win71 -- LVT are such nice rifles...
Guvnor -- By "target shooting" I mean just casual benchrest shooting out to 100 yards. No competitions or anything like that. Just something to take out on the weekends and maybe occasionally hunt with.
I have a .22lr savage mark II with 4x scope that I shoot out to 50 yards with. But want something a little flatter shooting to use at 100 yards.
.22 LR maximum is 100 yds and ideal to 75/80 yds,
.22 WRM is max 150 yds and ideal to 125 yds
.17 HM2 is almost like the WRM maybe 15 to 20 yds more each category 165/170 and 140/145 and the
.17 HRM goes a good 35/40 yds past the WRM so you have 185/190 and 160/165.. all ± 5/10 yds depending on ammo specifics and climatic conditions…
Of course you can get farther distances with all the calibres mentioned but I consider those to be the optimal range and I think that 200 yds is really pushing it for the .17s...
One of my partners brought up his brand spanking new .17 HMR Anschutz Sporter Model 1517D HB and we mounted a S & B Zenith 3–12 x 50mm scope (off one of his hunting rifles) to try it out and just kick back and have fun with it…After sighting it in and getting one hole 5 shot groups at 25M we went out and we were taking rabbits easily at 128M/140 to 146M/160 yds trying to get mostly head shots and once hit they were down and down hard! But at 200M just 18 over 200 yds, even with head shots it took them longer to die -- to the point that when we walked up to there some of them were still alive (barely) and we had to finish them off this…occurred six times (solid upper body lower brain pan hits) out of nineteen rabbits at that 200M range and thirty nine in total were taken past 125M/136 yd…We also shot eight between 75M/82 yds and 100M/109 yds…
Total of forty seven rabbits out of 120 rounds (39.16%) the other 30 went to sighting in and test firing…with 8 of us shooting it…What a fine rifle that we couldn’t do better at…I have a .22 WRM and a LR in the 17 Series and am looking for a Mannlicher (full stock) version in both HRM and WRM…
Since we like the Euro stocked rifles we also had a CZ LUX and CZ ZKM FS Full stock in .22 WRM and a LUX in .22 LR with us as well and the two .22 WRMs got fourteen rabbits in the 60M to 90M range and the LR took six at around 50M…We used up a box of LR-- fifty (12%) and sixty five WRM (21.5%) as we were shooting targets of opportunity—caribou turds, dead flowers, stuff like that so our percentage is really low but we had great fun…
Sixty seven rabbits shot in just over 4 hours of goofing off fun…cleaned out (guts we’ll use for Fox that we’ll hopefully call in) , washed, dredged in flour and a mixture of crushed
Rice Crispies (45%) and
Corn Flakes (55%) and cooked in Rapeseed oil in a cast iron Dutch oven over an open fire…Served with a couple of ice cold Moosehead Lager some salad and fresh green cut beans and sitting on a stump to eat it…beats the best four star restaurant anytime!
Cost factor for shells is nearly the same between HRM and WRM, a buck or two one way or the other depending on maker...wait until a store like Scheel's, Cabela’s' etc have an ammo sale and stock up...So that shouldn't be a contributing factor...
Accuracy goes a little to the HRM but bullet BC goes to the WRM...Range is definitely the HRM but it's proving to not be a reliable killer at those longer ranges (200M) but gets about 25/30 yards over the WRM...I couldn't decide so I bought one of each, easiest solution now comes the dilemma over which one to take out for rabbits so I just rotate them...Find a make/model that fits you like a glove and buy that one...It just may decide it for you --otherwise just flip a coin...
