.22 LR Rimfire or .17 HMR Rimfire
 

Need your advice - I'm about to make a decision on buying a rimfire rifle. I'm in Ireland & we can only get a rimfire on our firearms cert. Anything with a larger calibre brings a lot of hassle. Anyone out there have any views on which to go for. I would appreciate some help.
Thanks.

I haven't had the opportunity to fire the .17 HMR so take this for what it's worth. The .22 LR is a great plinking round, it's cheap, plentiful, and enjoyable to shoot. I live in the states, where it is relatively easy to obtain weapons in either caliber, and I chose the Ruger 10/22, a .22 LR semi automatic rifle. I chose this gun because ammo is cheap, parts are readily available if needed, accessories are easy to come by, and the gun is rock solid. Again, I can't say very much about the .17 HMR because I don't know much about it.

Depends on what you want it for. For very small game or target shooting at long distance, you want a 17HMR. The 17HMR has one of the flatest tragectories around, which means good long distance proformance.

The 22 LR is also a good all purpose round, but if you are shooting long distance, you will have to adjust to the fall.

17HRM has great ballistics - very fast bullet and accurate. i havn't looked at the cost of the ammo tho.

With the 2 choices, the 17 is going to be the better performer all the way around.

But, I might suggest checking into 22 magnum. It's still rimfire but it will out do the 17 on small game any day IMO. 17s too small, hardly explosive, difficult to kill things around 100 yards due to lack of footpounds at that distance.

.22 would be my preferance easily, great little round and easy to come by.
As for larger calibres, I live in England and I have a .44 revolver and a .303 Lee Enfield, no problems getting slots on my firearms certificate at all.

Shot the 17 this past weekend, man I am sold on this cartridge, flat shooting as heck, not too bad regarding pricing, a bud bought 1000 rounds, broke down to be about 7 bucks for 50 rounds.

rabbit blaster
 

ok just wanted to make a comment about 17hmr and 22 rimfire .

---------- Post added at 04:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 PM ----------

I have both 22 and 17 the hmr is a far superior rifle flat shot more accurate and deadly on rabbits and other small furry creatchers . The only down side is ammo is 3 times the price of 22lr but hell its worth it .

IMHO, if you're only going to get one gun, then the .17 would probably be more useful, as it's something like double the .22 velocity, yada, yada, but .22's are so damn cheap to shoot, that that adds to the fun factor, at least for me (seems like more fun to worry about your barrel getting hot than your wallet getting light).

the .22 is cheaper to shoot.

if you're trying to drop varmints at a distance, get the 17.

i still like the 5mm best, though.

:eek:

Around here you can get a 500 round 'brick' of .22 ammo for about $10.00 (sale price).

The .22LR is cheaper, the .17HMR is more effective. Groundhogs out to 200+ yards are more than do-able, rabbits would be fair game for a ways beyond that. The ballistic-tip .17's perform explosively at close range (under 150), and in the right rifle (say a Savage 917R) capable of easy head-shots to this range. BSA makes a "Sweet 17" scope calibrated for the 17gr Hornady load out to 300 yards. In the US, this setup would run about $500.00. On the other hand, a $100.00 Marlin Mdl 60 will probably outlive your grandchildren, takes ammo that's literally everywhere, and will also put plenty of meat in the pot, but at much closer ranges.

If you are mainly using it for plinking and other fun stuff, a Ruger 10/22 is pretty hard to beat. Ammo is cheap, parts and accessories are everywhere, and it's a durable/reliable gun. I love mine.