Originally posted on the Accurate Reloading Forum.
Reproduced here with the author’s permission.
by Alberta Canuck (2/17/07)
Let me start by saying I do not own or shoot a .17 HMR of any make or model, so I am not grinding ANY axe here.
Having said that I have an observation about the .17 HMR anyway.
For the past 5 years, our club has held a Rimfire match on the first Saturday of every month. For the first 3 years I was match director at every match, and have kept an eye on the matches since then.
The course of fire requires shooters to fire one shot at each of 30 or more small circular pasters (1/2" diameter) at ranges of 25 to 100 yards. Hitting the paster counts "10", missing counts "0". There is a dot in the dead center of each paster, but it is used only to break ties just like the "X" ring in a standard target.
These matches are open to ANY Rimfire rifle and ANY Rimfire cartridge, including the high dollar match rifles and/or large diameter Rimfire cartridges. They are fired from bench rest. No one has ever shot a .41 Rimfire in them, but there have been many .22 Mags used, as well as the whole gamut of .22 LR guns shooting $10-$12 per box ammo.
Until the advent of .17 HMR in these matches about 12-to-16 months ago, no one had EVER fired a perfect score in one of them, despite using Eley Gold and similar ammo in Anschutz M-1813, Winchester 52, Remington M37, BSA Mark V Martini, and other similar rifles.
Now that the .17 HMR cartridge is commonly in use, perfect scores are common at these matches, with about 75% of the shooters hitting ALL of the pasters in every match! Every match for the last 6 months has had to be decided by "X" count.
In fact, we are seeing the occasional match where scores such as 300-29 X are posted. It won't be long, I'm sure, until we will start seeing 300-30X scores.
And what are these shooters firing their super high scores through? Well, Marlins, Savages, some pretty ordinary, rather inexpensive rifles. That, we think, is great because it makes it much less of a high-dollar "spending game" and has people competing who never would before.
It has even gotten to the point where we are now setting up two classes in the matches:
1) Any .17 HMR
2) Any Other Rimfire.
Any of you sage rat shooters or informal field plinkers who have been wondering if the .17 HMRs are really that much more accurate than the .22 Rimfires might ponder that a bit.
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Excerpt from another post:---snip--- What ever you do, DON'T EVER SHOOT A 17 HMR. What ever you thought you knew about 22 rim fires, and loved about them, will be lost forever. It's like dumping your wife for Miss America.
Posted by R Long
