Hornet Questions

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leej

leej

Well-Known Member
Morning all, I'm thinking of moving away from 17HMR and have a few questions that hopefully some members with experience might be able to help me with. The rifle will be mainly used for rabbits and the odd fox encountered on bunny sorties. The realistic alternatives for me will be 17hornet or 22hornet and eventually I'll be reloading.
Firstly, how many manufacturers are now chambering for the 17hornet?
How does muzzle report compare in both these calibres and compare to the HMR? (I will be using a mod anyway)
Pro's and con's of both hornets (against each other)
Will a SAK mod be effective on either of the hornets?
Thanks in advance for any helpfull replies
ATB Lee
 
Depends rather on whether you want to sell your rabbits, the two Hornets can be pretty devastating compared with the 17HMR.

As far as reloading is concerned, if you are shooting a lot of rabbits do you really want to be spending all that time reloading? The 22 Hornet is easy enough to reload once you have mastered it, having used all three of these I would think the 17Hornet would be a bit of a fiddle to reload.

The 17 Hornet is very accurate and flat shooting and will take down a fox at sensible ranges, personally I think the 17HMR is possibly still the best option for rabbits but I do love my 22 Hornet and it will do pretty well everything I need it to. It's just a nice calibre.
 
Thankyou old keeper, I headshoot the rabbits and keep nearly all of them so impact damage is not a problem. I'm not shooting mass quantities and enjoy reloading so no probs there either.
Can you enlighten me on the report side of things please as I've never heard either of them used?
Thanks again Lee
 
I have considered the WMR, but want to avoid the possibility of ammo supply issues and I've got 22lr and just fancy reloading for a small CF. This totally eliminates supply problems. I've had several ammo issues with the HMR (different batches, mis-fires, split cases etc) and I've also seen the consequences of a squib round in my father's HMR. He's lucky to still have all his fingers! I've got 22-250 for out and out fox blitzing, and suppose I just really fancy the sound of hornet, and most prob the 17 version, as I do like the characteristics of the 17 round i.e fast and flat shooting without really going up to 17REM.
Thanks for the replies though. Anyone using 17hornet?
ATB Lee
 
I've just switched to 0.22H for my bunny gun having previously used .17HMR and .22WMR, I don't shoot in massive numbers generally 5-10 stopping at 10 if not going to the dealer as processing the rabbits the next day takes too long with big bags!

I was initially interested in the 0.17 but chatting to 2 RFDs they gave me highlighted that there is a much wider choice of consumables for the 0.22 and it was a tried and tested calibre, I got told secondhand of how some people had had .17s and struggled to get them to shoot and first hand by a couple of people of how good they are.

I went for the 0.22 in the end and haven't regretted it one bit, loading for around 28p per round, its very accurate out to 100 opening out to around 3-4" at 200 but I am using 35gr v-max which don't have the best BC, I think with a heavier bullet the 200 yard group would shrink.

It does similar damage to body shot rabbits to the 55gr BT coning out of my 0.223 but as you say if you head shoot its not an issue, noise wise modded it is marginally louder than the HMR and WMR with a bit more of a crack, much quieter than the 0.223 though.
 
I think the sak would be out of it's comfort zone on the .22 hornet,couldn't say re the .17hmr.
I used a t4 mod on my hornet. Nicely proportioned (much less bulk than the t8),not too heavy, not too expensive and it's quiet.
 
Thanks Boydy47 and private fraser, your input is greatfully received. I thaught I'd be asking a bit too much of the SAK (only asked as I already have it on my HMR).
I'd still really like to hear from anybody with first hand experience with 17hornet? I wonder where Muir is? He's bound to have one! I think I'll PM him.
Thanks again men.
ATB Lee
 
SAK mods are rated for hornet according to Jacksons I believe, early DM80 on mine does a good job and doesn't add too much length
 
Last edited:
I used a 17Hornet but thought it was neither fish nor fowl! As I think I said before if you are shooting a lot of rabbits then reloading is a bit of a nightmare. If its only the odd few then not so much of a problem.
It's too much rifle for rabbits (even if you do headshot them) much noisier than a 22LR and louder than the 17HMR. It's not as good for fox as a 222 or 223. I thought it could replace my 17HMR and the 223 but it couldn't.
It's a bit of fun though and good for the odd long range crow and rabbit. Is noise a major problem as they all make a fair noise (22LR excepted) even with a decent mod. I wouldn't use a SAK on the Hornet.
 
I have had a 17 Ackley Hornet for 5 years or so and dont rate it as a fox round using 20 gr bullets. Have yet to try 25s but I dont want a wounded fox. Superb on maggies, crows, rabbits etc but if you want to eat the rabbit then head shots only.

If foxes are likely to feature regularly then if using a small case then use the 22 version, friend of mine has 1000 fox kills to his BRNO 22 Hornet over 40 years.

A
 
I second that sentiment

Mirrors my experiences
.17HMR has been perfect for rabbits, 20gr Gamepoint minimal meat damage, been very reliable no issues in 10 years, Sako Quad, bought it in 22WMR, nowhere near as accurate, and very destructive on rabbits. I shoot an Anschutz 1730 .22 K Hornet, great little round but its no rabbit gun, and a bit limited for fox 150 m is best, so I use my .223 or .22-250 out to 300-350 ranged.

Before I got the Quad I had a Ruger M77 .17HMR, factory barrel was pants - swapped it out for a Green Mountain Fluted stainless HB,
transformed it into a tack driver - before that I had shot hundreds of rabbits with a Ruger 10/22 also with a Green Mountain Fluted stainless HB, very accurate but .22RF is too much like a rainbow, the reason I bought a rangefinder - rarely use it now.

For rabbits - .17RF cant be beat, I say 17 RF because I have recently bought a Varmint .17Mach2 barrel for the quad, ideal if you have a lot of rabbits to cull as the ammo is half the price.

my experience for what its worth

FlyBoy270

old keeper said:
I used a 17Hornet but thought it was neither fish nor fowl! As I think I said before if you are shooting a lot of rabbits then reloading is a bit of a nightmare. If its only the odd few then not so much of a problem.
It's too much rifle for rabbits (even if you do headshot them) much noisier than a 22LR and louder than the 17HMR. It's not as good for fox as a 222 or 223. I thought it could replace my 17HMR and the 223 but it couldn't.
It's a bit of fun though and good for the odd long range crow and rabbit. Is noise a major problem as they all make a fair noise (22LR excepted) even with a decent mod. I wouldn't use a SAK on the Hornet.
Click to expand...
 
leej said:
Just out of interest Boydy47, which rifle did you opt for?
Click to expand...

I went for a second hand CZ527 which Muir will confirm is a very good option, the only downside is mag length restricts COL. To around 1.74" so if you wanted to load say a 45gr V-max the rounds have to be single loaded. Less of a problem if you use hollow points though.

I respectfully disagree that it's not a bunny gun if you don't shoot a huge amount of rabbits, 50 rounds takes me a couple of hours to load and lasts me a couple of months. If I had a lot of rabbits to cull I would agree though as the time taken to load would outweigh the benefit and I'd go WMR.

If you get into cast bullets you can bring power down to .22LR power levels or you can load up close to .223 velocities so it's fairly versatile.

I bet a lot of people would be keen to try .17WSM as a rabbiter if they managed to sort it and get it over here, .22H could easily be tailored to similar levels.
 
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