who shoots a .17?

[FIJI]

I've been looking to add a 22-250 to the safe, but the guy at BassPro put a Savage 93R-17 in my hands yesterday. Ugly as sin in the camo version but comes with a Bushnell 3-9X for $315. Seems kinda hard to pass it up.

I want it for yotes here in MI, and eventually dogs if I can get back out west. I realize that I may have to eventually upgrade the glass. A buddy has one (not the butt-ugly version) with a Mueller 4.5-14 APV on top and he drives tacks at 100yds

any likes?
dislikes?

[toxic111]

I am hoping you are talking about a .17rem centrefire, not a 17HMR rimfire. The HMR is a little light for coyotes unless your shot is perfect in the head.

A 17Rem is a whole different animal.

[FIJI]

close range here in MI

[toxic111]

here they can be from 5' to 400yrds.. lol.. I would use the 20g controlled expansion bullets over the 17g ones though...

[FIJI]

I have my Browning A Bolt w/BOSS

zeroed for 400 yds :D

a bit much for the farmland I'll be hunting here. Plus its shotgun or rimfire only for night 'yotes

[Catfish]

The .17 cal. is great. I have a 17 AH and a 17 Mach 4 right now, but have had a 17-223 and a 17 Rem. in the past. I passed on a 300 yrd. shot at a coyote with the 17 AH, but had he been in around 200 yrds. I think the little 19 gr. bullet would have done the job. With any of the other 3 I would have taken the 300 yrds. shot in a heart beat. The key with the 17`s is useing the right bullet.

[FIJI]

bit the bullet today and picked up the Butt-Ugly Savage. The camo is even different on the gun vs the scope !
Cant wait to see how it shoots.

watch out coyotes!

[skeet]

I bought a butt ugly black Ruger with an Elite 3200. 250 bucks and got 2 boxes of ammo..it really shoots well. It is not..in my opinion a coyote rifle no matter what range. I also have a Mach IV which is nothing but a 17 Fireball. With the right bullet it is a 200 yd coyote killer...but for me it is a pain in the A** mainly when seating bullets..they be too small for my fangers

[Larryjk]

I have a customer who shoots quite a few coyotes with single shots. He has from the 17HMR, 17 Fireball, and 17 Rem. Also 22 Hornet and 218 Acklet Bee. He says if you don't shoot at least a .22 bullet of at least 52 grains, you should get used to watching coyotes get up from being shot and running away. He feels those are the treshold for calling coyotes.

[Jack]

I had a 17-223, built on a Rem 700 action, way back in Thee Olden Days, when Hornady didn't make .172 bullets, and a .17 was an odd beast.
I got bullets from a small custom bullet maker (might have been Charlie Sisk). The rifle did pretty well on woodchucks for a while.
But, back in those days, no one made 17 cal cleaning rods- no one I knew of, anyway. The standard bore cleaner was Hoppe's #9 - again, the only one I knew about.
I ended up trying to clean that rifle with a long chunk of brazing rod and Hoppe's on a patch. Lots of soaking and scrubbing. One day's woodchuck hunting required about a week of cleaning- soak 12 hours in Hoppe's, run a few patches, repeat. Being the early days of .17 caliber barrel making, the bore was not the smoothest I've ever seen, and the rifle was a bad fouler.
Loading data? HA! Loading data was mostly non existent. I must say I learned quite a bit, experimenting with that rifle- mostly, what bad things can happen when you do things wrong!
I finally concluded that the rifle was more trouble than it was worth, and peddled it.
I'm sure things are far different now, with bullets, factory cases, cleaning equipment, and good load data available.

[Duffy]

I have a Savage .17HMR for woodchuck hunting.

[Larryjk]

Jack, I have a 17 Rem that I have come to terms with. I understand the frustration you had when no cleaning rods were available. I finally learned to clean mine to bare metal and then coat the barrel with moly. By only shooting moly treated bullets I can now shoot approx. 50 shots before I run a Kroil patch through the bore to get the powder fouling out and go back to shooting. This only happens about once a year anymore. The replacement is a .20 wildcat I made about 5 years before the .204 came on the market. It is the Death Ray. Put the crosshairs on a p-dog, pull the trigger and watch him explode. You don't wait long.