17 HMR 20gr bullets

Mr. Longbeard · 06-18-2007, 05:37 PM

Just wondering if anybody has had any expierience with these heavier loads???

I've been shooting 17gr loads and was thinking that the 20gr version might be a little more deadly on ground hogs

bronko22000 · 06-19-2007, 08:33 PM

If your talking about the 20 gr Hornady XTP bullet. They shoot pretty well. My friends Savage likes them. Mine prefers the 17 gr Remington Premier loads.

SwampCollie · 06-20-2007, 01:31 PM

Quote:

ORIGINAL: bronko22000

If your talking about the 20 gr Hornady XTP bullet. They shoot pretty well. My friends Savage likes them. Mine prefers the 17 gr Remington Premier loads.

Yep. Same deal. My rifle shoots them alright (which is still sub inch at 100), but mine too prefers those Remingtons.

I think it might be the XTP that is the hollow point...but something keeps telling me TNT hollow point. Maybe the TNT is the CCI poly tipped bullet. But at any rate...when you see them you can't mistake them. They do seem to hold up fairly well in comparison to those exploding VMAX bullets. At one point I had a good supply of FMJ bullets for the .17 that we did some deer culling with. Those penetrated very well, as you might expect.

BowHunterFett · 06-28-2007, 11:46 AM

I just got back from my first pdog shooting trip, and I used a .17 HMR for this, with 17 grain v-max, not really impressed. I would have to expect that the 20 grain HP bullets would be better, those little prairie poodles are tough. I had a lot of kills, but most shots never made it through them.

Paul L Mohr · 06-28-2007, 02:51 PM

They are not made to exit the animal. The Vmax bullets are designed to expand violently and not exit the animal. I have shot pop cans full of water at ranges from 20 to 150 yards with this round and none of them pass through the can. They just blow it up and leave a some shrapnel holes in the back of the can. The bullet completelydisintegrates on impact with the water.

Yes the 20 grn XTPs would probably exit the animal since they were designed to penetrate better. However they would not do as much internal damage or transfer as much energy into the animal.

The 17HMR Vmax was actually designed to shoot Pdogs, that is it's primary market, small varmints at medium ranges.

If you want more damage step up to a center fire like a 223 or 22-250, heck even a .204.

Paul

Mr. Longbeard · 06-28-2007, 05:21 PM

I bought 2 box's of the 20gr xtp and hope they shoot as good as the 17gr

BowHunterFett · 06-29-2007, 04:31 PM

I took my .243 along, that did a ton of damage!