17 Hornet Ammo
The 17 Hornet Ammo is a fascinating cartridge with two stories to tell. The first 17 Hornet Ammo was created by P.O. Ackley, a famous cartridge developer back in the 1950s. He took the .22 Hornet and necked it down so it could accept a 17 caliber projectile. As a wildcat cartridge, Ackley’s 17 Hornet Ammo was not commercially produced.
Then in 2002, Hornady rekindled the idea and also updated the previous 17 Hornet Ammo. The idea behind the updates was to reduce noise levels when shot close to human habitations. It was also to provide ammo that was less prone to ricochet. Unfortunately, due to these updates, the 17 Hornet cartridges won’t fire properly in old guns due to the varying case dimensions. You can, however, modify the old guns to shoot the new ammo if you desire.
The primary purpose behind the production of the 17 Hornet Ammo is to hunt predator animals and varmints. The 17 Hornet Ammo is a winner in the speed game when you use lightweight projectiles of 20 and 25 grains. It can easily reach 3,600 feet per second and still have enough energy left at 200 yards to kill predators like a fox. In addition, the recoil on rifles chambered in the 17 Hornet Ammo is surprisingly light.
Therefore, it is an excellent pick for building up experience and improving your basic shooting skills. All these are still achievable while you’re still hunting varmint. Today, there are three different loads of the .17 Hornet Ammo, with Hornady and Winchester as the manufacturers.
The .17 Winchester Super Magnum (aka .17 WSM) is the fastest, flattest-shooting rimfire cartridge ever created. The .17 WSM cartridge, as you can see below, is significantly larger than the .17 HMR, and can deliver a 3000-fps muzzle velocity with a 20gr bullet, compared to about 2375 fps for .17 HMR 20gr ammo. That’s 26% more speed, which translates to a much flatter trajectory — a big deal when you’re shooting small varmints out to 300 yards.
The .17 WSM has been around for a while, but there have been limited selections of rifles chambered for this speedy rimfire round. Savage is changing that. Savage just announced that it will offer its A17-series rifles chambered in .17 WSM. Currently choose from two models with laminated wood stocks: the A17 WSM Sporter and A17 WSM Target Thumbhole. Both rifles feature a delayed-blowback, semi-automatic action specifically designed for the 17 HMR and 17 WSM cartridges. And both rifles boast 22″ button-rifled barrels, user-adjustable AccuTriggers, and 10-round rotary-feed internal magazines.
