.17HMR Max Effective Range

[ez bake]

OK I use a 50 yard zero for 90% of the shooting that I do with the .17HMR. With this zero I hit dead center of a 1" circle with every shot. Now using the same zero at 100 yards I hit the bottom of the same 1" circle. So for all practical purposes the 50 and 100 yards zeros are the same. If ,for instance, your target area is a 2" cirlce then you can run that same 50 yard zero to around 120 yards and you will not ever "fall" out of that 2" target zone. As far as how the impact will be as if you shoot at something in the 20 to 30 yard range then you will hit high by as much as the height of your scope. I will test this but I am sure that using the same 2" target zone you should still be placing shots inside of that area. Just keep in mind that the level of accuracy that you desire may require you to do some adjustments to your scope. For most small game hunting a 2" target zone is about right.

Thanks for the intrest in this post. I am sorry that I do not have any new data to add at this time. I was unable to make it to the range over the last few days. I do however plan on making it this weekend and will post the results here as soon as I decipher my notes..............CHEERS

Man, you need a good spotting scope

Also, if you're looking for decent targets on a budget, look at Wal-Mart for those wooden sign-posts (little "garage sale" style thin wooden slats that you put in your yard - they have adhesive on them), and some of those aluminum pans from the dollar store (or Wal-Mart).

You get the "ding" sound, as well as some visible holes to use and it costs about $2 a target (no worries about steel plates at that point).

 

[Serenity Bushcraft]

MarcusR------ For my Savage 93R17 with a BSA Sweet 17 Scope I use a 50 yard zero for all of my hunting with the .17HMR. With the 50 yard zero I am able to put all of my impacts into a 2 inch circle out to 120 yards. For me the 50 yard and 100 yard zeros are very close. If I zero to hit the center of a 1" target at 50 Yards then the 100 yard impacts will be at the bottom center of the same 1" circle. Keep in mind the arc that the round travels as it exits the barrel. If, for instance, you shoot at a target 20 yards away then you may hit as high as 1.5". To be sure how your rifle impacts at various ranges you really need to get out and shoot at the various ranges that you expect to engage targets. The data that I am posting here is for "getting in the ballpark" for your own shooting. I highly doubt that anyone, including myself, will be able to exactly duplicate any of the testing that I have done or plan on doing. There are just way to many variables. But I hope that this test will allow others to be able to do the same thing without having to reinvent the wheel. CHEERS

 

[MarcusR]

Thanks for all the info. I will put all this to work this morning. I will let you know what happens. By the way I am shooting the same gun but with a bushnell scope.

 

[Serenity Bushcraft]

Sorry for the delay. I will be going out this weekend to get more info for everyone. Last night I decided to switch out scopes. So I am going to start from scratch on the data. It will be interesting to see if the two scopes track equally ( pipe dream ). I did this cause I needed to extra elevation to be able at having a shot at the 400 yard line. This is not a dead post by any means. It just that this is taking me a little longer to do than I had previously though. SO Monday you will have new, refined data........CHEERS

 

[Larry Morgan]

With a 100 yard zero, BSA sweet 17 scope mounted on a Marlin 917 VS, and the TNT varmint HP ammo, I was able to hit a bird in 2 shots at 275 yards. Pretty sure the wind was on my side (i.e. nice and calm). TBH, it was probably the most rewarding shot I've ever pulled off in my entire life. Haha.

 

[Serenity Bushcraft]

OK guys here is a quick update. This weekends weather was not .17HMR friendly. I had to rezero my scope and then reshoot for new data out to 300 yards. Where I was shooting I had gusting winds to 18mph and a steady wind of 7-12 mph. I got very few hits on my 12" x 12" plate past 250 yards. At the 300 yard line I was only able to put 3 out of 10 shots onto the target. So needless to say I wasted a few rounds. With a 10 mph wind the 17gr Hornady V-Max has 15.3 inches of drift at 200 yards. I can not find any data of what the wind drift is past that. From my shooting this weekend I will say that at 300 yards that wind was pushing me off target by as much as 30-40". If the winds had been steady then getting repetable hits would not have been that big of a problem. But the winds were erratic and varied from a full value right to left wind to a 1/2 value right to left wind. At times there was a 10-12 Mph zero value wind blowing from the target to me. It was frusturating trying to keep up with the wind and still take good notes for this posting. I am going to give this another try soon. So keep checking back from time to time over the next two weeks. CHEERS

 

[Rifraf]

OK guys here is a quick update. This weekends weather was not .17HMR friendly. I had to rezero my scope and then reshoot for new data out to 300 yards. Where I was shooting I had gusting winds to 18mph and a steady wind of 7-12 mph. I got very few hits on my 12" x 12" plate past 250 yards. At the 300 yard line I was only able to put 3 out of 10 shots onto the target. So needless to say I wasted a few rounds. With a 10 mph wind the 17gr Hornady V-Max has 15.3 inches of drift at 200 yards. I can not find any data of what the wind drift is past that. From my shooting this weekend I will say that at 300 yards that wind was pushing me off target by as much as 30-40". If the winds had been steady then getting repetable hits would not have been that big of a problem. But the winds were erratic and varied from a full value right to left wind to a 1/2 value right to left wind. At times there was a 10-12 Mph zero value wind blowing from the target to me. It was frusturating trying to keep up with the wind and still take good notes for this posting. I am going to give this another try soon. So keep checking back from time to time over the next two weeks. CHEERS

I don't have anything further out
than 200yds but I did whip up a range card with info and drops from varmint al

I used it for pdog last year and worked really good, got a dog at 300 yrds in 3 shots.
I have a vid from the trip it starts about 3:29 in, my step dad had a blast. At 6:19 is a pic of my 300yrd kill 6:28 is the pic back to the benches you can't see it to good in the vid but I have good digi pics if any one would like to see http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2892708/p_dog_trip/

 

[257wby]

Thanks for posting the range card! Handy

 

[Jeff_1]

wow, I thought I was doing good at 225 yds