VINNYB

I'll try and keep this short, what would be a better buy for shooting gophers out to about 75 yards a 22Lr or a 17hmr?
My money is limited so is the price for the 17hmr and the more expensive ammpo really worth it?

Paul L Mohr

I have a .17 and it's a great little gun. They are accurate as all get out and work great on small game. However, if you are for real about only shooting out to 75 yards it might be a bit much gun and a tad expensive to shoot. I think 75 yards is pushing a .22 myself, but if you know the rifle and cartride well enough it should work. You better know your range though. The difference between 75 yards and 100 will make a big difference with a .22. I would say use the newer hyper velocity stuff, but make sure it is accurate at those ranges. I don't think it takes much to take out a gofer, but your going to have to hit it first.

You also might consider the new HM2 round, it would should much flatter and is a bit cheaper than the .17 HMR ammo. Or the .22mag would work perfect for what you want. However the .22 long rifle will be cheaper in most cases, even with the super fast ammo. Niether of my .22's care for it much though.

Most of the rifles are about the same prices regardless of caliber, it is the ammo that will cost you. The .22 long rifles might be a tad cheaper, the ammo will be much cheaper. The difference is the .17 will take out a gofer easily at 130 yards and beyond if it is a calm day.

Good luck,
Paul

missed_another

about two months ago i purchased a matching pair of savage's in the 93 model. they have a stainless barrel on the composite stock. i got both guns for just over four hundred dollars. something around 200 or 205 a piece. one was a .17 hmr and the other is a .22 mag. the .17 seems to shoot a littlebetter that the .22 mag but the mag seems to have more power down range. they would both be a better choice than the .22 long riflefor a gophers but the .22 mag shells are about three dollars cheaper a box than the .17 hmr.no sense in buying a caliber that you cannot feed it will just end up sitting in the cabinet. just something to think about.

DM

One thing about the 22 over the 17, it's going to cost you a lot less to shoot the 22.

I don't think you will ever regret buying a "good" 22lr. It's one cal/gun you can use the rest of your life, and there willalways beinexpensive ammo to be had for it.

Drilling Man

trailer

I think the end result is the price of the ammo as said before. So take that into consideration and buy your new rifle.
Good luck...

redsox3624

I would buy the 22mag. more power that the 22lr. I'm not trying to put down the 22lr I love mine butI would feel more comfterable with the extra power of the 22mag.

winchester_1300

the .17 will be better for the range.

Gundigest

A .22lr with a good scope and good bullets will kill a gopher at 75 yards. The 22lr CCI velocitors only have 20 ft-lb less energy at 100 yards than the 17 HMR (110 to 130) My Ruger 77/22 will shoot a 1/2" group at 50 yards with the velocitors which are $4 for 50 and I can still buy 500 rounds for $800 to plink and practice with. All will do what you want but the 22 lr will be the cheapest and the 17 will be the most expensive to shoot. I personally like the marlin better than the savage even though they are almost identical.

Paul L Mohr

I will agree the .17 does not retain a lot of energy down range becaue of it's small weight. However the bullets are a MUCH better design and do a greater job of transfering that energy to a soft target like a golpher. A .22 at 75 yards will for sure take one down if hit well. However a .17 will probably blow one in half at that distance with the Vmax ammo. And you won't have to compensate for yardage at all.

And I do agree, for 75 yards a .22 with high velocity rounds should work fine and would be much cheaper all around.

I am bored so I am going to to do some testing with my .22. I have several types of ammo left over from testing a rifle to see what it liked best. I have target amm, standard ammo, high velocity and hyper velocity ammo at hand. I will test them all at 50, 75 and 100 to see what the differences are. I will also compare it to my .17HMR hornady Vmax ammo.

I'll post it later when I am done.

EDIT/ UPDATE:
I"m done with the testing, now I need to review it and compose something. Maybe tonight or possibly tomorrow. Depends on how things go. Don't get excited, it's nothing extremely scientific.

Paul

VINNYB

Thanks for helping and taking an interest in my question because I've been back and forth on this about atleast a dozen times, just like when I was deciding on my first rifle to buyeither a 270 or a 30-06 and after about a few months of changing my mind back and forth I went with the 30-06 and for this one I will wait till I hearPaul LMohr results to make my mind on a 22lr or a 17hmr.