22WMR or 17HMR for coons?

swift one

swift one

New member
I would like to state up front that I am not planning on using this on coyotes. I might try my and take a fox with it, but I am mainly going after coon with it. I like the super accuracy of the 17, but I like the extra foot pounds of energy of the 22. is the 22WMR really a below average accurate round?

I have a buddy that has a Savage Model 93R17-FSS and the HMR did well quickly dispatching a couple of feral cats. I really like the feel of the rifle and see that they make one in 22WMR. I really like the 93FSS in 22WMR.

Any opinions?
 
We took five coons Tuesday night with one shot each from a 22LR using Subsonic Target ammo. I am sure any of the ones mentioned will work fine. a coon is an easy target when you have a light in his eyes.
 
If all you care about is hitting them in the body somewhere you could use the 22 mag. But if you want to hit them in the eyeball get the 17 HMR.

You can see that I have had bad experiences with the 22 mag's accuracy. Never heard anybody complain about the hummer's accuracy no matter what rifle it is in.
 
varmint Master,

What 22mag are you shooting?

sqrle1,

I have shot the 17M2 and it's a nice accurate little round. However, I am wanting something just a little more powerful.
 
17 will kill like lightning on coons and it is also more accurate of the two so you should be able to 'eyeball' them out to 100 yards with no problems.

Keep your shots above the stomach and they will drop like no other.

Energy difference between the two is 250+/- for the HMR and 300+/- for the MAG. Honestly, there is no gain in energy when we are talking about small varmint cartridges. Energy is needed for big game hunting where you need to slam a bullet through tough skin and bone. What you are looking for is velocity...whereas the HMR is king in rimfire configuration.
 
I'd also suggest using the 20 grain bullets to make sure. I've tried the 17 grainers out, and they don't seem to achieve the knockdown kills unless you nail em in the head. A little more leeway and forgiveness this way I think.
 
I am shooting the Winchester model 250M and a Marlin 922 m 22mag auto loader. I am going to order a after maket trigger for it. I love both of them. VM

I have talk to people that fox hunt with a 22 mag and a few bought a new 17 HMR and they didnt do the job on the fox like the 22 mag did. That is just my .02 cents worth. VM
 
my friends and i where out shooting jackrabbits one day and two of us were shooting the 17. hmr and the other a 22. mag well long story short our buddy with the 22. shot rabbits but took a couple of shots to kill em even if he hit em in the chest but our 17.s dropped them like a rock in one shot
 
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my friends and i where out shooting jackrabbits one day and two of us were shooting the 17. hmr and the other a 22. mag well long story short our buddy with the 22. shot rabbits but took a couple of shots to kill em even if he hit em in the chest but our 17.s dropped them like a rock in one shot



how far were you shooting those jacks?? i hunt them with an air gun as well as with a 22LR. with the air gun i keep shots within 25-30 meters, but with the 22LR, the longest kill shot i have recorded was 120 steps (about 90 meters). it was bang flop if you can say that. the jack didnt even took one step. i have probably taken longer shots, i cant tell for sure, but that one is the longest one i have measured since i was surprised. and it wasnt even a .22 mag, i was using a 22 LR.

sometimes we use the .22 mag for jacks also. but last time we used it, we had 3 that had their guts hanging out. it was so messy we didnt even picked them up.
 
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(snip)but I am mainly going after coon with it. I like the super accuracy of the 17, but I like the extra foot pounds of energy of the 22. is the 22WMR really a below average accurate round?(SNIP)

I really like the 93FSS in 22WMR.




I killed a raccoon a couple of weeks ago with my 22WMR, and it did just fine, about forty yards, dead within seconds.

I have the Savage 93F (but not stainless), and I love it. I kill squirrels regularly at distances of 50-100 yards, sometimes a little further, using shooting sticks.
 
King Catfish,

What bullet/load did you use for the raccoon? I have a Marlin 925 Camo rifle that shoots Remington Premier 33 grain V-Max great. It is very accurate, but I haven't shot any game with it yet. Have you had any experience with the V-Max load?
 
I use PMC Predator softpoints, 40 gr. I tried Winchester Dynapoints, but found their accuracy to be inconsistent. I have not even tried more expensive ammo yet.
 
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My vote is for the 17HMR, because the 22 mag will "usually" go all the way through a coon, and if the coon is treed, where the bullet ends up is anyone's guess!
The 17HMR has very little chance for a pass-through!
 
Has anyone tried the new .17 game points? I'm not a big fan of the 17 because the bullets tend to break apart too soon on bigger varmints (groundhog size or bigger). My brother's 17 can literally drive a nail through a piece of wood at 50 yards but big groundhogs tend to run back in their holes when hit in the body. Groundhogs aren't raccoons though, so maybe you would have better luck with the 17 HMR than my brother has.
 
this might sound weird but i was out shootin rabits with my 22mag and i ended up shooting one in the body and it didnt go through i was shooting 40 gr tmj's basicly fmj's and i have shoot a [beeep] load of coons with this rifle and only one or 2 blow throughs definately one my most favorite rifles my vote is 22 mag all the way
 
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