Kardkutter88...Yes! I am offended!! It should have been a better shot- and got him in the head.








I think I'll put that pix as my desktop background

This was shot with the original Hornaday V-MAX. I think?? It's the one with the red ballistic tip.

I would say that if the squirrel was a grey squirrel it would have ended up in 2 pieces. Normally the fox squirrels are a bit tougher.

This was about 10 months after the 17 hmr came out so the V-MAX was the only available ammo on the market.


I shot a frozen plastic bottle one evening at 40 yards. The results were one very little entrance hole and quite a bit of crushed ice. I let every thing melt and all that was left was about half the red tip, slivers of copper, and very very little lead. I would say 5 gains recovered in all.

This round, the HMR is just awesome. If I had a place to hunt I'd buy one in a heart beat. I just lost my main hunting ground in January[&o].

Gopher Slayer, would you agree that this is the exit hole????
Normaly I take head shots only on squirrels, I didn't sight the HMR in so I decided I take a body shot. I ended up with 4 squirrels that day. I got my first limit this year. All fox squirrels taken with a Marlin Model 60.


Your Right Luckypunk, It should have been a head shot. 4 outta 5 of these were.

hmm never seen that little of damage with the vmax before, they must be a hell of alot tougher then the gophers up here. last summer my cousin and I went out shooting gophers with his 17hmr and my .22 we acounted for over 50 confirmed kills in the 2 1/2 hours we were out. i shot infront of gopher once the bullet hit the dirt and fragmented, one fragment cought the gopher in the face and he floped around for a second until i pumped another into him. another gopher was shot in the rear end and it spilt him up the stomach, it looked like somone was going to skin him. he was complete capped out. another gopher was about 90 or so yards away from us and i poped him in the head and all that was left was his sholders and bits of his skull fragments.

to put swivel studs in is pretty easy. I had some studs but you can buy some at a gun store make sure that they are the ones with the nuts and not the wood screw type. first you have to take the stock off the gun and the butt plate . then put the gun in a vice and drilled a hole where you would put the studs(make sure your drill bit is the same size as the shaft on the studs). next i used a drimmel tool to flatten out the area where the nut would be sitting so that it would be flush and you would be able to tighten it. put in you studs use a little lock tite and tighten them. if you have a wooden stock you could use the screw type studs hope you can understand

Thanks man for the info. Ill have to try it when I get a chance. I was thinking of a different way to do it but yours sound a little better.

BC shot a 17 for the first time last Saturday..It was out of a Savage of all things ..heavy barrel . I think the guy said he paid 185 dollars for it. He had a variable with a top end of 24x on it a Bushnell with mil dots. He asked me if I would shoot it and try it out. WOW it shot in same hole at 50 yards. I wish all 185 dollar guns could shoot that well is all I can say and if I were in the market for one the Savage would be at the very top of the list

I just don't get it. It seems so inherently accurate. A 22 magnum doesn't do that with so many guns. Gotta get one.

I think I'll pickup one of these Savages before too long. That and my Deer Killing 22 Khornet will be good varmint guns

You got ya a Khornet? Do youjust fireform your cases? I am curious how it shoots with 22hornet ammo before firforming?

Not at the reloading stage yet just using Hornady ammo . It shoots real well based on how much I have shot it which is not much.