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Has anyone noticed that .17HMR is banned on Melville due to it exceeding 2150 ft/sec? I have asked the question why .17HMR 17 grain frangible bullets at 245 ft/lbs are considered to be a greater safety problem than .357 or 44 magnum. Seems anything exceeding either 2150 ft/sec or 1496 ft/lbs is unexceptable. Still awaiting a satisfactory answer from NRA HQ

ColinR wrote:Has anyone noticed that .17HMR is banned on Melville due to it exceeding 2150 ft/sec? I have asked the question why .17HMR 17 grain frangible bullets at 245 ft/lbs are considered to be a greater safety problem than .357 or 44 magnum. Seems anything exceeding either 2150 ft/sec or 1496 ft/lbs is unexceptable. Still awaiting a satisfactory answer from NRA HQ

I didn't know that. Every day is a school day.

Each to his own, but I'm surprised that anyone would want to use .17HMR at 25 yards.

Isn't Stickledown more appropriate?

The benefit of Melville over Stickledown/Century is that a 17 grain bullet on a windy day is pretty much unpredictable and why would anyone want to shoot a rifle with an accurate range of <250 yards on these long ranges. There seems no less reason to use .17HMR on Melville than .22 LR which reigns supreme. Of all the ranges Melville would be most suited to .17HMR at 50 yards and Short Siberia at 100/200 yds so long as it was not windy.

Whilst a satisfactory target card can be shot at 200yrds on short siberia, the reasoning of the op has logic behind it............the fact remains that most quarry are shot at around 20-50 meters,50m plus with the hmr,which still begs the question why is this tiny round that fragments on impact banned on melville,ide love to be able to zero a .17hmr there at 50m.......I suppose u could do it at running deer (where they shoot 7.62 243 etc which is all of wat 2 meters next door! This makes no sense whatsoever!!!! So yes nra answer the question please!

It's not just the velocity issue that prevents the use of .17hmr, how much .17hmr ammunition have you seen that isn't classed as expanding?
I am told that you can obtain non expanding .17hmr but I have never seen any.

You can't shoot that calibre at our club either, apparently it has enough velocity to drill through the walls.

the running man wrote:So yes nra answer the question please!

The person in charge of range safety is on holiday so you'll have to be patient for a few days.

Love
Karen

My guess would be that its because the range safety certificate states 2150 ft/sec OR 1496 ft/lb, so 17HMR falls foul of the velocity limit, despite being well inside the ME.

But I'm sure someone knowledgable in such matters will be along shortly to explain.

Chapuis wrote:It's not just the velocity issue that prevents the use of .17hmr, how much .17hmr ammunition have you seen that isn't classed as expanding?
I am told that you can obtain non expanding .17hmr but I have never seen any.

Is 17HMR only available for live quarry or can you also have it purely for target shooting?

Fullbore wrote:You can't shoot that calibre at our club either, apparently it has enough velocity to drill through the walls.

I take it you are speaking about a rimfire range?