It was one of the few i shot that day that never even twitched. Just boom, dropped stone dead. Had another one i blew its lung half out his chest. I think he might have lived.
I just love the 17HMR. I am sure there are better, more expensive center fire calibers, ones less prone to wind drift. But the 17 is still very deadly (and accurate) round.
I've used TNT hollow points in the pst and they are all great. Similar results to what was posted above.
Its a cheapy Savage 93R17 FXP that I was overcharged for. But turned out to be a very accurate, very light gun I tend to shoot very well.
When the .17 HMR was still pretty new, I talked to the ammo guy at a local gun shop. He told me that he had been shooting crows with his .17 HMR using full metal jacket rounds and they were going right through and the birds just flew away. He switched to the polymer tip rounds and the damage was like what you see on that gopher. He said there was pieces of crow left lying around.
I have the same rifle in 22 mag and 17 hmr. Can't knock either round, especially out of these rifles. Tack drivers. I've always used the Hornaday polymer tips. Do you have any experience with these? I'm curious how the two compare.