17 winchester super magnum report

Shotgunner12

New member
Bought the savage b mag in 17 wsm about a month or so back. The rifle is fine but the round itself is really the purpose of this write up. I carry the rifle about anytime I'm out except for calling (I grab the .223) and bow hunting. I've been wanting to give the round all the chances it can get for some field experience. So far a whole bunch of tree squirrels have fell to the 17. All in all the gun is too much for squirrels imo. The 25 grainers seem to do more damage than the 20s but both are devistating. The few armadillos that have fell were all either facing me or facing away. The weird part on those is no exits with the 25 or 20s. Just giant blew out entry holes. And drt of course. One coyote has now fell to the 17wsm. This was a target of opportunity while on a walk about. I was sitting against a tree and heard him coming through the woods in trot mode. He had no idea i was around until I whistled at him. He stopped and the b mag hollered. The coyote made two good lunges and tipped over kicked is legs twice more and that was it. In total he went about 6 yards. I don't know what he weighed. He was grown with good teeth on him still. I've never weighed any coyotes I've shot. The bullet made its entrance about an inch behind the shoulder and came out (the real suprising part) about three inches behind the other shoulder. Leaving roughly a dime size exit. Probably smaller. Lung blood was bubbling out pretty good. . The coyote was shot at about 30 yards with the 25 grain winchester bullet. I'm starting to like the 17 wsm round though. I'm still a 22 caliber guy at heart but just might keep the 17 around. I guess I'd place the 17 wsm in that category where it's too much for squirrel and not enough for coyote. But a good target of opportunity bullet. It can get the job done in a pinch with good bullet placement.
 
Good account of the cartridge. Nothing like having in-field experience to share and offer some education to those of us who have been wondering how effective the cartridge might be.

Do you think it will make a good fox cartridge. Fox are not large like coyotes and not small like squirrels so maybe that size animal might be suited more to the 17 wsm.
 
I would think it would do good on fox. But I don't have any experience with fox. The only two fox I've ever encountered were both in traps and were dispatched with the ole stevens 22 lr single shot. I was actually really suprised at how small those little greys were. I know we have fox around i see tracks and scat around but i guess the coyotes kinda keep em in check. Atleast that's what I've heard. Both of those foxes were smaller than a good sized coon.
 
I've only shot small critters with mine, sage rats mostly. The first few rats I shot with my 17 WSM I didn't really see much difference in how it performed on them compared to my HMR, BUT, the first few that I shot were between 35-50 yards. It wasn't until I started stretching things out past 100 yards that I could see much difference in the performance. I switched back and forth between my HMR and WSM one day shooting sage rats and there was a definite difference in the splat factor at 100 yds and a very noticeable difference at 200 yards and beyond. The only thing I've shot in my 17 WSM is the 20 grainers so I have no idea how the 25's perform.

I'm looking forward to comparing my 17 WSM to my 17 Hornet on sage rats come next spring.

If you shoot a lot and you want a small critter gitter with more punch than the HMR or WMR, the 17 WSM would be a good choice, but if you aren't planning on shooting thousands of rounds per year and you want something small, I'd take a real good look at getting a CZ 527 in 17 Hornet.
 
I assume you were shooting the 25 Vmax load, not the 25 HP load?

Thanx for the report. The debate of bullet construction and impact velocity rages on.
 
I was very surprised when the little 25 grain ballistic tip passed through the coyote. Especially when they wouldn't exit out an armadillo length ways. I didn't really do much digging around but I would bet that bullet didn't hit any ribs and just slipped between em. Coulda been a fluke. Only more kills will tell...
 
Here are some pics of animals shot with the .17 WSM . First a coon . I cut away some of the meat to show inside impact. The second pic is off side , no exit. Then some pics of coons and wood chucks . The chucks were shot around my place and are around 20-25 yard shots. No exits , no sign of entrance either. Same with feral cats , no pics cuz of internet . Coons shot center mass no sign of enter and no exit and very little if any blood. Nice clean and very fast dead coons. Daytime coon calling we take around 80 a season so there is that amount of experience and just going to start season 4 with the Bmag. I only use the 20 grainers as the 25s can start to exit on real close shots at the younger sized coons. I love the gun and round just don't hit front leg bone or get marginal hit as it will then make an explosion that is very hard on fur. Head shot on large beaver , lights out. Jim









 
I shortened the barrel on my HB SS Bmag when I had it threaded and was curious to see what, if any, velocity difference there was going from 22 down to 20 so I screwed on my suppressor, attached Magnetospeed and shot a few rounds into three 2x6's that I had stacked together inside of a big thick woodstove we have in our basement. Shot into the 2x6's from about 24 inches away from the Magnetospeeds bayo and MUCH to my surprise they nearly exited those three 2x6's I had stacked up. Cutting a couple inches off my barrel didn't seem to have any affect as my six shot avg. was 2984fps with the 20 grainers.

