Originally Posted By: OKRattlerI'll give a few examples of experiences I've had with a few different .17HMR bullets to contribute to this thread a little bit.
I've seen a jackrabbit run about 15 yards after taking a hit through the neck with a V-Max.It's juglar vein was damaged pretty severely and it was leakin quite a bit but it still ran.That's not something you would expect to happen but that's a good example of how a fox could run 10 yards even after taking a solid hit.Every once in a while you'll find one of those critters that's a little tougher than normal even if you put a good shot on it that would normally drop something in it's tracks.
One other time a buddy of mine shot a feral cat in the shoulder with a V-Max and didn't have very good results.Another shot was needed because all it did was break its shoulder and put a pretty good sized hole in it.I learned a lesson from this....don't shoot stuff in the shoulder.I like the V-Max bullets but I try for head or neck shots most of the time.Anything hit from the nose up will drop where it's standing.
In Oklahoma it's legal to use a .17HMR for turkey in the Fall so I decided to shoot one with my .17HMR a few years ago.When I finally got a shot at one I found out pretty quick that shooting a turkey in the head with a rifle is harder than it sounds because they move around alot.So I chose to shoot it in front of the right wing and then the V-Max did it's job.When I was cleanin the turkey I noticed the top part of the right lung was demolished.I also found bullet fragments close to the heart.I don't know how far that would mean the bullet penetrated but I can tell you that it did alot of damage.
And since we're talking about how different bullets perform I'll mention the time that I got a pretty good idea of how fast the CCI TNT's expand.A few years back I shot 3 starlings setting on a fence post with one shot.The starling first in line had a .17 caliber hole in front and a slightly bigger hole in its back.The second one in line got blown in half.The starling standing behind the first two basically disintigrated.The only thing left to find was its head.That's kind of a penetration test aint it? 
Now that's some real world results! I bet most of us wish animals would line up nice for us like that and hold still once in a while for a good test like that!
