Life before .22: the .17 HMR is a wimp-try the .17 Remington or the .19 Calhoon

Guns Magazine, Feb, 2004 by Holt Bodinson

We're a faddish lot.I predict the current rage over the wee .17 HMR will run its course, but it will have awakened a renewed interest in the sub-caliber bores. The sub-caliber bores--any caliber below .22-consist of a fascinating assortment of wildcats, factory and proprietary cartridges. The most popular calibers being the .14, .17, .19 and .20.

Although the .14 and the .20 calibers get a bit of play from time to time and James Calhoon has encircled the .19 caliber, it's the little seventeen that keeps going to the head of the class. I've often wondered if the gunmaking world's familiarity with the manufacture of the .177 caliber airgun barrel had anything to do with it.

Even the military of various countries had a go at the seventeen.

One of the most interesting facts about the .17 HMR is that the Swedes developed the same cartridge in 1978 for the MKR experimental assault rifle. Called the 4.5x26 R, this .17 cal/22 Magnum featured a 24-grain solid copper bullet. Obviously, it didn't go anywhere.

Back on the home front, under the U.S. Army's Serial Bullet Rifle Program, the. 17 SBR cartridge rolled out about 1970 for testing in a 3 shot burst assault rifle. And guess what? It was the .17/223. One year later, Remington introduced us to the .17 Remington--the nicest looking .17/223 one could ask for.

Wild And Wooly 'Cots

Actually, the .17 caliber craze began back in the 1940s and extended right through the 1960s. It was fueled by the endless experiments of the wildcatting clan and fed largely with bullets made by R.B. Sisk of Iowa Park, Texas. The basic cases began with a necked down Hornet and ended with the .22/250.

The names of the .17 caliber wildcats were as colorful as some of their developers--.17 Hornet; .17 Bee; .17 Mach IV (.221 Rem. case); .17 Pee Wee (.30 carbine case); .17 Javelina; .170 Landis Rimless Super Eyebunger (.25 Rem. case); .17 Ackley Super Pee Wee (.30 Rem. case); .17 Flintstone Super Eyebunger (.22/250 case). And yes, there was even a scattering of .17/.222s and .17/.223s.

The exploits of the early .17s made pretty heady reading. Designed to be varmint level cartridges, the. 17s were used on a variety of big game species with reportedly "magical" results. In fact, I do know a highly successful gun maker who uses the .17 Rem. for his elk hunting. He belongs to the "One Shot-Head Shot Club," and he hangs up an elk every year plus at last count had racked up over 900 coyotes with the little .17. Having said that, the. 17s are a delight to carry afield after small game, but they're not big game cartridges by any stretch of the imagination.

There's A Lot To Like

The strong points of the .17 Rem. have been its lack of recoil and its fast stepping, thin jacketed bullets that reduce ricochets to almost zero. To anyone used to shooting the centerfires, the experience of shooting a. 17 Rem. for the first time boggles the mind. Pressing the trigger, you launch a 25-grain bullet at 4,000 fps and actually see the bullet hit through your scope. True, other varmint cartridge combinations produce similar results but not anywhere near the sensation of the .17 Rein. or one of its wildcat kin.

When the .17 Rem. was launched, it picked up a lot of undeserved criticism about excessive metallic fouling. This may have been a legacy carried over from custom barreled wildcats. I do know that Ackley finally went to a three-groove barrel to reduce fouling; however, the .17 Rem. cartridge fired in a Remington 700 barrel doesn't foul any more than any other centerfire cartridge. In fact, I think less so. The problem may have been in the cleaning or maybe the lack thereof.

Seventeen caliber bores are small. The first thing you buy when you buy into the seventeens is a .17 caliber cleaning rod, brushes, and patches, I had to make my first one out of drill rod, but today Dewey and Bore Tech both offer excellent coated rods. The 36 inch Bore Tech rod is really too long and is a bit whippy. I favor Dewey's 11, 18 and 26 inch rods, and I would recommend you absolutely shun the use of non-coated rods in the wee, little bore.

The other rumor spread about the .17 Rem. was that it was highly wind sensitive, Looking at a petite 25-grain. 17 caliber bullet, one might intuitively reach that conclusion. but it's far from the facts. A fair comparison of wind sensitivity would be between the .17 Rem. firing a 25-grain Hornady HP with a B.C. of 0.187 at 4,000 fps and its parent. the .223 Rem. firing a 50-grain Hornady SP with a B.C. of 0.214 at 3,400 fps.

Zero them both at 200 yards, add in a 10 MPH crosswind and the .17 Rem. drifts 4.8 inches and the ,223 Rein., 5,3 inches. And drop? At 300 yards, the .223 has dropped 7 inches while the .17 Rem. has only given up 5 inches

Starting to sound interesting?

Today, we have only one factory load for the .17 Rem. It's Remington's loading featuring a 25-grain Hornady HP at 4,040 fps. Hornady formerly offered a loading, and Remington used to make its own 25-grain bullets. Now we have only Remington ammunition loaded with Hornady bullets Smells like a deal, doesn't it?