In 2013, Winchester® Ammunition will arm small game hunters with the most revolutionary rimfire cartridge in the company's almost 150-year history - the .17 Winchester Super Magnum.
The .17 Win Super Mag offers the downrange performance of a centerfire cartridge at only a fraction of the cost. For the first time in history, hunters can expect pinpoint accuracy and devastating performance from a rimfire cartridge at ranges well past 200 yards.
I wonder if the .17 Win Super Mag is any less susceptible to wind drift than the .17HMR. I bought the first .17HMR I ever saw when they first came out – a Savage. It was ordered for somebody else, and I kinda browbeat the guy at the gun shop into letting me have it. Trigger was tough, and the wind seemed to have a big impact on the projectile. There was no aftermarket trigger available for it back then, and it was almost impossible not to pull off the aimpoint. If somebody makes a better trigget for it now, it would be a pretty nice little plinker. Don’t think I ever fired it again. My grandson shot it some.
"The Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference." -Thomas Jefferson
Gun-crazy? Me? I'd say the gun-crazy ones are the ones that don’t HAVE one.
dorwinWS - I have the Savage 93R17 BTVS and it's got a great trigger. Wind drift can be an issue - ballistic calculation shows less than a .22, but YMMV.
I'm surprised that the press release did not contain a list of the firearms that are being built to chamber it. It would be a great round for 100-yard smallbore competition.
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The .17 Win. Super Mag. comes with a workingman’s pedigree. The case is based off a .27--caliber nail-gun blank, which was modified and necked down to take the .17-caliber bullet. (These blanks, which come in three calibers—.22, .25, and .27—are a big business for Winchester, according to Greg Kosteck, the company’s marketing director.) Empty, the case measures 1.200 inches (vs. 1.064 inches for the .17 HMR). And its case walls are about 50 percent thicker than the .17 HMR’s, to handle the higher pressures the round generates (33,000 psi vs. 26,000 psi for the .17 HMR).
Affordability
One of Winchester’s primary goals with the new .17 was to keep it affordable. A box of 50 should retail for about $15, which isn’t much more than the .17 HMR, and is much cheaper than even bargain-basement centerfire varmint loads. Initially, Winchester is offering the cartridge in three bullet styles: a 20-grain polymer-tipped bullet, a 20-grain hollowpoint, and a 25-grain polymer tip. The heavier 25-grain bullet will have a 2,600 fps MV with 5.6 inches of drop and 7 inches of drift with a 10 mph crosswind at 200 yards.
