Universal predator cartridge

[pahunter95]

How many guys on here like the old school 17 rem for fox, yotes, and cats? I've used 17 hmr, 223, 204, and 17 hornet and as far as pelt damage and consistent killing I've found my 17 rems to be the best all around anyone else? Pictured is my custom built 17 rem with a 18.5" prefered barrel blacks 18m5" spiral fluted barrel, bighorn orgin action, triggertech trigger, mpa chassis, precision armament mag, athlon argos scope, until night season comes then i put on my pulsar c50, and my silencerco harvester 30. Hogs were shot at 312 yards and 224 yards with berger 25gr hp.

 

[DSheetz]

I'm not a fan of the 17 Remington, as when they first came out the only round you could get was a 25-grain hollow point running at 4200 feet per second MV. They would sometimes blow apart in flight if they hit a snowflake or rain drop even tall grass or weeds. They often would tumble, and I've had them hit coyotes sideways and explode on the hide not penetrating. For fur saving I like no smaller then 55 grain bullets and the Seirra 55 grain boat tail GK running at 2900 feet per second MV, in my 223-bolt action group well, less than 1/2 MOA penetrate well into the body cavity, then open up and on red fox or jackrabbits only small fragments of copper will exit the opposite side of them, on coyote most times they expend all of their energy in the animal and the hydro shock makes them go stiff legged and tip over, never to wake up. On smaller varmints like your marmots, they will sometimes make a mess or if you have bad shot placement on any animal. If I'm just killing animals any caliber will do the job, it's a matter of how messy or how efficiently I want it done, respecting the animal's life and taking it as humanly as possible is my goal.

 

[pahunter95]

I'm not a fan of the 17 Remington, as when they first came out the only round you could get was a 25-grain hollow point running at 4200 feet per second MV. They would sometimes blow apart in flight if they hit a snowflake or rain drop even tall grass or weeds. They often would tumble, and I've had them hit coyotes sideways and explode on the hide not penetrating. For fur saving I like no smaller then 55 grain bullets and the Seirra 55 grain boat tail GK running at 2900 feet per second MV, in my 223-bolt action group well, less than 1/2 MOA penetrate well into the body cavity, then open up and on red fox or jackrabbits only small fragments of copper will exit the opposite side of them, on coyote most times they expend all of their energy in the animal and the hydro shock makes them go stiff legged and tip over, never to wake up. On smaller varmints like your marmots, they will sometimes make a mess or if you have bad shot placement on any animal. If I'm just killing animals any caliber will do the job, it's a matter of how messy or how efficiently I want it done, respecting the animal's life and taking it as humanly as possible is my goal.

I've had 1 runner with my 17 on a coyote and it was at 340 yards the week before I shot one at 354 and it was laying there alive and a quick 22 shot to the head and it was done. But numerous other fox or coyotes past 200 or as close as 30 yards and had but only 1 leave a bad hole. The berger 25hp seems to be treating me well at 3900fps.

 

[DSheetz]

Different environments, altitudes, air density and wind conditions. Running a slower MV and better bullets makes a huge difference. As I said back when the 17 Remington first came out, they only had 25 grain Remington ammo at 4200 FSMV between then and now I found what worked best for me and stayed with it. If it's working for you, and doing what you want it to, good deal stick with it.

 

[pahunter95]

Different environments, altitudes, air density and wind conditions. Running a slower MV and better bullets makes a huge difference. As I said back when the 17 Remington first came out, they only had 25 grain Remington ammo at 4200 FSMV between then and now I found what worked best for me and stayed with it. If it's working for you, and doing what you want it to, good deal stick with it.

If I was goin for strictly coyotes I'd go 22-250 but here in central pa we have such a popular of fox with coyotes mixed in it just fits the bill. I'm starting to not care if I kill fox anymore and may switch to the 22-250 for just coyotes