Hornady 17-Grain Vmax 17HMR

Big deal you might think; he’s looking at Hornady’s 17HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire) again. Well, actually it is; as if like me, you’re a long term HMR user, then you will have seen the quality of this super rimfire cartridge from some manufacturers degrade over the years. So much so that some shooters still wanting to retain the rimfire magnum edge have, or are considering going back to the old 22 WMR (Winchester Magnum Rimfire)!

Falling skies

So, what does the HMR offer? Firing a 17-grain A-MAX bullet at a quoted muzzle velocity of 2550 fps and energy of 245 ft/lbs, it’s quick for a rimfire! You get a near flat trajectory out to 100m and an effective killing range of 200m and a drop at this distance of 8-10”, depending on barrel length. My rifle is a Ruger M77/17 All-Weather, with its medium/heavy, 20” barrel, Rifle Basixs drop-in trigger and a custom thumbhole stock bedded and free-floated. Up top, a Schmidt & Bender 3-12x50 Zenith and up front the new Wildcat Panther 17 reflex moddy. With this rig, I have pulled of some good shots out to 200m, given the wind.

However, I have also fallen foul of the variable ammo quality too. With no powder loads that managed by primer power alone to seat the bullet in the rifling. Luckily, I could not chamber the next round but have heard of people who have with disastrous results. Add in fluctuating velocities and it’s no wonder this great calibre is in the doldrums, so who do you turn for quality, reliable ammo?

Who you gonna’ call?

But new to the UK is Hornady’s latest loading, as they have been conspicuously absent from this munitions race for some time. It’s not new; being the standard 17-grain A-MAX offering but it is a bit different in terms of performance, I sampled three boxes at random from a ½-brick of 500. Ammunition is well presented and visually consistent. My Ruger is capable of shooting ½” groups at 100m, which I tend to use as a yard stick for testing. Pulling out 3-rounds from each, I shot for group and velocity, with some surprising results.

Groups sizes hovered around ½” as to make no difference, so on the money in that area. Most surprising were the speeds, with the lowest going over the factory quote by 95 fps and the highest by 157 fps. The ES looked good, apart from the 99 fps, which is high. From these three, I got an average of 2676 fps/275 ft/lbs, which is impressive. As can be seen, bullet drop difference at 200 yards was 0.43”, which again is good enough for a clean kill. There were no cracked cases, which was common with this calibre, nor any other anomalies. Taking it into the field, I took a fox cub at 75 yards in the evening and it dropped it efficiently. I have to say that yes, the figures are higher than quoted, which I found most pleasing, as more energy on a fox is never a bad thing! But the original accuracy and general performance from the original Hornady HMR does not seem to have slipped at all.