A friend of mine uses his 17 mach 2 for jack rabbits, he says hes nailed a few at 125+ yards. I use my 17 HMR for jack rabbits and have hit a few at 200 yards and it does fine, id imagine the 17 mach 2 should be fine to 100 yards or so. For ground hogs id limit the shots to about 75 yards though.