Also, these things are pretty quiet when shot suppressed because my wife was shocked when I came up from the basement and told her what I had just been doing.
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Originally Posted By: B23 Cutting a couple inches off my barrel didn't seem to have any affect as my six shot avg. was 2984fps with the 20 grainers.



what was the 6 shot average before you cut off the 2 inches?
 
Originally Posted By: SlickerThanSnotOriginally Posted By: B23 Cutting a couple inches off my barrel didn't seem to have any affect as my six shot avg. was 2984fps with the 20 grainers.



what was the 6 shot average before you cut off the 2 inches?

No clue. My HB SS Bmag went straight from the delivery box to the gunsmith that did all the work for me, never fired a single round through it before I dropped it off at the gunsmiths shop so I can't answer that for you but having talked to a few 17 WSM owners and seen a few chronograph reports from other WSM owners, for the most part, they've all been in the 2850-3050 FPS range. The two slowest velocity reports I've seen posted were from the longer barreled Ruger 77/17 WSM rifles. I don't think these rimfires need much more than about 20 inches of barrel length. I know my Sav. 93/17 HMR, consistently, shoots faster at 18in. than it did at 20. I have a friend that cut his CZ 455 down to 17 inches and it shoots faster than it did when it was longer, also.

I'm not a real big fan of 2pc scope mounts so I always put a 1pc rail on everything. I got mine from DIP Inc. They have a few different models of Boyds stocks on hand too so when I ordered my 1pc rail from DIP Inc. I bought a Boyds ProVarmint and a metal trigger guard from them also. The plastic stuff that came with mine was crap.
 
I'm diggin the paint job spiderman!! I bought the 17 wsm for coons since 22 mag bullets are near impossible to find around here but 17 are plentiful. I haven't got one shot on a coon since i got it. I gotta step up my game!!
 
Originally Posted By: Shotgunner12I'm diggin the paint job spiderman!! I bought the 17 wsm for coons since 22 mag bullets are near impossible to find around here but 17 are plentiful. I haven't got one shot on a coon since i got it. I gotta step up my game!!
Kills like a bolt of lightning....like you set off a small bomb inside (oops ...did I say bomb??? )
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I've got the Ruger 77/17 WSM and I love it. Put a Leupold VX 2 3x9 on it and it works fine. I was raised with 22 but I can find shells for this easier than 22 now. Suits me fine. After buying this I'm glad I never bought a 17 HMR.
 
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Originally Posted By: Sgt.Tony Spiderman, do the ferals run far? That's kind of important to know.


Nope. At least the two that I shot with mine(Savage HB SS, in a Boyds thumbhole). Actually I had one take a step just as I pulled the trigger, and hit center...Almost cut in two. This was at about 90 yards with the 20 gr. VMax version...Nasty little bullet. Crows go POFF, and fall like a stone, from the cloud of feathers. Mine gets used for rabbit management around the orchard and garden. There is a pretty gruesome scene when the 17 WSM hits a rabbit. Kind of the same for feral cats.

OHDuYdb.jpg


My sniper position.

Squeeze
 
Originally Posted By: SqueezeOriginally Posted By: Sgt.Tony Spiderman, do the ferals run far? That's kind of important to know.


Nope. At least the two that I shot with mine(Savage HB SS, in a Boyds thumbhole). Actually I had one take a step just as I pulled the trigger, and hit center...Almost cut in two. This was at about 90 yards with the 20 gr. VMax version...Nasty little bullet. Crows go POFF, and fall like a stone, from the cloud of feathers. Mine gets used for rabbit management around the orchard and garden. There is a pretty gruesome scene when the 17 WSM hits a rabbit. Kind of the same for feral cats.

OHDuYdb.jpg


My sniper position.

Squeeze

That is a sweet looking rig!
 


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