Anyone have any luck with a good .17HMR?

J E, do you use Dan Lilja's barrels on your rimfire builds or something else and if something else, what have you found to work well? Also, have you ever bored a rimfire barrel and used a liner to rebarrel one, if so, how did it turn out?


I like the Lilja's for my rim fires.

I am not fond of liners, so I don't use them. The cost of the tooling and the liner is as much or more than a good barrel and many things can go wrong and accuracy is a gamble in my opinion.

I know it is done, but I just don't want to risk the accuracy chance.

Just my opinion
 
I like the Lilja's for my rim fires.

I am not fond of liners, so I don't use them. The cost of the tooling and the liner is as much or more than a good barrel and many things can go wrong and accuracy is a gamble in my opinion.

I know it is done, but I just don't want to risk the accuracy chance.

Just my opinion

I've never had one done and don't think I ever would but I've heard of others doing it with pretty good success. Like yourself, it's not anything I'd ever be interested in. Was just curious is all.
 
I have an H&R sportster in 17 hmr. A spectre II suppressor, a Zeiss conquest 3-9x50, and a cheap gun show bi-pod round out the rifle and the squirrels within 100yards have zero chance. It is the gun I shoot the most. Funny cause I have a Kirby Allen bolt gun and an OBR sitting in the safe as well.
 
I have an H&R sportster in 17 hmr. A spectre II suppressor, a Zeiss conquest 3-9x50, and a cheap gun show bi-pod round out the rifle and the squirrels within 100yards have zero chance. It is the gun I shoot the most. Funny cause I have a Kirby Allen bolt gun and an OBR sitting in the safe as well.
You should be able to go out at least 200 yards on squirrels with that setup!
 
I am one of those guys that love the 17 HMR for many reasons, Mostly there inherent accuracy.

I also like the 22 mag but never got one that would shoot as well as I like
so when I shot my first 17 HMR, I was impressed.

I went the factory route, and was not impressed with the accuracy improvement over the 22 MAG even though it was twice as good.

I finally decided to test the little 17 with a custom barrel, Now we are talking !! the custom barrel turned the 3/4 to 1 MOA rifle into a less than 1/2 MOA rifle. I have since built 4 or 5 for family that will consistently shoot 10 rounds in less than a 1/2 inch group @ 100 yards and is sary accurate at 200 yards in good conditions.

I prefer the Anschutz action over all others (If you have the money, Weatherby makes their MK 22 bolt action using the Anschutz action in both 22 MAG and 17 HMR and they are Beautiful).

The biggest thing I have killed with the little 17, was a 200+pound hog
I have friends that take deer with them (I personally think it is to small). But hogs are a different story.

I use the 17 grain bullet for small game like squirrel's and the 20 grain bullet for the larger varmints like fox and coyotes.

J E CUSTOM


I know its odd to quote your own post, but it does save a lot of key board time. There have been many brands of rifles that are very good in 17 HMR. My experience with most of them has been very good in the accuracy department. Most can be improved with a good bedding job.
I found that the savage needed bedding the worst even though it shot
very well from the factory. Bedding improved all of the savages by at least 25%.

The ammo has/had a lot to do with the 17 HMRs accuracy and has forced the makers of the 22 MAG to work on better ammo. Now that the 22 Mag ammo has better loads and bullets the potential for better accuracy like the little 17 Is there.

As stated, I prefer the Anschutz action and have the best accuracy with them when using a custom barrel. All of the rim fires have showed a marked improvement if a premium barrel is used. Mine will definitely
out shoot me (Taking away all excuses).

I have never had a 22 mag that would match the 17, But hopefully that will change. I am going to re barrel a Mark 22 to 22 MAG and use a 1 in 15 twist center fire barrel from Lilja for it. I should find out if the 22 Mag can shoot with the 17 HMR using heavier bullets.

Hopefully This will prove once and for all, that good ammo and a good barrel make I huge difference in accuracy.

J E CUSTOM
 
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A 5mm WSM would make a real interesting round as was the old 5mm Remington. Those shot great and packed a little more punch.
 
A 5mm WSM would make a real interesting round as was the old 5mm Remington. Those shot great and packed a little more punch.

From the first moment I bought my 17 WSM I said Winchester, IMO, completely missed the boat when they didn't develop their new rimfire WSM as a 20 WSM instead of, yet another, .17 cal.

I believe a 20 WSM shooting the 24gr Hornady NTX 3000fps would have been MUCH more appealing to rimfire shooters looking for something more than their 17 HMR's had to offer.
 
EC5BF118-1672-48F9-A117-0203DB81FFD3.jpeg
Another Savage here. Also have a CZ 455. Both shoot Great!!
 
I have a Ruger 77/17 varmint stainless that can be extremely accurate when you get a good brick of ammunition, have replaced the trigger with something much much better. It runs a Zeiss 4-12 no trouble to shoot 150 yards. Have tried weight sorting the bad lots of ammo which helps a bit
 
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