17 WSM vs Groundhogs.

[TheCZKid]

I shoot with a few buddies who shoot the Savage WSM's in addition to all of us shooting Savage .17 Hornets (all heavy barrels). I'm waiting till I run down my huge stash of HMR ammo before buying a WSM. I watched one of my pals drop about 5 small ground squirrels in a row at 300 yards in some good wind. We have all whacked plenty at 300 yards with the HMR - but the WSM did it with much more authority and more consistently. Fantastic little round - and some of those Savages are crazy accurate.

I guess I got lucky with mine. It was one started with K serial number, those and later are supposed to be fixed from the early issues they had with the first batch. Those gave the 17 WSM a bad rep. Mine averages .45" groups with most ammo, the 20 grain Federal Varmint ammo I've gotten some test groups of .07" right after bedding, and .123" recently on a calm day, if I do my part. Mine is the SS Varmint model with gray thumbhole stock, it is truly a Laser!
It's excellent on sage rats here in Oregon. I did bed the action, and that tightened the groups right off. Testing for inch-pound torque on the action screws for accuracy helps too, as it does on most rifles.

 

[moorepower]

Mine is a blued, fluted laminate. It's a 1" gun. I still have smacked Pdogs at 350yds. It does not shoot as good as my .17H, but on those days where I just don't care to treat my brass like gold, it does just fine. It does not care what it shoots, 25 or 20 grain. I do want to get more rounds down it and mess with torque, "bedded", but shooting Pdogs, 1" will get the job done. I did put the Glades bolt handle on it and replaced the trigger spring with a light spring, and both made it much much nicer to shoot.

 

[TheCZKid]

The B-mag was the first rifle I did a epoxy bedding on, (first one was a nerve-wracking experience!) but seemed to really make it tighten up