.17 Hornady Mag Rimfire?

[coyotehunter 1]

I guess I'm a little behind the times! ###A "New for 2002" .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire? I was looking at the Hornady site and found it listed under new products. Who makes factory rifles chambered for this cartridge or is it custom only? It looks interesting with the V-max bullet, this is the first I have heard of it.
What Hornady has to say:
"Forget everything you know or you think you know about rimfire cartridges! The NEW .17 HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire) with the V-Max bullet delivers the kind of velocity and performance that will forever change your expectations of rimfire ammuniton".
$12.00 #83170 17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire
(Packed 50 per Box)
I wonder if it will stand the test of time or fall by the wayside.
ch 1

Hornady site:
https://gateway.hornady.com/web_store.cgi?p...ml&cart_id= (https://gateway.hornady.com/web_store.cgi?page=storehome.html&cart_id=)

[songdog]

Cool. ###I'd heard rumors but this is the first confirmation I've seen. ###I don't know who will have a production rifle ready first but you'll no doubt be able to get barrels for the TC Contender/Encores right away. ###I would also imagine that Ruger would rebarrel its 77/22M.

If it's what I've hear about it's pretty much just a .22 WMR necked down to .17. ###It should fall below the .17 Rem and .17 Mach IV but in the same range as the .17 Hornet class wildcats. ###Pretty cool if you can get 50 factory loaded rounds for $12. ###Could be a lot of fun for close range ground squirel work.

[coyotehunter 1]

Yep, from all I've heard in the past few days it is a 17 grain , .172" diameter V-max bullet in a necked down 22 mag rimfire cartridge developing 2550 fps Mv. It seems Ruger and Marlin will produce rifles. Varmint Al reported that Bullberry will chamber barrels for the contender. Develope a cartridge before the rifle , that's a new marketing idea.
I'll bet Ruger will offer interchangeable barrels for their 10/22 mags., ###a 10/22 switch barrel.

ch 1

[songdog]

This could be a dandy small game round up to about the size of a fox but I can already hear the contraversy on coyote sized animals starting...

If they make a 10/22M-.17 barrel it will finally push me over into getting one of those...

[coyotehunter 1]

Song dog,
I agree, I feel it would be useless on coyotes. To much of a chance for bullet blow up and surface wounds, but I know some will try it.
It could be a good varmint round on crows and digging rodents under low wind conditions, or those possum sized rats at the local landfill. ;-) ###
ch 1 ###

[Varmint Al]

This is from Hornady's site. Supposed to be out late Jan 2002 or Feb 2002. http://www.cctrap.com/~varmint/17hmr.jpg

[coyotehunter 1]

HEY, ###Varmint Al
When will you be getting your barrel in for the T/C?
I, for one, would like to hear how well the .17 HMR works on digging varmints.
ch_1

[spectr17]

NEW .17 RIMFIRES COMING -- Jim Matthews column 28nov01

First new rimfires since ‘59


### ### There probably aren’t too many people in this country who haven’t fired a .22 rimfire, and for most regular hunters and shooters, it was the round that began their education on firearms safety, shooting skills, and hunting. Because it is inexpensive to shoot and has great utility, the various .22 rimfires are the most popular firearms in this country. Literally millions of rounds of rimfire ammunition are fired each year.

### ### You’d think that with the popularity of the rimfire cartridges -- the standard .22 Long Rifle that has been around since the late 1800s and the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR) which was announced in 1959, that there would be more rimfire rounds out there. But since the 1950’s rimfires in other calibers and configurations have all but disappeared -- in spite of continued and growing interest in the .22 rimfires.

### ### Wildcatters, gun tinkerers who like to experiment with new calibers and cartridges to try to get improved performance or meet specific wants, have been especially restless about this lack of other rimfires. Since at least the early 1980s, there have been shooters tinkering with rimfire rounds for .17 caliber bullets. Most have used the .22 magnum case and squeezed the neck down to hold the smaller bullet. They boasted of greater accuracy, better trajectory, and less deflection by the wind than the parent .22 magnum round.

