In Today’s Special Video:

.17 HMR V-Max Bullet vs. Canned Goods

Here’s a fun video using a .17 HMR V-Max bullet shot at many different canned goods.

It’s neat because they show both the actual shot and a slow-motion replay of all shots.

It finishes with images of many of the cans and the destruction it caused.

Enjoy!

Here’s a pretty good review of the Savage Model 93R17 .17HMR Rifle with Heavy Barrel and Thumbhole stock.  He put a nice Nikon scope on it as well.

The reviewer shoots groups of .17gr Hornady Ballistic Tips and CCI 20 gr Game Points.
Nice rifle.  Watch the review and see what you think.
Enjoy!

Every now and then we like to highlight some special products.  Today, it’s the Henry Repeating Arms Co lever action .17 HMR Varmint Express.  This rifle means a lot to us since Henry advertises on this site and, without them, this site wouldn’t exist.

If you know anything about Henry lever action rifles, you know that they have the smoothest lever action in the business.  And what joy it is to hold and shoot.  The .17 HMR is extremely accurate and is probably the best caliber to use for ground squirrels and similar small varmints.

If you don’t have a Henry catalog yet please click on the picture below.  It will take to you to the Henry website where you can sign up to get their beautiful catalog.  I promise you, you’ll be daydreaming after looking at their catalog.  It’s one you’ll leave on your desk or coffee table and pick up frequently.

This is the rifle the range riders of the 1800′s would have loved to have had close at hand for picking off varmints or just plinking at whiskey bottles. But since the .17HMR didn’t hit the market until 2002, it will be up to you to make it a legend.

Our Henry Varmint Express® packs eleven .17HMR rounds in its tubular magazine. It features a 20″ barrel, comes with a checkered American walnut Monte Carlo stock. Like all lever action Henrys, the action is incredibly smooth from the very first shot. It will enable small game and varmint hunters to take full advantage of the .17HMR with regard to velocity, trajectory, wind drift, richochet resistance, quietness and accuracy.

Already considered by many to be the most accurate rimfire cartridge ever produced, the .17HMR incorporates a .17 caliber bullet into a necked-down .22 magnum case. This high-powered combination produces a sizzlin’ muzzle velocity of up to 2,550 feet per second and the laser-flat trajectory makes it lethal for long-range shots on woodchucks, prairie dogs, foxes and other small varmints. Henry’s take on this revolutionary caliber, the Varmint Express, has a 20″ barrel that delivers dead-on accuracy.

Just like all Henry rifles, it’s handcrafted in the United States using only high-grade components such as a checkered American walnut stock, and Williams Fire sights and, of course, it’s outfitted with that legendary, smooth-operating lever action that sets a Henry rifle apart from all the imitators.

*Varmint Express is a registered trademark of Hornady Mfg. Co.

Click HERE to get your own copy
of the Henry Catalog

Some good footage here with many slow-motion replays.

It’s always interesting to see how effective the .17 HMR is for small varmints like this.

Enjoy…..

I’ve shown this before but wanted to highlight a few things:

1. The .17 HMR is a great rifle for ground squirrel hunting.  The .17HMR Ballistic Tips (17 gr) do an awesome job on these small targets.  The high speed shock kill very quickly.

2. We used a gun-mounted video camera for this video.  It works real slick, especially when shooting by yourself.  You don’t need a second person on the camera.

Stay tuned – we’re going to have a contest and a free drawing for a BSA Sweet 17 Rifle Scope in just a few days!

Henry Rifles - Beautiful Free Catalog

You’ve probably heard of Henry Rifles. They’ve been around since 1862 making some of the finest, smoothest lever action rifles in the industry.  But they haven’t rested on their laurels!  They continue to turn out product after product that is award winning and finely tuned.

We’re proud to feature Henry Rifles as our primary site sponsor. They have continued to faithfully support us to bring you some great content and the love of ground squirrel and varmint hunting.

Henry puts out a beautiful catalog of their products. In it you’ll read the colorful history of the company and the details of all their rifles and accessories that they sell.  Big, two-page spreads with detailed photos of all their rifles – from the original lever actions in all calibers to the Henry Big Boy, Golden Boy series, Frontier series, and all the bolt action series.  They even have the U.S. Survival AR-7 .22 LR that is really handy.

But don’t forget about the Henry Varmint Express .17 HMR.  One of the hotest, sweetest, smoothest lever action .17 HMR, squirrel-killin’ machines around. I’m just about to order mine.

I urge you to get the catalog. It’s free.  And it’s tempting.  As a visitor to this website, Henry will gladly send one out to you.  Henry sponsors us because they know our readers enjoy hunting, shooting and fine guns.

Click to get your catalog of these fine Henry Rifles.

So – do it now.  Click HERE to get your catalog.

Even if you never buy a Henry, you’ll want to keep this catalog around to read and to refer to.  It’s a genuine piece of American history.  History that seems to be fading daily.

