by Highwinder [ posted: 29.May.2007 12:12 PM ] [dura-link][Print]
I have a nephew who will be acompanying me to MT this year for the week-long prairie dog extermination excursion. With all his funds wrapped up in air fair to get to my location before the road trip begins, as well as living in California (land of gun-toting politicians who are out to ban everyone else's guns), it fell upon me to come up with a rifle for him to use for the trip.
The only spare rifle I have other than my 223 AR (Bushmaster Varminter) is a Ruger 10/22, a rather nice stainless one. I was intending on him using this rifle, as it has a bipod and scope and I have tons of ammo for it. But even though I've read reports of people taking a 22LR to the dog towns, I know darned well that anything below 17HMR can be virtually useless out there. Well, necessity is the mother of invention, right? Add to this some really bad guilt I was putting myself through for how horrible I knew that 10/22 would prove to be for my nephew. I'd be having all the fun.
So here I am in a dilemma: I need rifle similar to a Ruger 10/22 for my nephew to use, but it needs to be a semi-auto for follow-up shots and so the kid doesn't make his fingers bleed from all the realoading day in and day out for an entire week. It also needs a bipod, better scope, maybe a more comfortable stock, and oh yeah - it needs to shoot farther than a pathetic 50 yards. But Ruger no longer offers the 10/22 Magnum. Nor did they even continue with that wicked little 10/17 (17HMR). Sucks to be me.
My solution: Upgrade the 10/22 to the next best thing: 17HM2 ("Mach 2"). Though 17HM2 doesnt deserve much praise in the true varmint hunting world, it certainly does a fantastic job of being able to convert any popular 22LR into something twice as fast with twice the range and that at least pushes V-max's out of the barrel. It's flat as a laser out to 100 yards and is still traveling faster at 150 yards than 22LR is at the muzzle. Since this rifle will also be my primary bunny gun around my parents' place throughout the year as well (17HM2 is actually pretty quiet), I'll take it.
So I did it right. I looked at the popular Magnum Research 10/22 upgrade kit, but I finally decided to dump the bucks on the E. A. Brown stainless, fluted bull barrel 10/22 upgrade kit (stunningly beautiful), went with a Fajen Legacy adjustable target stock (black composite) and a total overkill monster Barska 50mm varmint scope (6.5-20 - ridiculous, I know, but lots of fun and my nephew will love it).
Boy am I glad that this 17HM2 upgrade stuff is around. Talk about breathing new life into 22LR. This rifle proved to be fantastic once I got it sighted in. Oh, did I mention this entire bolt-on upgrade only took me about 20 minutes sitting in front of the TV? After getting it right on paper targets, I took it over to dad's to try it out. Just couldnt wait to see what this tiny little round (17gr v-max being pushed by only 3 grains of powder or something like that) could do.
I thwacked a medium-sized cottontail with it, which I figured to be average prairie dog sized. Though it didnt launch it into the air or explode it into a cloud of mist, it did kill it instantly (not a wisker twitch) and turned one whole side of that rabbit into a mess of guts the likes of which I hadnt seen since I was in the dog towns. It also produced a good, audible "thwack". That will do just fine. :-) Oh yeah, it was a 75 yard shot. And the 17HM2 ammo proved to be pretty low-noise, comparable with the Remington Subsonic 22LR. Sweet! (we have lots of sensitive neighbors close by).
The most I've ever seen that rifle do as a 22LR, be it the quiet Remington subsonics or the hard-hitting Yellow Jackets, was put little holes in rabbits that required one or two more follow up shots, complete with tiny exit wounds that produced very annoying bouncing richochets that would sometimes hit the neighbor's metal barn (grrr!). Now it kills 'em dead - one shot, complete with medium pile of guts and no richochets.
Now that's what I call progress!
So now I have a "usable" PD rifle for my nephew to use, one that he will be excited to use when he sees it (very impressive looking silver and black thing - I'll get a picture posted tonight). Not as cool as my Bushmaster Varminter AR, but at least he'll feel "included". It is, after all, cool looking, shoots v-max bullets like a laser out to 100 and is reliable out to 150 before it starts to really drop, and it's semi-auto. And yes, there's that "pile of guts" thing too. He'll love it. ;-)
I know it can be argued that the money I spent on this upgrade could have easily purchased a Savage or some other similar rifle in a more capable cartridge. But I also had to take into account that I needed to build the rifle for dual purpose use (low-noise solution to our local rabbit problem, 22LR just wasnt cutting it).
We'll also be in cammos and creeping around the dog towns on our bellies, so he'll get to enjoy lots of close range shots under 150 yards (often under 100), which this 17HM2 is perfect for.
I'll let everyone know how the hunt goes. I would like to say this again, however: With me being a huge autoloader fan, I sure am glad this 17 "Mach 2" stuff is around to breath new life into such fun products as the Ruger 10/22. It really pains me that Ruger dropped the 10/17 (17HMR version of the 10/22) and the 10/22 Magnum (easily upgradable to 17HMR with aftermarket kits). Oh well, at least I have something tolerable for my nephew to use now, and the rabbits around my parents place have a whole new set of problems to contend with.
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FYI: The 17HM2 is basically a 22LR cartridge (based on the CCI Stinger) that has been necked down to hold a .17 cal. V-Max bullet. Because it is based on 22LR rimfire, any popular 22LR rifle can be rechambered for it. The 17HM2 cartridges fit and feed fine in 22LR magazines, clips and actions. Autoloaders such as 10/22s need a bolt handle weight adjustment (for proper timing), and are commonly included in most 17HM2 upgrade kits. Neat stuff, I had a lot of fun with this little project. :-)