SmallCaliberCentral

Just wondering what you guys opinions are on what is accepitble accuracy out of a stock .17hmr? I just bought a new in box cz 453 in .17, i have a 527 varmint in .204 and am impressed with its accuracy. I decided to sell my savage 93 stainless heavy barrel .17hmr to my brother and get the 453. I put a leupy 4-12x40ao on it. First time at bench with the 17gr vmax i was NOT impressed. 2" at 50yd. The barrel was laying down on front of stock badly so i sanded that out so barrel is now floated. Definitely improved the groups but most are still around an inch at 50. Not what id call a tack driver. I picked up some 20gr xtp to try and theyre even worse. Need to try some other brands and hope one will be better i guess. Not sure how good the .17hmr ammo is anymore, iv had one for 15yrs and almost seems the ammo isnt as good of quality as it used to be......maybe 1" at 50 is what most call acceptible for an hmr? I use the 17 for sparrows and starlings around the farm so small targets, i need good accuracy. The set trigger and craftsmanship of the 453 is very impressive and puts the savage to shame, but the accuracy........verdict still out.

I got a savage 93f bull barrel and using 17 grain winchesters or hornady its doing quarter size groups at 100 yards.even my wife did a half dollar size group n she cant hit too good

My CZ 455 in 17HMR, with the standard/light barrel will do 1 inch or less at 100, with the Hornady or CCI ammo. Closer to 1/2 inch at fifty. Bill K

Bill k,im cheating.dead calm day ,bipod ,solid table.but those little pills are deadly for size

Maybe I and my partner are also, we use bipods and/or front & rear bags on a solid bench/rest also. But they are deadly out to about 150-200 yards. Bill K (As a side note my shooting partner, usually beats my groups slightly, and he shoots a Savage model in his 17 HMR) but it also has the varmint contour barrel. Maybe I should have got the varmint contour on my CZ American.

Maybe i got a dud. I paid a premium to find a 453 new in box for the single set trigger. Im hoping it will like a different ammo better than the two hornadys iv tried. Havent found any around here yet. Im shooting prone off bipod and sand bags rear. Its a solid set up.

I did just look in my box the 453 came in and looked at the test target they shot at the factory. Looks just like one of my groups.....3 touching and two close to an inch away. They shot at 50meters. So i guess what iv been shooting is acceptible to them.

kWm wrote: ↑Tue Nov 14, 2017 7:17 am Maybe i got a dud. I paid a premium to find a 453 new in box for the single set trigger. Im hoping it will like a different ammo better than the two hornadys iv tried. Havent found any around here yet. Im shooting prone off bipod and sand bags rear. Its a solid set up.

Maybe a little bedding/trigger work would help you improve the groups. I did obtain the lighter trigger spring kit and put into mine, which did improve the let off and all. Much smoother. Also made sure the barrel channel was floating and not touching in spots.

After that first range session of 2" at 100 is when i checked the barrel channel. I had to take quite a bit out of right at the end it was setting on the tip pretty hard. But it is floated now and the trigger is wonderful. Its the 453 model with single set trigger just like the 527 centerfires. What makes me wonder if it could b a bedding or ammo issue is most the groups iv shot, there will be 2to4 out of 5 either cutting holes or are very nice and tight. Then a stray one or few that felt like they shouldve gone with the others at trigger pull......its accurate enough iv been exploding starlings at 50-75yrd and beyond but my hit percentage definitely goes down out past 75 With my savage as long as it was pretty calm and a good rest a starling at 100 wasnt a real tough shot.

2" @50yards that first session****

I read somewhere a big batch of 17 hmr was loaded light.cant remember where but hornady loads most of the 17hmr for winchester n couple others.read they are using little gun full case compressed load.but then gun writers write what makes sales.remember the 5mm remington? I got suckerpunched with 1.and the tcm 22 to me is a 5mm remington

I have read that cci makes all the different hmr ammo with each brands components to their specs and puts each brands wrapper on them.

I read that all polymer tipped winchester, federal, cci, and remington are all loaded by cci in Idaho and are exactly the same beside the tip color, the headstamp, and packaging. Iv read good things about the cci with speer bullet i think those will b my next try to see if tgey do any better than the hornadys.

Ahh you might be right cci speer loads most.been long time back when i read it.might be 1 of those dont shoot good but put em in another box n dang they are the best

You might consider using a rimfire gauge. I found as much as .003 difference in rim thickness in a box, both Hornady and CCI.
In my 17 HMR, Savage93, there was a slight difference in accuracy among the rim thickness. One thickness seemed to shoot a
tighter group over the others. Testing was done at 50 yards. My shooting buddy, Bill K, also tried this and also noticed a slight
difference in group size.