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17 HMR SCOPE

nmkid

nmkid

Gold $$ Contributor
Thinking about a Savage A17 Pro Varmint. As I have never owned such a rifle and will probably be doing nothing but informal shooting with it, what is a good scope you would recommend for it?
 
I have an Athlon 6x18x Talos series on my 17HMR, works well for me but I limit my shots to around 100 yds distance for the 17HMR.
 
My A17 is the Target Sporter Laminate model in 17 HMR. I had a Leupold Vari X III 4.5-14x40AO sitting on the shelf and put that on mine.

nmkid, did you end up getting the 17 WSM or 17 HMR in your A17??

My A17 shoots pretty good and has been a fun rimfire to shoot but it wasn't without some serious work being done to the trigger first. Before I spent half a day working it over the trigger in my A17 was easily the worst trigger I've ever pulled. It took some doing but I was able to turn it from a total POS into a decent trigger.
 
I think a variable up to 18X is a good way to go if shooting small targets like sage rats and the like. Being able to clearly see them at 200 yards really helps. I put a Nightforce on mine to minimize eye strain (great glass), as I spend entire days looking through mine when on squirrel safaris. My friends kid me about putting a scope on a rifle that costs considerably more than the rifle, yet cheap rifles can shoot great. Cheap scopes often leave one wanting. Depends on your budget and how much you plan on being behind the scope, I think. My varmint rigs typically wear much nicer scopes than my big game rifles, as I use them considerably more and it doesn't take much to see a big game animal - provided the scope isn't so cheap that it might fail me.
 
B23 said:
My A17 is the Target Sporter Laminate model in 17 HMR. I had a Leupold Vari X III 4.5-14x40AO sitting on the shelf and put that on mine.

nmkid, did you end up getting the 17 WSM or 17 HMR in your A17??

My A17 shoots pretty good and has been a fun rimfire to shoot but it wasn't without some serious work being done to the trigger first. Before I spent half a day working it over the trigger in my A17 was easily the worst trigger I've ever pulled. It took some doing but I was able to turn it from a total POS into a decent trigger.
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I ended up getting the HMR. Honestly, I got spooked by the malfunctions being reported. The last one I looked into was the Franklin Armory WSM. I talked to them but, the guy on the phone wasn't very convincing that they had got rid of their rifles problems. Maybe they have but I wasn't convinced. Now, I gotta get some glass.
 
I got the rifle(A17) yesterday at Scheel's. Of course, the trigger is(to me) bad. I think I will look into the trigger replacement Jard sells. A bit pricey but I need all the help I can get!
 
I've had a number of 17HMR rifles, I have a CZ now and a new Win 1885. Both have fixed 12X Leupold scopes. I have the same scopes on my 222 Rem. and 17Hornady Hornet. I don't like variables, I was always moving my head to get the eye relief right. I can see and hit a gopher way over yonder, and still have enough field. I like a fine hair with a dot. Many scopes are just 'too busy', I've had the Leupold "Varminter" reticle, I didn't find an advantage when the shooting was fast. I can judge distance in the scope fairly well, reducing the need for the 'range finder, of course I was shooting rock chucks way before 'range finders'. My spotter just needs to say "1 gopher left and 1 gopher high". Enjoy your new rifle.
 
Kittitas George said:
I've had a number of 17HMR rifles, I have a CZ now and a new Win 1885. Both have fixed 12X Leupold scopes. I have the same scopes on my 222 Rem. and 17Hornady Hornet. I don't like variables, I was always moving my head to get the eye relief right. I can see and hit a gopher way over yonder, and still have enough field. I like a fine hair with a dot. Many scopes are just 'too busy', I've had the Leupold "Varminter" reticle, I didn't find an advantage when the shooting was fast. I can judge distance in the scope fairly well, reducing the need for the 'range finder, of course I was shooting rock chucks way before 'range finders'. My spotter just needs to say "1 gopher left and 1 gopher high". Enjoy your new rifle.
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I put on on my 17 as well, great scope for the .17. .. enough power to plink for small groups and still hunt with20250208_214059.jpg
 
On my current 17HMR, I used the scope taken off my CZ 452 Varmint 17HMR and re-installed it on my Anschutz 1517D HB HMR. After two seasons of rat shooting with the Annie, I sold the CZ.

I use this rifle for both sage rats and rockchucks, and the Leupold VX2 4-12X is plenty for both critters, but I limit my shots at rockchucks to 200 yard head shots only to prevent crawl-off's. This scope is a Leupold catalog item, and has their LR reticle witch is a fine duplex and two vertical dots for LR holdoff. Works very well for what I do.



My take on scopes is get the best glass you can afford, as your eyes will thank you in the end.
 
nmkid said:
I got the rifle(A17) yesterday at Scheel's. Of course, the trigger is(to me) bad. I think I will look into the trigger replacement Jard sells. A bit pricey but I need all the help I can get!
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If you are comfortable doing it the trigger takes some work but can be tuned to an acceptable level but it is time consuming because you have to pretty much completely reassemble the rifle every time to test the change you just made. If you've ever worked on triggers before it's not particularly difficult just time consuming.

Or, you can opt for the JARD A17 replacement trigger which will set you back about 280 bucks but it is a complete replacement of not only the trigger mechanism but that cheap plastic POS trigger housing Savage used as well. If you've never worked on triggers much the JARD is probably the better option.

Before you ever shoot it I would disassemble your new A17 and give everything a good cleaning particularly the barrel. Don't be surprised when the first couple of patches down the bore come out looking black and nasty as it's common. I cleaned and lubed the bolt like Savage recommends then every so often I'll pull it apart and clean/lube again. Semi autos get dirty faster then bolt guns and these rimfires are dirty little buggers anyway. Keep the bolt clean and lubed like they suggest in their video and it'll run flawless for you.
 
There is a Sightron 4-20x50 listed in the classifieds for $375 shipped. It’s brand new which is about $100 off of the going price. I don’t think you can do better for the price.You might give it a look. I know the seller and he is a first class gentleman.
 
Rick in Oregon said:
My take on scopes is get the best glass you can afford, as your eyes will thank you in the end.
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100% Truth!

There is no substitute for a quality optic they just make everything better. I don't necessarily have to have a scope with the very best optical quality but having one that always holds zero and if I'm using it to dial has accurate tracking and always returns to zero is something I will gladly trade off.
 
I run wide variables on my 17 HMRs and that is also what I have put on the ones I have set up for friends.

I can drop the magnification for close fast shooting and then crank it up for the farther shots.

The beauty of the 17 HMR is that you will start running it based on your lifetime's experience of 22 LR, but you will quickly be looking for a better scope for two reasons.

One is that it will outshoot your typical 22LR by a wide margin, and the second is it will do it many times farther. So, you can start with whatever scope you have, but later you can decide on where to end up. Just go get started with whatever you have in hand and then decide what magnification you think will work best for your style.

If this is your first experience with 17 HMR, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

A while back, I assisted a friend with Beta testing the then new A17 and also testing the new Jard trigger.

Neither one of us would run the original as-is and agree it was pretty bad.

We didn't modify the Jard as it was to be returned after evaluation, but I did manage to rework his factory trigger to make it acceptable. I didn't enjoy that experience and as a result I have never owned an A17 of my own. Once you get that trigger changed, it will be a better experience and you will have a blast.
 
Well, I don't have any experience working on triggers so it will be a Jard. It's on sale right now for $251 so I am going to jump on it.
 
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