. I am hanging on to this gun though, as it is "cheap" to shoot and is great for practice. I have a 222, 22-250, and a 220 Swift for extended range.

Continue to have fun. As always.
 
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I've shot mine on steel out to 400 with mixed results :). To say that any amount of wind plays havoc is an understatement. Took it out to 550 and couldn't figure out where I was hitting, even on a dirt bank :rolleyes:. Even at 400, all that little pill did was make a 'poof' of orange dust on the bulls eye of our plate. Fun though. Never tried it near that far on fur.
 
The first year I had it there where a few hits past 300 on prairie dogs but have since limited shots to 150 or less due to it inability to kill effectively. The 17HMR has settled in to be my warm up gun...It doesnt seam to scare the dogs as bad as a centerfire.
 
I do not think this counts as the longest shot but I hit a turtle at 411 yards. This is the deal though it was a loger head down in a pound and I shot it off the back porch and i will admit there was not skill involved at the time just luck i turned my scope up 300 and held a a liitle high ( like i said all luck). the funny thing is it did not even bother to turtle but i did see the bullet hit. My cousin was beside me with my 223 and and once we relized what happend he went for the head shot and made it. Then we went to see what the 17 hmr had done from what i could tell the bullet did no even come apart had pretty much knocked a clump of mud off the shet and ther was just a little chink dead center of there the mud hand been knocked off
matt
 
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