goes back to the early 70's when I used an old Ithaca single shot lever action with open sights. was all a 10 yo kid could afford living and working on the family farm. have used all the rimfires available except the 17 wsm (if there was a left handed rifle available other than the butt ugly B-Mag I would buy one) here is my reviews of the various rimfire cartridges

17 HM2: absolutely the best squirrel rifle I ever had in my hands. shoots like a lazer, very accurate, squirrels to 100 yards are pretty regular if the wind in kind. only thing I noticed about it is head shots on the outter perimeter of the brain sometimes results in a comatose squirrel, not going anywhere but not dead, have had 9 of these in 4-5 seasons using the lil 17.
have taken several groundhogs with it 1 a big 14# female was shot at 148 yards, though the lungs, lieces of the bullet made complete penetration but did not exit. even took 1 deer with the 17 gr v-max's from that rifle, was a head shot on damage permits.

17 HMR: the rifle every kid should have had back when I grew up, I shoot nothing but the 20 gr hp's through it, its suitable for squirrels, fall turkeys, groundhogs, have taken several crop damage does with lung shots with it, even took a coyote at close to 300 yards with it, Its not a 300 yard coyote rifle but it was what I had when the coyote hit the cattle lot one day.


22 rimfire:
Where to begin, spent my adolescent years with a 22 in my hand, had one just about every waking hour carried one in my vehicle first couple years I could drive, then in the early 90's had one custom built for squirrel hunting, has taken hundreds with it, also crows, fox, an odd damage permit deer now and then, carried 22 handgun for years while chasing raccoons with dogs, not much else to be said except they can be picky about ammo and cleaning, and they work!

22 WMR:
They claim the 22 mag. is the outlaws gun, and maybe they do prefer it but its fed me and put money in my pocket for a lot of years, wish you could still find ammo and buy it for $3.88 a box like I did back when the fur market was good, use to make more money calling fox's before and after work than I did at my steady job back in the early 80's, also used it for squirrel hunting, culling deer for farmers. My bro-n-law has taken at least 1/2 dozen sheep killing bears with the round, we swear by the federal 50 gr load but they are getting hard to find, it takes a back seat these days to the HMR, but its capabilities are much greater due to the heavier bullets.

5mm Rem. Mag.:
an old Remington 592 was my constant companion for a time, shot well, killed like the Hammer of Thor, would still be shooting it today if I would have known ammo would once again be available at reasonable cost. It reminded me of a cross between the 22 mag 50 gr load with the flat trajectory of the HMR, just an all around good truck gun, killed a lot of game and several truckloads of vermin which I was ordered back then to eliminate on the farm.
I sold that old Remington after ammo was discontinued and the ammo available was at around 43 bucks for 50, and Hecks (y'all remember that store?) had 22 mag ammo for 3 bucks and change per 50. a poor farm kid with a truck and a gf couldn't afford not to have a 22 mag.
couple rimfires from my safe


There ya have my thoughts and experience on rimfires
merry Christmas y'all
RR