.17HMR Vs Ruger .204

[rgramjet]

Ive got a couple of hmr's.....one blew up due to a missfeed and the other one turned out to be a collectors item.  Remington 597 and Winchester 9417 respectively.

I love the HMR and the way it shoots.  Id like to pick up a Ruger 77/17 or maybe even a Cooper Arms.

But......

I dig everything they say about the .204 round.  Ive never shot one.  On paper its the way to go.

Anyone have any .204 experience? Or should I just get a bolt action .223 and shut up?

[blue tiger]

I had a close friend with a .204. It was an amazingly accurate rifle. He sold it. I would be afraid of a few things. It is a very small bullett. The .223 is a bigger projectile by a long way as far as bullet weight is concerned. You can go into the 70 grain range with a .223.

I would also wory about how fast that round goes. I'm pretty sure if you did a great deal of shooting the barrel would suffer significant throat erosion in pretty short order. That's been a problem in the past with other fast light rounds (like the 220 swift for example).By shooting a great deal Im talking hundreds and hundreds of rounds a year. Like several prarie dog expeditions.

You would also have to go to an actual gun store for the ammo (which is pricey for what you get). I don't think they will have much of it at Wal-Mart.

I'm not sure about the throat erosion in the .204 (I know it's been some problem for the super fast rounds in the past)and you can get AR uppers in that caliber now also which would be cool. If your going to be doing alot of varminting I hear it's pretty awesome but I stick to the more traditional varmint calibers.

Bottom line is google the shit out of it and decide if that's the way you want to go. It is a firearm so you really cant go wrong.

[Porsche Monkey]

I love my .17 HMR single shot.  Squirrels at 200 yards dont like it as much.  Never shot the .204 so I cant really comment. 

[rgramjet]

My intentions are target shooting and the occasional romp in the woods looking for squirrels.  I'm pretty sure I wont shoot the throat out of any of my rifles.

Reloadability and 4k fps are big .204 pluses.

[acalles]

Ive got a couple of hmr's.....one blew up due to a missfeed and the other one turned out to be a collectors item.  Remington 597 and Winchester 9417 respectively.

I love the HMR and the way it shoots.  Id like to pick up a Ruger 77/17 or maybe even a Cooper Arms.

But......

I dig everything they say about the .204 round.  Ive never shot one.  On paper its the way to go.

Anyone have any .204 experience? Or should I just get a bolt action .223 and shut up?

the .204 is going to be leaps and bounds above the power and accuracy of the HMR, especially as you get furter

I love my HMR, popping paint balls from 100yards is a good time.. but its no center fire, thats for sure! I've considered .17 fireball, but now I'm wanting something bigger like .308..

the ability to reload and control your own quality is something else you can't get with a rimfire.

[Mother]

My intentions are target shooting and the occasional romp in the woods looking for squirrels.  I'm pretty sure I wont shoot the throat out of any of my rifles.

Reloadability and 4k fps are big .204 pluses.

those intentions point towards getting a .17hmr

but taking into account your pluses

I would suggest the .222 Improved for no other reason than reloadability and 4400fps



I have never seen anyone around here with the 20cal round shooting out their rifle

in fact the only time I have even heard of such a thing was reloaders putting rediculously hot rounds in their 243's with stock 20" ranch barrels

So I would even worry about it with the .204

and

most of your serious speed freaks are using heavy target barrels anyway so it isn't an issue

[rgramjet]

the .204 is going to be leaps and bounds above the power and accuracy of the HMR, especially as you get furter

I love my HMR, popping paint balls from 100yards is a good time.. but its no center fire, thats for sure! I've considered .17 fireball, but now I'm wanting something bigger like .308..

the ability to reload and control your own quality is something else you can't get with a rimfire.

Wanna Remington 700 PSS in .308 with a Harris Bi pod and Leupold Vari-X 2, 3-9x50 scope on it?   

[Randy@StradaFab]

  Have you thought about a 22-250? I have a Savage model 12 with heavy barrel and accu-trigger. Shoots great right out of the box. You can buy cheaper ammo for the .223 but you're not gonna like it for target shooting. The 22-250 is right at 4,000fps and you can get ammo at wal-mart that shoots good. You would have to do a lot of shooting to shoot the barrel out.

[LA]

Hornady Magnum Rimfire?  never heard of such. Jebus, 4000 fps?  That's fast.

LA

[Holden]

Let's not forget the .22 hornet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_Hornet

[rgramjet]

  Have you thought about a 22-250? I have a Savage model 12 with heavy barrel and accu-trigger. Shoots great right out of the box. You can buy cheaper ammo for the .223 but you're not gonna like it for target shooting. The 22-250 is right at 4,000fps and you can get ammo at wal-mart that shoots good. You would have to do a lot of shooting to shoot the barrel out.

Ive recently opened my mind to the Savage rifle.  Used to be strictly a Remington/Winchester guy.  My buddy got the Savage muzzleloader that uses SMOKELESS powder.  That rifle with its reasonable price, excellent accuracy and nice build quality quickly removed any prejudices I had.

I like the availability of the 22-250.  Guess Ive always thought of it as a serious rifle instead of a plinker.  Id like to get a bolt action I can start my kids shooting with.  Ill do the Chipmunk single shot .22, then graduate to the .17 hmr, then something like a .204 or 22-250.

The .17 hmr is only about 2500 fps, the .204 is in the 4k range.

[Mother]

Hornady Magnum Rimfire?  never heard of such. Jebus, 4000 fps?  That's fast.

LA

not in this reality

Hornady Magnum's in .17 HMR with the lighter 17gr round is 2550fps

[blue tiger]

Maybe I shoot a little more than your average rifleman and that's why I would worry about it. Very fast shooting rifles that shoot hot fast burning powders will begin to cause barrel throat erosions much more rapidly than other rifles. If you had a .204 that you used to varmint hunt with you could end up taking hundreds of shots over tha course of a year and that number could easily be in the thousands if you were prarie dogging out west. This is hard on barrels. This doesn't appear to be the OP's main use so I think a .204 would be great as my friends was incredible in both power and accuracy. A.223 wssm or .300 saum would also be hot heavt hitters all though they would both be a little much for squirells and plinking!!