### ### Since 1986, when Rick Jamison wrote a long story on some San Diego-based gun tinkerers making peppy .17 rimfires, a number of other national gun writers have been beating the drum for some ammunition company to bring out a new rimfire cartridge in that small caliber.

### ### Well, its happened. Hornady Manufacturing Company announced this month that it would be marketing the new .17 Hornady Rimfire Magnum. That company’s loaded ammunition, along with rifles made by Marlin and Ruger, will be available early in 2002.

Almost concurrently, Aguila, a Mexican ammunition company, announced that it will also be making a .17 rimfire, with its ammunition to be available sometime before June next year. The .17 Hornady is based on the .22 magnum case necked down to hold a .17 caliber bullet that weighs just 17 grains, while the .17 Aguila is base on the .22 long rifle case, also necked down to hold a 20 grain slug of that same smaller diameter. Ballistics of the two new rounds are pretty dazzling, with the Hornady round sending the little bullet out the end of the barrel at 2,550 feet per second (fps), and the Aguila slug going 1,850 fps.

### ### For those of you who are not excited about this news, I have tried to come up with some comparison that will give you an idea of how this thrills the hearts of avid rimfire shooters, like me.

### ### The new Hornady round is especially dazzling. It’s parent cartridge, the .22 WMR has grown enormously in popularity in recent year precisely because factory new loads have driven lighter bullets at fast speeds. The original 40-grain slug only went out the end of the barrel at 1,810 fps, while the new 30-grain loads launched slugs at 2,200 fps in the .22 mag. This was a noticeable difference, like driving up Cajon Pass with a six-cylinder instead of an anemic four-cylinder or jumping a bra size from a B to a C cup and adding an inch or two. Noticeable! Well, the new .17 Hornady at 2,550 is like having a 300 horsepower, supercharged V-8 and staying in the fast lane right over the top of the pass, or a like being used to 36-Cs and seeing 42-DDs. We’re talking impressive.

### ### The little Aguila round takes its parent -- the .22 long rifle -- to a new level, too. The standard .22 rimfire throws a 40-grain slug at around 1,200 fps in most loads, so the Aguila’s 1,850 fps is the difference between a nice breeze and a Santa Ana wind. It’s howling. And it has a neat feature for Ruger 10/22 owners. Shooters can switch barrels back and forth, shooting the .22 or .17 caliber rimfire rounds on the same firearm, using the same magazine. It’s like having a sports car and a pickup truck.

### ### The two new .17 caliber rounds won’t replace the standard .22 rimfires. Like high performance vehicles and racy women, they cost their users a lot more than the standard models. Yet, a lot of shooters are sure going to have a lot of fun with the new .17s, and they’re a lot more sensible for a man’s mid-life crisis or testosterone-laden youth than a hot sports car or voluptuous woman.

[gizz]

Thanks for the add'l info Spectr17. I think this'll be a fun plinker!

[wildbirdhunter]

Songdog get the 10/22mag now as Ruger has stopped production on it for now. I have read and been told that one or maybe two barrel makers are going to make drop in barrels for it and the 77/22. Ruger and Marlin and maybe NEF are also going to make rifles for this round.

[songdog]

Thinking about it again... the drop in barrel for the 10/22 series or any semi auto may or may not work that well. ###They're all recoil actions (spring) so the rearward pressure exerted by the bolt face might be less than it takes to cycle the bolt with this new round.

It may be that the relative force is similar enough between the .22M and the new .17HRM but that remains to be seen. ###If it is, then you could drop in a barrel. ###If not, you'd have to change the spring too which isn't the end of the world but it's not just a quick do it yourself project for most folks.

Still sounds like a fun round even if you can't switch back and forth very easily.

[wildbirdhunter]

I don’t think that will be a problem but you never known. I know that a lot of the little tricks that are used on the 10/22lr to shoot low-pressure sub sonic rounds can be used on the mag. Most guys just change the angle on the back bottom of the bolt and polish the face of the hammer and the bolt bottom and that cleans it up a lot.