.17wsm coyote

Originally Posted By: deerslyr1I used the 20 grain V-max bullets. I'd like to see other company's make a gun. I'm not crazy about the gun and it's cock on close. But it's accurate enough to take coyotes to 125yds to maybe 150....beyond that I think know there is to much wind drift and bullet drop for my liking. I mainly bought it because it is a night time legal gun here in mass.
A lot easier on fur than my .243 &.223

Be careful. With that caliber it is not legal in our state..No larger than a 22 lr at night
 
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Quote:Be careful. With that caliber it is not legal in our state..No larger than a 22 lr at night

How is that determined? By case size? Velocity or bullet diameter?
 
I have to use rimfire at night here in SC and had great results with the 17 wsm last year. The round was adequate but Savage could have done better building the Bmag. I am down for a while with my foot in a cast so I sold the Bmag and ordered the Franklin Armory F-17 L....can't wait for the call to go pick it up!
 
Originally Posted By: Saskcoyote78

Quote:Be careful. With that caliber it is not legal in our state..No larger than a 22 lr at night

How is that determined? By case size? Velocity or bullet diameter?

It reads can not chamber larger than a 22lr......@night
 
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Originally Posted By: twhiteyOriginally Posted By: Saskcoyote78

Quote:Be careful. With that caliber it is not legal in our state..No larger than a 22 lr at night

How is that determined? By case size? Velocity or bullet diameter?

It reads can not chamber larger than a 22lr......@night
Exactly.... .17 rimfire is considered a lesser caliber in our lovely state
 
I had the same misfire on one round. I pulled the bullet and the priming compound covers only half of the case. The other half is absolutely bare. I took pictures but they did not come out very good.
 
Originally Posted By: deerslyr1Originally Posted By: twhiteyOriginally Posted By: Saskcoyote78

Quote:Be careful. With that caliber it is not legal in our state..No larger than a 22 lr at night

How is that determined? By case size? Velocity or bullet diameter?

It reads can not chamber larger than a 22lr......@night
Exactly.... .17 rimfire is considered a lesser caliber in our lovely state

So how do they feel about the .17Hornet, Fireball, Remington, or 20Vartarg, Practical, 204Ruger, 19 Calhoon....? Bigger cases with smaller bullets, just like the 17WSM that you're saying is considered legal.

If it's based on caliber, then "cannot chamber larger than 22LR" and is defined as "larger caliber" then it is very ambiguous, as technically all 22cal centerfires are smaller caliber than 22Long Rifle (0.2255" Saami diameter for 22LR, 0.2245" for 22cal bullets) so if it's only based on caliber, I'd be using a 223rem.

I know the hunting laws get kinda screwy in some states, especially out East, but if that's really true that caliber is what matters, that's super screwy.
 
How is the law written? Does it say 22 cal rimfire? In which case the 22 mag and 17 hmr would be ok. If it says 22 long rifle then I would consult a game warden about the regs.
 
Quoting the MA hunting regulation booklet as found on page 32 of the Ebooklet found at:
Massachusetts Hunting Regulation E-Booklet

Quote:Hunting Prohibitions:

Rifles chambered to take ammunition larger than .22 caliber long rifle rimfire, and pistols and revolvers chambered to take ammunition larger than .38 caliber, between the hours of 1/2 hour after sunset and 1/2 hour before sunrise.

So that's pretty vague. I would read that to mean ammo has to be smaller than the 22 long rifle, physically, so 17HMR, 22WMR, and 17WSM wouldn't be legal.
 
I sent my gun back to savage so we will see what happens. I just found out that American Eagle also makes 17 wsm ammo wonder how that will compare to winchester
 
Ya it's really iffy honestly if it's legal or not in ma. My end goal is to get a pre 94 xp100 built. But they are pricy too...
I'm going to call my game warden buddy and get his input on this subject.
 
well...shot another coyote with the .17wsm with not good results . dropped in his tracks on the shot then got up and took off , tracked 300 + yds ...no blood looked as [beeep] he was dragging a front leg. only thing I can think is I hit the front shoulder and it splashed on the hit.
 
Originally Posted By: deerslyr1Ya it's really iffy honestly if it's legal or not in ma. My end goal is to get a pre 94 xp100 built. But they are pricy too...
I'm going to call my game warden buddy and get his input on this subject.

Please post or pm your buddies response, i'm interested to know. The law is written in such a way that it is open ended and the officer can interpret it however he/she pleases.
 
When a 17 WSM rifle is sited 1.5 inches high using a 20 grain bullet at 100 yards the bullet will hit 1.1 inches low at 200 yards and 5.3 inches low at 250 yards. per info on www.chuckhawks.com But the 20 grain bullet has only 155 ft/lb of energy at 250 yards which is plenty of energy for shooting three pound prairie dogs. But for shooting a 30 pound critter the bullet would best be put into the heart lung area and miss any larger bones. Since first reading about the 17 WSM cartridge I have wonted to give it a try. I have read about problems with the first model Savage B Mag rifle and Winchester ammo at various web sites . Savage now has a new B Mag Target model that has a wood stock and a heaver barrel and Ruger may be coming out with a 17 WSM rifle. By the time I get a 17 WSM rifle I ll try out the Hornady, Federal, and Winchester ammo to see if any will shoot 3/4 inch 100 yard groups. For shooting prairie dogs at 250 yards it takes an accurate rifle. I m a 17 caliber fan and shoot 17 HM2, 17 HMR, 17 Hornet, and 17 Rem cartridge rifles.
 
got my 17 back from savage they did not say what was wrong with it but took it to range and shot 100 rounds with no misfires and no problem with new magazine feeding rounds into chamber. tried american eagle ammo and groups did tighten up about a 1/2 inch better at 100 yards and hitting slightly higher that Winchester ammo. the rifle may not be constructed the best but I think for a rim fire cartridge it is a great caliber hopefully in the near future I can try it out on a few coyotes
 
Some more info on the WSM ammo. Some have known of the split cases, misfired rds, etc. I recently acquired the Franklin Armory F-17L. It was having some issues with fail to feed and fail to fire, about 2 out of 5 rounds. I saw way too many split cases coming out of it and even one round that just burnt through the side of the case without firing the bullet.

I called Franklin Armory and talked to Ryan, great guy. In troubleshooting the fail to feed issue I was given great info. If you have the Winchester ammo that was made prior to June of last year, Winchester will swap it out with you. Their newer runs of ammo, after June, should have no issues with cases and misfires like the older lot numbers. Franklin Armory took my gun back for warranty, tweaked the gas port and I picked up some brand new boxes of ammo. They had the gun back to me in less than 2 weeks. Fired some new ammo and it runs flawlessly, 200+ rds with zero failure. It doesn't care for the 25 gr rds, but the 20 gr rds are shooting 5 shot groups inside of a quarter at 100 so I'm more than happy with it.
 
Thanks for the update NoName1. I have been looking at them but the ammo is still iffy for me. Bought a Volquartsen in HMR and sold my WSM. I shot one coyote with my WSM and it ran about 60 yards.
Dave
 
So did anyone ever determine if the accuracy issues were because of the ammo or the gun or was it a combo of both? Seems like the ammo must be in good supply now as my wife has bought me a box every day for the last couple of weeks (still a one box a day limit though at Cabelas.)
 
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