rubberlegs Posted March 4, 2008 Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 just looked at a yank forum where they are claiming to shoot ground squirrels with a .17hmr at 350+yrds what a load of bull no wonder most have 10/17's with 25rnd mags as must take them the whole clip to get a hit.the .17 at that distance would have a drop of 36inches plus let alone wind drift i tink they got their yrds and inches mixed up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the last engineer Posted March 4, 2008 Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 dont pout, you would be very interested in how serious these guys get in ground rat shooting, your jealous is all the volume equipment used is astounding, home loads and velocities are well gaurded secrets, very serious gopher shooting done here Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberlegs Posted March 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 didnt know you could home load hmr rimfire rounds must get more crawlers than kills thats whats wrong in my book mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham M Posted March 4, 2008 Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 just looked at a yank forum where they are claiming to shoot ground squirrels with a .17hmr at 350+yrds what a load of bull no wonder most have 10/17's with 25rnd mags as must take them the whole clip to get a hit.the .17 at that distance would have a drop of 36inches plus let alone wind drift i tink they got their yrds and inches mixed up Are they using .17Hmr or .17Rem G.M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the last engineer Posted March 4, 2008 Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 didnt know you could home load hmr rimfire rounds must get more crawlers than kills thats whats wrong in my book mate if you really want to go into it you can load anything your little heart desires, and i'm sure any reloader will tell you his are better than factory, which is why we do it right. as to crawlers, any gophers we take out are taken out, i would hope crawling dosent come into it, thats not to say any of us havent hads a flyer i have, ,,have you ?? Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberlegs Posted March 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 hmr mate not .17rem have a look on rimfirecentral see for yourself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butcher....... Posted March 4, 2008 Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 you be amaised how confident they shoot out to in the states, dont underestimate any round, just because your average is 150yds......on a good day !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham M Posted March 5, 2008 Report Share Posted March 5, 2008 hmr mate not .17rem have a look on rimfirecentral see for yourself I well believe you without having to look, it’s just that a .17hmr isn’t usually the round of preference for Gophers/Groundhogs. Normally it’s .222/.223 or .17Rem etc. I have also spoken to American shooters who use the .17Rem for target shooting out to 1000yds. Yes I know it seems unbelievable, but it is absolutely true and caused a bit of an argument on the Guntrader site a couple of years ago when some Yanks came onto the site to argue their point after being ridiculed over the distance. We are years behind the Americans when it comes to shooting ANY calibre, as they are usually the ones who invented it in the first place. G.M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vegeta Posted March 5, 2008 Report Share Posted March 5, 2008 We are years behind the Americans when it comes to shooting ANY calibre, as they are usually the ones who invented it in the first place. G.M. Completely agree, The lads shooting them at 350 yards probably have a bench and rest out in the desert with a ballistics chart beside them on perfectly still weather days, custom made rifles with massive target scopes. If the round has the terminal ballistics at 350 yards I don't see why not. Its beyond my skill but I'm sure there are some out there capable of it. I have shot it at 200 yards on the range myself and it was accurate enough for hunting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casts_by_fly Posted March 5, 2008 Report Share Posted March 5, 2008 as a transplanted yank, I have a bit of experience in this department. Out west where they are shooting prarie dogs, there are vast expanses of open land, mostly in rolling hills. You can crest a small ridge and be looking at a bowl where you can shoot out to hundreds of yards. In that bowl there will be hundreds of dogs and mounds. The opportunity is there to shoot as much or as far as you want. In the east where we hunt groundhogs it is similar. You will set up on one ridge top that overlooks a few hundred yards of field. Groundhogs are fewer in number, but they are a bigger target. Varmint hunting is more about shooting and less about hunting. For prarie dogs you can go through hundreds of rounds in a day. Think of it like pigeon shooting over here. You're not trying to stalk closer a particular animal. You're stationary and shoot the targets where they pop up. Some people like to take longer shots. A guy on another forum I frequent is a long range target shooter and regularly shoots 1000 competition. He is also a long range groundhog fan. He has posted video of 1000 yard shots on hogs and he doesn't miss much. It is a different kind of sport that some like and some don't. About the HMR at 350 yds, that is pushing the limits a bit. It would have to be still conditions as reading the wind at 350 yd with an HMR is going to be tough. At that range you have ~60" of drop with a 100 yd zero. Obviously you aren't holding over at that point, you're dialing in clicks into the scope (common with longer range shooters). Given dead still conditions and a decent gun, 3.5" groups at 350 is MOA accuracy and certainly attainable from the gun standpoint. A good shooting HMR will do 1/2 MOA which would be <2" groups at 350. For prairie dogs, that is good enough accuracy. At the terminal end, the 17 gr bullet will have ~40 ft-lbs of energy. Ground squirrels aren't hard to kill. A front end or head shot with 40 ft-lb is enough to roll one. So it isn't unreasonable to take the shot. That said, it is a long way to be shooting an HMR. I don't have the skill with mine to do it (though the 223 or 30-06 is fine) but good on the guy that can. Thanks, Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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