Guns Like firearms themselves, there's a wide variety of opinions on what's the best gun.

.17 wsm

Old 11-14-2013, 03:18 PM
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Default .17 wsm

Anybody have experience with one of these yet? I'd appreciate hearing some opinions from people who have shot one.
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Old 11-14-2013, 08:06 PM
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I haven't shot one and haven't seen any ammo for them in a lot of the gunstores I've been in. I haven't looked for rifles yet. I'm also curious to hear what people's experience with shooting them is.
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Old 11-14-2013, 09:34 PM
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aint shot one.

I have an opinion.
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Old 11-15-2013, 07:27 PM
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It looks like it'd be a good varmint gun for sitting on the edge of abpeanut field and shooting any varmints you see. I don't think it'd be my first choice for varmints because ammo is almost the same as 204 or 22-250. And 223 can be found cheap and dang near anywhere unless a shooting or something happens. The savage rifle is approximately $320 and for that price it can't be that bad. Personally I want one. But I would rather buy a long range rifle, a howa talon in 204, then maybe I'd get that. Just my opinion
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Old 11-15-2013, 09:19 PM
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Personally I don't see the reasoning behind it. If I wanted a fast .17 I'd go with the original .17 Remington. I used to do a lot of varmint hunting with a .220 Swift so I never needed a fast .17. I had a heavy barreled Ruger M77 in the Swift topped off with a 6x24 Bausch & Lomb. It was absolutely deadly on coyotes and prairie dogs back in my native CO. While suffering from an advanced case of stupidity I traded it off for a .243. Bad, bad trade. But, things happen over the course of a lifetime.
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Old 11-16-2013, 05:17 AM
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If I were a firearms retailer and if ammunition actually were to become available in any quantity, I think I'd be a little frustrated at the variety of chamberings anymore and the shelf space I'd need to accommodate them.

How many ways to we need to skin a cat? Let's take the .300 Magnums. In years past, the .300 H&H, .300 Win Mag, and .300 Wby were plenty enough to get the job done. Okay, so we want something similar, but to cycle through a short action. Here come the short and compact magnums. But we want something more, so here come the ultra magnums. And yet, the three originals in the class are no less capable of getting the job done - and the newcomers really no more capable of getting the job done.

I can't imagine that these kinds of ventures come cheaply to the manufacturers we depend upon for rifles or for ammunition and components? Here's Hornady with this new concept called the .17HMR. Gotta make the cartridge work, but also need to find manufacturers who'll take it on to make it commercially viable. Look at Remington and a NUMBER of cartridges they've come up with that never really captured our fancy: 6mm Rem (which I really do like, try finding a rifle though), 6.5 Mag, .350 Mag, 8mm Mag, .416 Mag... Sometimes I wish the manufacturers would put their R&D money into revolutionary developments (think of the leaps that were possible when smokeless propellants were introduced?). We have optics manufacturers playing digital now. Remington was probably the last I recall to experiment with anything technologically different in the failed "ETronix" line.

What niche does a cartridge like the .17 WSSM fill? Performs better than a .22 WMR maybe? The .22 Hornet's always done that, and it's not exactly common enough to say that there's a viable market niche for it since the .223 came out. So, is Winchester vying for sales in a segment where there really aren't that many sales needed? I know. "Need." I have 12 different calibers in my ammo locker myself. How many do I "need"? I could cover the continent and my defensive needs extremely well with only four of them. My wife questions me all the time, "why"? I point to her shoe closet. There are similarities in our logic. She has be beat by a long shot there, though.

And maybe that's what Winchester's banking on here? We won't "need" one, but we'll be curious enough to go out and buy one anyway. Whatever happened to the .17HM2? I think there's great risk that we're going to have too many choices in the .17s where there really is no market to sustain any of them. When's Remington coming out with a .17? Oh, that's right, they did years ago - the .17 Remington (circa 1971?). That's been a big seller for them, hasn't it? So much that we now also have the .17 Fireball? Truthfully, if I wanted a .17 that did more than the other .17s, I'd look at the Fireball.