–flatlander

We mentioned in an earlier post that the BSA Sweet 17 3-12×40 Scope is on sale at Cabelas for only $64.99 (normally sell for about $129).  For this kind of money you really can’t go wrong!

The BSA Sweet 17 is specifically designed for the .17 HMR and is calibrated and optimized for .17 HMR compensation.

I’m using one on a new Savage .17 HMR that I’m building up now.

I suggest you get yours pretty quick if you’re thinking about it.  They’ve been on sale for over a week now and the price is too sweet to pass up!

Click here: BSA Sweet 17 or on the picture below to make sure the Sweet 17 3-12 x 40 is still on sale.

BSA Sweet 17 3-12 x 40 Riflescope On Sale 64.99

]]> http://www.shootingsquirrels.com/17hmr/bsa-sweet-17-3-12-x-40-riflescope-only-49-99/feed/ 0 http://www.shootingsquirrels.com/17hmr/squirrel-hunting-17-hmr-vs-ground-squirrels/ http://www.shootingsquirrels.com/17hmr/squirrel-hunting-17-hmr-vs-ground-squirrels/#comments Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:51:59 +0000 Flatlander http://www.shootingsquirrels.com/?p=311 235 +/- squirrels less on the farm..

Rifle:  Ruger 77/17

Scope: Tasco World Class Scope (6x-24x-44mm)

Ammo: Hornady .17 HMR ballistic tip

This was taken over a two day period where the problem was not solved completely, but certainly addressed… The dead land in the film use to be rows of trees, and the piles of limb and branches in the video are whats left of the trees. The green is the neighboring alfalfa which they are severely threatening…

I’m waiting for the Savage .17 HMR to go on sale at my local stores or Cabelas.   I picked the Savage .17 HMR due to the cost/performance/accuracy and overall value.  It’s really hard to beat.

I found the BSA Sweet 17  3-12 x 40 scope on sale at Cabelas online for $49.95 (hurry – there’s still some left). This scope is normally $129 – $149. I know the BSA Sweet 17 isn’t preferred by a few marksmen but I have found it to be very adequate for 100 – 150 yds for varmints.

I’ll keep this rig in my truck when traveling around the back roads in rural Nebraska. There’s plenty of opportunities here, especially in the West.

Oh – gotta put a camera mount on it, too. I wanna share the fun through recording videos (only the hits, of course!).

Stay tuned….I’ll post the build up as I go.

Shoot straight – stay safe.

Stay tuned to find out more after I get it, and if you want to see what I’m talking about, go to Henry’s website to read all about their new Accu-Bolt Varmint Rifle.

SS

You guys need to start getting ready, we are only about 4 months out from squirrel shooting season! Yahoooooooooo!

Here’s how I mounted my Sony Handycam to my .17HMR rifle:

First I went to Wal-Mart and bought the tallest set of rings they had. Wal-Mart had pretty good prices on their rings, and I got a set of Leupold scope rings for less than $17.00.

I then went to the local camera supply store and bought a whole bunch of odds and ends that they had in their junk drawer. The main things though, that I ended up needing for my scope mounted video camera, were the base screw and washers that are used to screw video cameras to all tripods.

I then went home and dug through a box of over 150 scope bases that I bought a few years ago at an auction. I ended up finding one that was the right length, and fit the rings I bought at Wal-Mart to a “T”. Then, all I had to do was drill a hole in the base so that I could mount the screw so that it would hold my video camera to the rail.

I then attached the new set of scope rings to my scope, which now has 4 scope rings on it instead of the usual two. Unfortunately, the rail with the video camera on it now goes over the vertical adjustment knob on my scope, but, oh well, I can live with that.

After getting the whole thing put together and mounted on the rifle, the thing was crazy top heavy. So I ran back to Wal-Mart and bought a bi-pod for $40.00. Once I got the bi-pod attached to the rifle, everything worked like a charm.

I then sighted in on the neighbor’s house down the block. (Don’t try this if you live in a town with jumpy cops. LOL) When I put the cross hairs on the scope on the doorknob on my neighbor’s house, the camera was dead on. As a matter of fact, the knob was actually 3/4 of the way down the screen, which is perfect for catching squirrels on tape when you pop them into the air with a Hornaday 17HMR ballistic tip.

Here’s a picture of the rifle without the camera. Notice the extra set of rings and the rail on top of the scope:

Here’s a picture of the rifle with the video camera mounted to the scope:

Here’s a picture that shows you where the action takes place when you pull the trigger. You can see how the picture captures your subject about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom of the camera.

The first thing we did (did I mention the Verminator went too) was to have the Verminator shoot some .17 HMR while I held the new puppy, who isn’t really that new anymore and hardly qualifies as a puppy. He’s around 6 months old, weighs about 60lbs and is an all black, Black Lab and Golden Retriever mix. He is by far the smartest dog I’ve ever owned, but that’s not saying much.

