Weekend Photo: Prairie Dogging in .17 HMR
Just before heading out on a prairie dog shoot, Pete sent us this photo of this Savage 93 chambered in .17 HMR. Pete wrote …
Prairie Dogging gear on the back porch at the ranch in Colorado Savage 93 in .17 HMR, BSA Sweet 17 optics, shooting mat, the rest is already in the Jeep . . . Time to go!
I have been a longtime user of Savage bolt-action rimfire rifles. The price-performance ratio is very excellent making them, in my opinion, the best value rimfire bolt actions. Before they introduced the accutrigger, everyone was shipping really lousy triggers. The Accutrigger was a real game changer.
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
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Aaron, I had never had a thumb hole stock till I got this rifle either. What I found was that if one was familiar with an AR pistol grip one will find this stock very comfortable. I did a small modification on the left side thumb rest so that the thumb has a positive rest position and one then dosn't get as "grippy" when shooting. The stock material is very much like a marine grade plywood. Very stable, easy to maintain and car for and will take abuse and still look nice. savage did a very nice job with the factory finish.
Also had the action and barrel Cryo Tempered which improved out of the box proformance. Even with out the Cryo Temp this is a very solid and accurate rifle. It's a tac driver within the 200 meter engagement range that I generally use it in. Coyotes to Prairies Dogs will fall to this caliber with a single shot. Ammo is available and inexpensive. I don't like recommending calibers or p,at forms these days as its a good way to get ones hand bit! However, this caliber has a lot going for it from just plain fun to shoot to a very solid Varmit/Small Game round. There are several platforms out there but the Savage with its AccuTrigger I think leads the pack. Regardless of ones platform choice I would highly recommend the BSA Sweet 17 optics that were designed specificly for this caliber. Thanks for taking the time to comment, Thanks to Steve for blogging this picture of one of my faveroits!
My Savage 93R .17 HMR rifle is wicked accurate and has slain countless prairie dogs when I lived in Vernal, UT. Buddy and I were slaying them out to 300 yards. If the wind is calm, it will reach, though it wont have the devastating impact it does inside 150. Inside 100 yards, the V-Max load causes explosive trauma just like a .223 does.
Here's a true story. McCoy Flats area of the Uintah Basin. My buddy and I were aiming at this one particularly big fat Pot Gut that was right at 300 yards. We were shooting into the wind. We watched the impact as I hit the Prairie Dog and it fell over backwards. Then it got back up and chittered at us angrily. Well, my buddy hit it next. I saw the dust billow off it's chest from the impact. Again, it got back up and started cussing us. One more hit and the little sucker again, got back up. We drove off at that point. That was one lucky Prairie Dog.
Next day though, my buddy went back with a .22-250...