Experience with the .17 WSM?

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Kookla

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Just wanted to see if anyone here has any experience with the .17 WSM. Haven't heard too much about it.
 
I have one of the second run of stainless B-mags. I dropped it into a Boyd’s thumbhole stock and added an aftermarket bolt handle. I prefer the 25grn load, but both hold ~1moa out to 200yrds for me without sweating (even despite the abysmal scope I have on top of it).
 
I have one of the second run of stainless B-mags. I dropped it into a Boyd’s thumbhole stock and added an aftermarket bolt handle. I prefer the 25grn load, but both hold ~1moa out to 200yrds for me without sweating (even despite the abysmal scope I have on top of it).


Friend of mine has one of the newer ones, got it a few months ago.
His will also easily hold moa, tho neither of us has had a chance to shoot it outside of about 120yds. I can't remember which load hes using, but it vaporises cans of water which I find extremely amusing. It's also good at making shotgun shells, and other small things on the 100some odd berm vanish.

The stocks alright but it feels like an axis, and the bolt handle is pretty awful.
If I were to get a .17wsm, it will probably be a Ruger, tho I'd bet the goofy Savage is more accurate........tho again I can't say for sure haven't used one of the new 77/s
 
I had one and I tried to like it but it just isn’t quite what I was looking for.

17 cal only has lightly constructed bullets is my first gripe. Where I live, there a few tricky rules at certain places I hunt where you can only use a rimfire for hog hunting during certain parts of the year. I thought this was going to be the ticket.

In the end it is no better than 22 mag. 22 mag ammo is more available and less expensive and 22 mag is chambered in more rifles I like and not only bolt actions. There is a 17 WSM semi auto out there but it is custom or semi custom and costs big bucks.

It was accurate and had awesome range for a rimfire. I also used 25gr loads.

If some one necked up the .17 WSM to accept .224 bullets and someone loaded a 55-64gr premium weight retaining bullet for it then that would be my ultimate hog rimfire.
 
Had one of the early HB Stainless in synthetic stock, it did well to hold an inch at 50 yards, tried every trick the folks on RFC came up with and no real improvement...resigned to live with it which mostly meant shooting my .17hmr's instead. Then I caught a lightly used CZ 527 Varmint in .17HH, it shoots literal 5 shot bugholes as in sub 1/3 MOA most of the time., sold the .17wsm. Later picked up a MGM .17wsm barrel for my Encore, took 'em two trys but its now as accurate as the .17wsm guys have claimed theirs were. A okay round in search of a better home than the Savage in my opinion.
 
This was fired about as quickly as I can, at 200yrds. 8 shots at 1.1moa in about a minute, I’m not complaining.

296F600F-1C1D-4F60-A9B6-F37F187D1032.jpeg

It’s not my favorite rifle in the world, not my favorite cartridge, but I bought it with the intent to try it out, do a review, and sell it - but as an avid small game hunter, I found it quite useful and handy, so I haven’t brought myself to part with it. Can’t quite convince myself to put a better set of rings and a better scope on it, but it desperately wants both - and a 1 piece base. I also wish I’d ordered a Pro-varmint instead of the lightweight thumbhole stock, but for what I ask it to do, it works well.
 
i came very close to getting a 17wsm when they came out, but early reports were not good. a friend had one that would shoot 8 moa groups, i believe it was the ammo. but i think i would get a 17 hornet over the wsm, unless i needed a rimfire. i liked the savage 25, but i am not to keen on new savages.
 
This really isn’t true, unless you’re never asking your 22mag to shoot past 150yrds. I generally never really recommend 22mag nor 17WSM, but I’ve found a handful of things I can do more comfortably with a 17WSM than I ever could with a 22WMR.

I should have said for me the 17WSM is no better than the 22 Mag. For my admittedly narrow range of use for such a cartridge, the .22 Mag serves my needs better. That is hog hunting in rimfire only circumstances. I can use 22 Mag for small game like squirrels too which is something I would never use a 17WSM for.

A varminter like you definitely has more utility value for it.

I really wish there was a .22 caliber based on the 17 WSM case.
 
I'm really surprised to see this thread because I was thinking of starting a thread this morning titled "whatever happened to the .17 WSM?". I was looking at Ruger's website today, specifically at the 77/17 and a quick search revealed that there aren't many manufacturers offering rifles chambered in .17 WSM.
 
I would have bought one IF it had ended up being 20 cal..

I had such good luck with the 5mm Rem. mag., I was hoping the Winchester would be an updated version.

I'll pass on a 17 cal. though...

