re: 17 HMR vs .22 Mag

I bought a 17HMR because I could never find 22Mag. My Marlin XT17 17HMR is super accurate, my most accurate rifle I own inside 100 yards and it was a cheap sub $200 rifle. All the ammo you buy is of very high quality and quite accurate. If you want to kill small game it's very effective. Issue will be if you want to kill the game and keep the meat. Shoot a squirrel or rabbit with my 17 and it explodes them like someone set off a firecracker inside the animal. I've never shot game with my 22mag (It is a pistol) so I don't know how it performs on small game but I don't believe it has that explosive effect from what I've read? Not sure. I can buy 17hmr all day every day from just about any store I walk in to that sells ammo. 22mag is still very scarce around here.

17HMR is very effective critter control. 17HMR is not a very effective hunting round IMHO unless you can get head shots because of how much it gamages meat. Round and rifle is accurate enough for that but I need a rest or shooting stick to shoot something that small. In the right conditions it's accurate enough I can headshot game as small as squirrels pretty effectively. Love my 17HMR. Really glad yall talked me into one.