#.17WSM

At SHOT Show 2022 Franklin Armory has announced two new products – the updated F17 series of semi-auto rimfire rifles chambered in .17WSM and a binary trigger conversion for Glock pistols. Let’s take a brief look at each new Franklin Armory product.

Volquartsen is famous for making some pretty rad looking guns (at least in my opinion). At SHOT Show 2020 they’ve brought out the new Volquartsen Summit 17 WSM (Winchester Super Magnum) as well as two new Cerakote finishes for the Black Mamba rimfire pistol. The Black Mamba has received a facelift in the way of a new Cerakote finish in black camouflage and my personal favorite Arctic Camo Black.

It was barely one month ago we were discussing Ruger’s newest iteration of a 77-Series rifle chambered in .17 WSM with an American Walnut stock. Well, they now have another NEW 77/17, but this time in a Green Mountain wood laminate stock. This Green Mountain stocked rifle is slightly higher in price with a touch shorter barrel.

Ruger has gone and expanded their 77-Series of rifles from 9 offerings out to the double digits of 10 now. Previously, if you were a fan of the .17 Winchester Super Magnum (.17 WSM) you could get a model 77/17 with an American Walnut stock and a stainless steel barrel. Now Ruger also is providing consumers with the option of purchasing a 77/17 with a blued barrel as well.

Back in September 2016 TFB broke that Ruger was discontinuing their 77-Series of rifles. Primarily, the revolver calibers (.357 Magnum, .44 Magnum) and the Hornets (.17 Hornet, .22 Hornet). Many of us in the industry voiced our displeasure and Ruger has been listening all along. They now are re-introducing many of the calibers that they were “temporarily” discontinuing last fall. The calibers that you will see available again are as follows:

Chiappa Firearms announced the company is now offering its Little Badger rifle in a new caliber: the 17 WSM. The Little Badger is a single shot rifle designed with a minimalist look. Until now, the gun was only available in the .22 LR, .22 WMR and 17 HMR. All of these rounds have much lower chamber pressures than the 17 WSM, so I am happy to see the company was able to make this safely work.

Ruger sent out an e-mail today to individuals who are on their registered e-mail list. The message they sent is pretty black-n-white. Ruger is going to discontinue their 77-Series of bolt-action rifles.

Ruger announced the company will now manufacture the 77/17 rifle for the 17 WSM cartridge.

Federal Premium Ammunition announced the addition of the 17 Winchester Super Magnum to the American Eagle line of ammo. The new 17 WSM load uses a 20 grain, polymer tipped varmint bullet.

At Industry Day, Ruger had squirreled away on their rifle rack a prototype micro-length action M77 Hawkeye chambered for .17 WSM. The gun is reduced in size from the regular M77, but features the same twin-lug bolt and Mauser styling (the Mauser extractor appears to have been reduced to a guide for the spring loaded extractor).

Franklin Armory (FA) is now shipping the F17-L rifle chambered in 17 WSM. The rifle was first shown at the 2014 SHOT Show, and has been described by FA as the first gas-operated rimfire rifle.

Franklin Armory is now selling what may be the first gas-operated, semi-automatic rifle chambered for the .17 WSM (Winchester Super Magnum) cartridge.   The F17-L rifle uses a Stoner-like system with direct gas impingement and a rotating locking bolt.  Although it is a rimfire cartridge, the .17 WSM runs at centerfire rifle velocities.  Factory ammo is rated up to 3,000 fps with a 20 grain bullet.

Earlier this year, Winchester announced the new 17 WSM (Winchester Super Magnum) rimfire cartridge that is capable of 3,000 fps.  The SAAMI specs for the cartridge and chamber are now online and available for download here.

Winchester officially announced the .17 Winchester Super Magnum cartridge today, and it does appear to be the fastest and most powerful rimfire cartridge ever. Two flavors have been announced so far; a 20-grain bullet reaching 3,000 feet per second, and a 25-grain bullet traveling at 2,600 feet per second. Muzzle energy on the 20-grain loading is rated at 400 foot pounds, with the slower 25-grain loading measuring 375 foot pounds. By comparison a standard 115 grain 9mm Luger round generates around 330 foot pounds of muzzle energy, so this sort of performance from a rimfire is a true breakthrough. Case capacity exceeds any previous rimfire caliber, and the latest generation ballistic tipped bullets will be utilized immediately in factory loadings. Suddenly, it is realistic to score a humane kill on a coyote sized game animal with a rimfire rifle, every time. Accuracy is said to be very good, but the cartridge’s true claim to fame will be its ability to resist wind drift significantly better than .17 HMR or .22 Magnum. Effective range is well beyond 200 yards.