Looking for .17HMR Bolt Rifle

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Striker1

New member
Due to the ongoing shortage of .22 LR ammo in my area, I am considering a .17 HMR rifle so I have some options. My criteria are:

$200-250 range
Reliable
Accuracy - 1" or less at 50 yds
Trigger - Good (not match grade) trigger
Stock - Wood, Laminate or Synthetic Stock - probably synth as it may take some knocks afield. Needs to work well with a scope. Thumbhole stocks will not be considered.

From my limited research, it looks like Marlin or Savage are within my specs.

Thanks for all experienced suggestions
 
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4EVERM-14

New member
It's going to be hard to beat the Savage for value. I'm very happy with my CZ but that's out of your budget. A friend has a Savage. Excellent trigger. Easily makes your 1" requirement and in your budget. A low price scope like the Sweet 17 and it's off to the races. I doubt any disappointment.
 
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Striker1

New member
It's going to be hard to beat the Savage for value. I'm very happy with my CZ but that's out of your budget. A friend has a Savage. Excellent trigger. Easily makes your 1" requirement and in your budget. A low price scope like the Sweet 17 and it's off to the races. I doubt any disappointment.
Click to expand...

I love CZ's (have a CZ550) but not going to spend major coin this time. What ranges have you guys been able to go out to?
 
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Kimber84

New member
I was between savage and marlin, I ended up buying the Marlin. To me everything about it just felt better than the savage. It would shoot lights out and I killed many groundhogs at 200-225 yards with it. As long as you take headshots at that range it would knock them dead.
 
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NWCP

New member
Spend the extra money and get a CZ. My CZ 452 Varmint in 17HMR is a real tack driver. I dropped a Timney trigger into it and just made the groups even tighter.
 
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Daggitt

New member
Have two Savage 93's and I highly recommend them. The 93 with the stainless Bull barrel and thumbhole stock is one of my favorites.
 
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DealHunter

New member
Have a Marlin Xt-17v and CZ 455 (barrel swap). The CZ is the nicer rifle to be fair, but unless you'll use it a lot you need to see if it's worth it to you (CZ is 400 by me, Marlin is 240; was a non issue for me since I just bought the CZ barrel).
 
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Striker1

New member
Well today I had a look at the Savage (wood stock) for $269 and Marlin (synthetic) for $249.

My impression was there isn't much difference between the two...well maybe except for the Marlin's magazine. Both were heavy barrel and even had the same type scope ring base.

Now it's time to start shopping for the best deal.
 
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BIG P

New member
I've got the Marlin heavy barrel found it on the used rack at the LGS. 169.00 took it home slicked up the trigger a little put a sweet 17 scope on it & I'm good. No trouble doing groundhogs & foxsquirrels @ 200yds. neat little rifle for the money.
 
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FrankenMauser

New member
The Savage magazine construction, and the safety location, irritate me.

I prefer the Marlin rifles for those reasons and more - not the least of which is that the Marlin magazine catch doesn't extend as far from the stock.
That sounds trivial, but it can make a big difference if you carry the rifle with a sling (even with the "flush fit" magazines, the Savage magazine and mag catch will stab you in the back more). The Savage version is also more prone to snagging on gun cases and clothing. And, the Marlin magazines don't get tweaked or bent out of shape, if someone happens to drop one or (god forbid) step on one.

I would buy the Marlin.
Some of it is personal preference. Some of it is ergonomics. Most of it is based on magazine quality and construction, and magazine catch design. It's just a nice bonus that they're cheaper... ;)
 
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Strazznah

New member
Savage is the way to go!

Have a 93 with a Sweet 17 scope on it. one of my favorite rifles in my safe. Never had an issue with it. It shoots better than I can
 
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Striker1

New member
Okay, the deal is done...got the Marlin XT-17V. After comparing the two side by side, it came down to the magazines (4 & 7 rd), magazine release and I really like the brown laminate stock VS the Savage hard wood stock. The stock also has a nice semi beaver-tail forend. Barrel is free-floated too. I also picked up some Win 20 gr HPs and CCI 17 gr HPs to test.

Got it home and mounted a Bushnell Elite 3200 10X scope in Leupold Rifleman rings so after I clean it later today, we should be ready to take it for a spin tomorrow.