When the Verminator shot, I jumped and “Hunter”, looked at me like I was some kind of pansy. “I wasn’t ready”, I said, but he still kept looking at me like I was a wimp. I then had the Verminator fire off a couple more from the .17 just to make sure that his reaction wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t, he still looked at me like a pansy when I jumped the next two times.

“Well, that doesn’t seem to bother him”, I told the Verminator, “Why don’t you try the .223?”

“OK, but why don’t you let him go then, instead of hanging on to him, he’ll get jumpy if he feels you jump each time the gun goes off”, said the Vermin… ator.

I hate him sometimes!

So I let Hunter go, and he wandered off and started eating shell casings, gravel, cow crap and anything else that looked like it wouldn’t bite him back. That dog is a fricken goat, and will pack away tons of garbage, and then puke up this big pile of rocks and sticks and plastic bottle caps and stuff… he’s gross. But he is also soft, black and smart, so I’m willing to overlook a few small character flaws.

The Verminator then broke out the Bushmaster .223 Varminter and fired off a round. The dog, who was about 20 yards away, looked up with a look that said, “What the heck”? I told Vermin to do it again and the dog had the same reaction, but went back to eating whatever he was eating when the 2nd and 3rd shots were fired. After awhile, he came over and lay down under the bench where we were both shooting the .17′s and the .223′s. He is by far the calmest and coolest dog I’ve ever seen under fire… he doesn’t even look up while you’re shooting; unless you drop your doughnut or something, of course.

The first rifle I got out to get sighted in for this year’s sage rat season was my Savage .17 hmr with Accutrigger. I didn’t have any of my usual 17 gr. Hornady Ballistic Tips, so I used some CCI Hollow Points I had left over from last year. The first couple of groups were all over the place, until I remembered to squeeze instead of jerk. Then the groups settled down to a decent inch, with one group coming in at about 5/8th of an inch.

I then tried my Remington 17 gr. Ballistic Tips. The Remington’s shot about the same size groups as the CCI’s, but they shot like 2 whole inches to the right. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s a little weird don’tcha think?

The Bushmaster was OK, but I was still trying to use the Ammo I got at Wal-Mart last year, and it had a deviation of like 79, which leads to 2 inch groups at 100 yards. I need to go to the store and pick up a couple of different brands and see which does the best in my rifle.

All in all, I think I can hit some squirrels next month in Lakeview. I’ll also do some filming when I’m there, so look for some new squirrel shooting videos on Youtube in about a month.

SS
ps. I shot the Henry Golden Boy in 17HMR, and it works fine, but none of the rings I took to the range fit it, so I will have to get some and go back and sight it in later… Sorry.

When I picked it up from the gun dealer today, we both tried it out and it was a little short for a couple of grown men to just throw up to the eye in total comfort, but it still felt good. My guess is that it will become really easy to adapt my shooting style to take into account it’s shorter length, and that teenagers and women are going to be snatching this thing off the shelf. If I had it to do over, I would spend a little extra and get one of the “Big Boy” rifles from Henry, but that ‘s because I am a “big boy” at 6 feet tall and 300 lbs.

I’ll let you know more tomorrow, after I’ve tried it out.

The 17 Mach2 shoots at 2100 ft per second and is just a regular 22 long rifle cartridge that has been chambered for the Hornady 17 caliber 17 grain V-Max Ballistic Tip Bullet. Here’s What ShootingTimes.com said about it.

From a rifle at 175 yards the .17M2 is still going faster than a .22 LR at the muzzle. The muzzle energy of the .17M2′s 17-grain bullet (166 ft-lbs) is 18 percent greater than a 40-grain .22 LR (140 ft-lbs). Its trajectory is flat! Zeroed at 100 yards, the .17M2 has only a 0.7-inch mid-range rise at 50 yards; a .22 LR has a 2.9-inch rise.

For $239.00, don’t you think adding a stainless fluted bull barrel in 17 calibre to your old 10/22 is worth it? Check out this Ruger 10/22 to 17 Mach2 conversion kit if your looking to really kill some squirrels, but would rather pay $5.00 per 50 rounds instead of the $11.00 per 50 rounds that it currently costs for 17 HMR ballistic tip ammunition.

SS

Just click on the play button to watch what a .17 HMR Ruger will do to a rabbit, and then click on it again if it doesn’t start.

It looks like the shooter is using CCI Hollow Point ammunition instead of the Hornaday Ballistic Tip ammunition, because way too many of the squirrels are still moving for a long time after they are shot. If I was shooting these squirrels I would have finished them off, especially the one that is “Trouting” for so long at the end of the video. (I may be wrong though, since I’ve found the most active squirrels to be those who no longer have a head.)

Click on the play button to watch the video.

Enjoy,

SquirrelSniper