Again though, how many different ways do we need to skin the same cat?
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Old 11-16-2013, 07:12 AM
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Originally Posted by flags
Personally I don't see the reasoning behind it.
Originally Posted by homers brother
What niche does a cartridge like the .17 WSSM fill?
I spend a lot of time on Forums like this one, especially on predator hunting/calling forums, and you can guess how much traffic a new small caliber cartridge would get there.

Here's the skinny. EVERYONE criticizes the .17WSM with this same argument, "Why would we need one?", and then they tout other centerfire cartridges that do better than the .17WSM. It's only been bouncing around the rumor mill for a year or so and I'm already tired of hearing it.

Biggest driver that I see for the .17WSM: Some states, like Illinois, parts of PA, I'm sure some others, have RIMFIRE ONLY RESTRICTIONS for certain game. In these states, the .17WSM is far enough above the .22WMR that it's worth owning. Would I sell a .22WMR and go run to buy a .17WSM, probably not. But if I didn't own a coyote rifle yet, and were starting up, I'd dang sure buy a .17WSM over a .22WMR or .17HMR. The .17WSM is the next step in approaching Centerfire cartridge performance out of a rimfire.

Other 'motivation' is that we honestly have a lack of options in the rimfire market. For over 40yrs, we only had two surviving players in the rimfire world, and since the .17HMR and .17M2 came out, there are only 4. How many 30cal centerfire cartridges exist that throw a 150grn bullet between 2500-3200fps? Did we NEED all of those? No. But having a variety of options never hurt anybody.

Beyond that, not everybody reloads. I can't tell you the last time I saw .17 rem or fireball ammo on a shelf. At the price point, I'm not so sure I'd want to spend my time reloading .17rem to get the benefit it offers over the .17WSM when I could be out hunting instead. Rimfire ammo is cheap, hard to compete with rimfire ammo even with a small case centerfire round.

Frankly, I think it'll prove to be a fantastic colony varmint cartridge. I'd love to have a .17WSM on my bench tearing up prairie dogs on a sunday afternoon. Minimal heat, plenty of range and power, and cheap enough that I wouldn't worry that I can't reload the brass. I'd even be glad I didn't HAVE to reload the 200rnds I'd burn through just to come out and play again tomorrow.

I'm not necessarily counting myself as a .17WSM fan, as I could honestly care less about the cartridge itself (already have too many rimfires that I don't shoot enough as it is), but I think it's foolish for guys to sit back and say "well it ain't THAT much better than a .22WMR," or "well I'd rather have a .17 Rem"...

Last edited by Nomercy448; 11-16-2013 at 07:19 AM.
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Old 11-16-2013, 10:29 AM
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Ditto what Nomercy448 said. Some states with a rimfire requirement would almost necessitate a cartridge like the 17WSM. People who don't want to reload would also benefit from it as they don't have to reload and it's cheap enough to buy as a rimfire that they would still be able to go out and have a busy day at the Pdog towns. My gun safe is kind of crowded and I already have a 17HMR (just cause purchase) but I am intrigued. If they ever get the ammo supply straightened out (I still haven't seen any ammo in a store), I may just buy one for grins. One can never really have too many guns and it looks like a fun one to experiment with.
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Old 11-16-2013, 02:38 PM
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I get the "rimfire only" thing. I just think it's risky business for a manufacturer to stake their future in reinventing wheels. Especially this day and age. How many of us have a rifle in our inventory now whose ammunition is now unobtainium? I'm sure glad I didn't buy an 8 Mag when I wanted one so badly. It was hard enough finding the bread-and-butter standards like the .30-06, .270, 7 Mag, and .243 until just recently. Where does one find stuff like .22 Hornet, .308 Norma, .307 Win, or .280 then? So, we buy the bejeezus out of stuff "just in case" the market goes crazy again or to hedge the possibility that our manufacturer will make a business decision to drop our pet caliber.

I'd be interested if anyone who's purchased one of these responds with a range report. Can't say I've seen ammunition for .22 RF lately, let alone something as new as this.

(edit) I actually HAVE seen .17 Fireball (Rem mfr) on the shelf as recently as last week. I can check to see if it's still there.

Last edited by homers brother; 11-16-2013 at 02:47 PM.
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Old 11-16-2013, 05:57 PM
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I haven't seen any 221 fireball ammo on the shelf either although it sounds like a fun round.
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