Some initial observations after closer inspection. I noticed I could move the barrel a little from side to side so checked the stock screws and all were loose. Also, the factory Weaver type ring mounts are canted to the side a little...whether this will affect accuracy or sight adjustments remains to be seen. Trigger seems good enough but a little rough...hopefully it will wear in as time goes by.

Anyway, thanks to all who helped by offering their insights. If anyone's interested, I will do a short range report later this week.
 
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FrankenMauser

New member
Congrats. You should enjoy it.

The tweaked scope base(s) sounds a bit odd, but hopefully everything works out.

After comparing the two side by side, it came down to the magazines (4 & 7 rd)
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention the Marlin 4-round magazines in my post. If you do any hiking/walking with that rifle, you will absolutely love that magazine.

I bought an 882 (.22 WMR) before they offered the 4-round magazine, and had to deal with the 7-rounders always stabbing my in the back or bumping some shooting rests. Once they came out with the 4-rounders, and I tried one, I never went back to the 7-rounders except as a back-up magazine. (I carry the 7-round in my left back pocket, carry spare ammo in my right front pocket, and keep a 4-round in the rifle, while pursuing squirrels/rabbits/etc. When the 4-round runs dry, I can slap the 7-round in while reloading the 4-rounder or continuing the slaughter.)
 
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Striker1

New member
Hi all,

Took the new Marlin XT-17V out for the first time Friday and fired two type rounds; Winchester 20 gr HPs and CCI TNT 17 Gr HP's.

Now for the interesting part. I started with the Winchester ammunition and the first two shots resulted in a failure to extract caused by split case necks....switched over to the CCI ammo and had no further problems. Initial grouping at 100 yds was nonexistent...shots were scattered within about 3 inches. Moved to the 50 yd line and continued to fire...eventually the rifle seemed to settle in and groups tightened up. I was shooting at 1" pasters and eventually got a 5 round group in the one inch range. At this point I just continued to fire at the same target for the remaining rounds without concentrating so much on group size...the barrel did get a bit warm.

All in all, I would say the firing was inconclusive. As the day wore on, I became more accustomed to the trigger and groups shrank significantly, even at 100 yds. Haven't decided what to do about the Winchester ammo, probably give them and maybe Marlin a call. Could be a head space or chamber problem, but the CCI cases looked fine after firing. Next time I think I'll try some Federal and see how that goes.


In all, I really want to like the rifle but, the problems noted are troublesome.
 
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Rattlehead

New member
Sorry to hear that. I won't rule out the ammo, but I'd be surprised. Mine's been remarkably consistent across all ammo brands (I shoot a Marlin 917v).

I'd give it another shot with a different ammo brand, but if that doesn't work, I'd be on the phone with Marlin in a heartbeat... the rifle should be capable of 1 MOA at 50 with no trouble.
 
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FrankenMauser

New member
CCI (ATK) loads almost everything on the market for .17 HMR. -Remington, Winchester, CCI, Federal, Speer, Hornady, Fiocchi... almost all of it. They were out of the gate and well in the lead, when everyone else decided they wanted their name on the cartridge. Rather than investing in tooling of their own, they just contracted with CCI for the production runs.

However, Winchester started producing some of their own .17 HMR loads, late last year. It's possible that you have some of that ammo. Winchester has always made pretty decent .22 WMR hulls, though. I would expect the same of their HMR hulls.

I would definitely call Winchester about the ammunition, to see what they have to say. They might tell you not to worry about it, as long as the cracks don't extend into the shoulder; but you may still get a coupon or ammunition voucher out of the phone call.
 
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Striker1

New member
///UPDATE///

Took the little rifle out again today except this time I had a box of 17gr Hornady VMAX and Federal 17gr HPs. Results were very encouraging...first 10 shots of Hornady measured well under an inch at 50 yds. Federal rounds perform,ed well too but not as well. Moved out to 100 yds and again a 5-shot group with Hornady stayed under 1 inch. However, the Federal rounds opened up to about 1.5 inch. Most importantly there were NO split cases from either brand.

Now that it looks like the rifle is settling in and will shoot I think I will lower the trigger weight a bit to see if I can coax a little better accuracy out of it next week.
 
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