DM
 
A super magnum rimfire round is best utilized by a small game hunter. Being released in a market where all hunting is on, and has been on the decline for decades just wasn’t pertinent.

I was amazed when the 17 HMR did so well a decade before, because there really wasn’t any greater drive then for small gaming than any time prior. We were on the upswing of a coyote hunting boom - talk about a boom!!!! - but the 17HMR was only ever called a coyote rifle by unwitting fools, even in that era. Nevertheless, it thrives. The fact the 17HMR was the only rimfire ammunition on the shelf for a few years following Sandy Hook also bolstered a lot of sales. It was also launched with exceptionally accurate Marlin, Savage, and Ruger rifles.

Alternatively, the WSM was launched in the Sandy Hook panic, and production was stressed to the max to keep up on bread and butter 22LR ammo. There wasn’t capacity to get it on the shelves - I kept mine well fed, but I bought out every box I could find for the first few years there before it leveled out. The early, poor reputation of the combination was back and forth between blamed on the rifle and on the ammo (blamed on both here within this thread even).

Personally, I never had an issue with ammo, and technically, mine is supposed to be one of those “bad early rifles” with the “incorrect twist to stabilize the 25’s,” and “rushed development which yielded improper chambers.” If these things are wrong with mine, I’ve yet to stumble across it... but hey, I’m only about 3,500rnds into it, have only tried shooting it to 500yrds, and only killed a few hundred bunnies, squirrels, badgers, and coons... mine shot “ok” in the factory Tupperware, but does better once it was stress relieved and mounted in the Boyd’s stock pictured above. I did see a LOT of B-Mags in the early runs with warped forends which pressed against the barrel, I’m told Savage would replace any which were reported. The bolt knob safety recall was sort of an oddity, but it was already irrelevant for mine, as I’d replaced my bolt handle. I did modify my aftermarket part to match the new profile. The new bolt shroud was much more appealing as well.

The ugly bolt handle, ugly shroud, and the odd cock-on-close design were bad choices on the part of Savage. The stock design as well, and the turned rings in the barrel just forward of the receiver. They tried out a bunch of Jetson’s styled “modern” aesthetic design features which simply missed the mark - AND coupled in a foolish cocking design. They threw all of that “retro modern” style into a rifle and cartridge which only would appeal to a small game hunter, who has no interest in such aesthetic. A swing and a miss...

They were smart to incorporate a rotary magazine which is reliable and low profile for the small game hunters who benefit from the round. Except for the fact they did so in a market which has a love affair with high capacity magazines, so the other 99% of the gun buying public was disappointed. Another easy pitch they let fly right across the plate... I assume they were hoping for an aftermarket producer to take up stacked high cap mags for them, but like most of their rifles with proprietary mags - that didn’t happen. Savage was pushing the “walking Varminter” line at the time, which largely didn’t pan out for them, and this model along with that folly...

For what it can do, and what I made mine into (which is effectively available now as a factory model), I love it as a midrange small game rifle. I wanna say there’s only $500 in that photo above, which is right in line for my tolerance for a walking Varminter “toy.” Could it be better? Absolutely. Is the Ruger 77/17WSM better? Eh, in some ways, maybe, but certainly not in others. Give me a stainless American Rimfire in a laminate pro-varmint style stock and I’d sell my Bmag and buy two Rugers that day...
 
I picked up one of the Savage pencil barrel rifles when Walmart was closing them out.

It's very accurate as long as I don't allow the barrel to get too hot. It packs quite the wallop and does wonderful things to the varmints and critters here in N. Texas.

I've really stocked up on ammo for it as various places have put it on closeout or on sale.
 
My experience showed that Savage takes very good care of their customers. I had one of the early sporters that had all the problems one reads about. In all fairness some of those problems may have been previous Bubba work. The rifle was replaced by the heavy barreled stainless. That was a good rifle. As it happened that trigger in untouched condition would allow accidental discharges. That rifle was replaced. Really did not shoot the last rifle much. Meditated on the 17 WSM. Just didn't care about fiddling with the rifle as the ammo was pricey. Nothing wrong with the rifle. I'd be tempted if another WSM came along as a good deal. Traded the rifle in on something I could reload.
 
My little brother had one of the early ones.
I wanted to like it, but it came in a trash platform.
Accuracy was great, on target performance was exceptional. Windage and elevation hold over was exactly half of the HMR.
It was very loud. If you shot once, it took a long time for the woods to come back to life.
If it came in something similar to the 93r17, it would make an excellent training rifle for kids.
 
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