.17 caliber

foxrunner

foxrunner

Active member
I am looking to pick up a .17 cal. Can anyone explain the difference between a .17hmr and a .17 Fireball? Which would be better suited for hunting coyotes/fox etc.?
 
17hmr is a rimfire. Most say not suitable for coyote but within a 100yrds and good shot placement it is fine. 17 fireball is a centerfire but have no experience with it to say distance it is good to or fps
 
I have both and there is a huge difference. IMO the Fireball is hands-down the better of the two. As Oiltown said, you could use the HMR out to 100 yds on predators. Be very careful of your shots cause it is on the light side. I've shot groundhogs with it out to 200 yds. but I wouldn't personally shoot at any predator beyond 100 yds. with the HMR. I use the .17 Fireball for all predator hunting and most groundhog hunting. It's a great caliber and fun to shoot. Very low recoil, about 3800-4000 fps. I don't hesitate to shoot out to 250-300 yds depending upon wind and other conditions. Also, you can reload for the Fireball if you want to since it's a centerfire. The FB is much more expensive to shoot with factory ammo than the HMR.
 
If your wanting a .17 caliber gun for predator hunting get a .17 Remimngton, or .17 Remington Fireball. Forget about the .17HMR. You'll lose more coyotes than you'll find.
I love the .17 Remington. I've killed a lot of critters with one. It's the best pelt gun I've ever shot.
 
I am with BASDJS on this. I am relatively new to the .17 family, I am currently using a Specialized Dynamics, 18in flat top AR-15 in .17 rem. While it's not a fireball, the performance is similar.

I was originally worried about damaging the fur on foxes and bobcats. The second weekend I had the rifle I dropped two foxes, one at 40 yards, one at 25 yards, and absolutely no fur damage at all. There were two holes, and the damage under the fur was incredible, and they dropped in their tracks.
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Next I was worried about the stopping power on the larger predators. I had read from a lot of guys about the 17's and stopping, but I needed to see it with me behind the gun. The 3rd weekend I had the gun, I folded up a bobcat at 80 yards, one shot. No exit hole. And again the damage was amazing.
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The final test was a coyote, which we called in to 92 yards, and again one shot, one kill, one entry. And again total devastation under the fur, but no fur damage.
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So I cannot say enough good things about the caliber, and the fit with an AR is just what the doctor ordered. You will be happy.
 
Foxrunner, Just so we don't get you confused here if you're new to the 17's, you're getting suggestions on 3 different centerfires in this thread... the .17 Fireball, .17 Remington, and .17 Hornady Hornet. The Hornet is a new ammo release by Hornady that Savage currently makes the only prduction gun for (model 25) although others may follow. All are great cartridges. Cartridge size (and relative "power" for lack of a better word) from smallest to largest is .17 HH
 
I have .17 cals in HMR, FB, and Remington. I will tell you that I am having my new calling rifle built right now and it is a cz527 M1 synthetic that is getting rebarreled to 17 remington. I currently use a rem 700 in 17 rem but a clip fed gun is so much nicer night hunting. The 700 is plenty heavy too where as the CZ is much lighter. I use the FB for daytime fox/cat hunts and the hmr for woodchuck's.

My vote is 17 Remington as all around best in 17's
 
If you're going to do any volume shooting, aka ground squirrels, prairie dogs, etc, I would go with the 17 FireBall.

If all you're looking for is a long range 17 coyote killer, than a 17 Remington would do the job.
 
The difference between the 17 fireball and the 17 remington is about 4.5 grains of powder and 300 fps at a cost of app. a cent and a half. Find a rifle you really like and take whichever one it is chambered in, either will work.
 
Something that I don't think that was mentioned was that if you are a handloader, you can load the .17 Remington down to lower pressure/velocity levels to suit the type of shooting that you are doing. For example, I like the little 20 grain Vmax and I can load it to 4400 fps if I want. But most of my shooting is ground squirrels and once a year prairie dogs and I have found 4000 fps loads to be perfectly fine for this sort of shooting. And now that brass is over $50 a hundred for it these loads allow me a good 10 loadings or more on average.

If you really want to have some (fairly) quiet fun with the .17 Remmy try 8 to 10 grains of Bluedot. I can't tell you how many ground squirrels that I shot with that combo and unless you start splitting necks, your brass will last just about forever.
 
I have a 17 HMR and the 17 FB love them both and would not pass up a chance to thump a coyote with either one but i don't hunt coyotes with them just prairy poodles, use a AR in 223 or a Swift for coyotes , much prefer the ar--shoot to miss on the first round and let the coyote hit warp speed and let the fun begin.
 


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