ANOTHER .17 cal, the Mach II

[Hutch]

Well, I thought the .17 HMR would die a death like the 5mm Rem Mag. Wrong as usual, boyo. Well, a friend gave me a Shooting Times rag that features the brand newest of new-new calibers, the .17 Mach II. It is a .22LR length cartridge utilizing the same bullet as the HMR, a 17gr Vmax. There were many test-bed guns shown for it, and it is expected by the author to exceed the HMR in popularity and distribution.

Wow.

 

[Snowdog]

I don't know much about, but if Marlin were to offer it in their model 60 for under $150, I'll buy it.

 

[snubby]

With rifle velocities about 2000 fps, resulting in a much flatter trajectory, the .17 M2 outdoes the .22 LR by a good margin. Its price will keep it from being a "plinking" substitute for the .22, but for hunting purposes it could find a nice niche (though one must ask: why not just get the .17 HMR if one wants to buy a new rifle to launch 17 gr. bullets?). Now if they made a Ruger Single Six in .17 HMR with .17 M2 interchangeable cylinders, that could be interesting...

 

[mtnbkr]

Since the dimensions are similar to the 22lr, you can rebarrel a 22lr rifle in the .17MKII. I may do that to my Ruger once barrels are available.

Or, I could just get the Marlin 60 chambered in .17MKII.

Chris

 

[blue86buick]

I'm looking foward to Ruger 22/45 barrels in the .17M2...and one for the lil P22 also, but that's a gun I don't have (yet). I'm sure there are folks out there who would love to have a replacement barrel for their 22/45's or Mark II's.

 

[Rupestris]

Or, I could just get the Marlin 60 chambered in .17MKII.

Not a bad idea but...
Hmmmm... I wonder if I can get a custom replacement barrel for my Nylon 66 in .17MII

 

[Chuck Dye]

I think the real test of the .17 Mach 2 will be whether cast or plated cast bullets will run without excessive metal fouling. If they will, having plinking priced ammo available for play and practice and the V-Max ammo for varminting will have me rebarreling my 77/22.

My fleeting acquaintance with the .17 Remington was with one owned by a friend who tolerates, even enjoys, all of the nuisances of wildcatting. The hassles of metal fouling in the centerfire .17 eventually led my friend to rebarrel the rifle.

 

[swingcatt]

Does anyone know if we are going to be able to buy 10/22 barrels in .17 Mach II? AFAIK, that is about all you'd have to change to be able to use that round. One of those barrels, plus the Butler Creek break down stock would be one heck of a portable squirrel gun.

SC

 

[Sarge111]

In practical terms...

I guess I just fail to see the point of all these 17's. Too destructive for small game, bullets too light and frangible for anything the size of a groundhog on up- and a real stretch for coyotes, unless yours locally are trained to stand broadside and still as a statue.

The aforementioned can all be done with passable success, using a plain old .22 LR, and quite handily on the upper end with a .22 mag. In fact, I can take a garden-variety .30-30 and load roundball squibs for small game, 110-125's for varmints (at velocities that'll embarrass any .17RF) and still kill all the big game I want with it.

I'm not 'flaming' here, or making fun of anybody's favorite new gun or load. Heck, if the ".17 Anything" gets more folks out shooting, and thinking about their vote come November- then I'M all for it. But I am waiting for somebody to tell me what the 17 will do significantly better than the old stand-bys.

Have there been attacks by terrorist pigeons that nobody has told me about?

 

[Chuck Dye]

Why? Why not?

My interest stems from trajectory. Using a 2 inch vital zone (±1") the calculated maximum point blank range (MPBR) for the Hornady and Eley .17 Mach 2 is 123 yards. The Eley Rabbit HV Solid, the hottest 40 grain .22LR solid I have easy access to, has a calculated MPBR of 87.5 yards. The CCI Mini-Mag +V, my favorite .22LR hollowpoint, has a calculated MPBR of 91.2 yards. That extra reach seems worthwhile to me. The catch is cost: I dislike the .22 magnum and .17 HRM because they have centerfire prices without the reloadable case. If, as I wrote in my first post, the Mach 2 will run conveniently with cast or plated bullets at ±.22LR prices, I will either convert the 77/22 or buy a new rifle in .17 Mach 2.

 

[Sarge111]

Sounds reasonable to me...

I am just old enough to recall all the pomp & glitter that surrounded the introduction of the 5mm Remington RF, which was actually a pretty reasonable little cartridge by comparison. The new .17's, however, have sure suffered no lack of acceptance by today's shooters.

 

[Chuck Dye]

As I recall, the 5mm Remington Magnum ran with the .22 magnum, launching a 38 grain bullet at 2100fps for .22 magnum prices (circa 1970, not at today’s prices for 5mm RFM, well over $1/round!) Nice, but still subject to my complaint about cost.

Given the rebirth of the 7mm Express as the .280 Remington and the .244 Remington as the 6mm Remington, perhaps the .17 HMR and .204 Ruger will bring us a "new" .20 Remington Rimfire Magnum.

 

[Iain]

This one could provoke some interest over here too.

If it is based on the .22lr I don't see how the govt. can classify differently to the .22lr and yet it hopefully will provide target shooters with a bit more range.

 

[Harry Tuttle]

big .17HM2 article in the May, American Rifleman

24 inch barrel does 2100 fps at the muzzle with 3 grains of powder

 

[DougCxx]

There's two reasons for justifying the 17 rimfires:
one is that copper-jacketed bullets are more accurate than cast lead heeled bullets,
and the other is that spitzer bullets feed more reliably than lead roundnose bullets do in semiautos.
.......
Of course they could have simply used 22-cal jacketed bullets too--but 22-cal spitzer bullets would be considerably heavier than regular 22LR bullets, giving lower velocities. So the only way to keep the velocities up was to make the bore smaller.
.......
At least one will be able to buy a semiauto pistol in 17 H2, as (strictly speaking) all converting a 22LR to 17H2 requires is a barrel change.
Only one company (Excel Arms) has a conventional auto-loading pistol in 17hmr/22wmr planned, and it is at least six months behind schedule already. (their rifle and 1911-conversion seem to be out though)
http://www.excelarms.com/
~

 

[El Rojo]

I personally don't see the point in spending over $2 a box of 50 for your cheap short range squirrel killing gun. My Ruger 10/22 does everything I want it to do around the 50 yard mark. If I wanted to shoot it further, I could do just that. However, once you talk about getting past 100 yards, that is why you go to more expensive calibers. I just got a .223 for my longer range work and before that I used my .308 with 110 gr. V-max. Yeah the .17 HMR is cool and I hear it is a sweet little round, but the .17HMR2 just doesn't sound like something I would want to spend extra money on. Winchester 40 gr. PowerPoints do just fine on the squirrels and the last two boxes I bought were $14.50 for 500 rounds. What will a 1000 rounds of .17 HMR2 or even .17 HMR run you? Heck even .223 reloads are cheaper than the .17 factory stuff.

Now if you got the money, go for it! Sometimes I justify my purchases based on need, sometimes I justify them based on me. It is all good.

 

[George Hill]

What? A nother new much hyped cartridge that doesn't really do anything new or special?

No way!

 

[Poodleshooter]

Does anyone know if we are going to be able to buy 10/22 barrels in .17 Mach II?

Green Mountain expects barrel available by mid summer. I'd expect Butler Creek and Midway's Adam's and Bennet line to have them around the same time for somewhere around $120.
I haven't decided if I'll buy one yet. It really depends on the cost of ammo.
At $4 per box, maybe. If it's more than that, I'll stick with .223.
I'm too cheap to even buy .22 WMR ammo.