One of the beautiful things about shooting the .17 HM2 is its accuracy in a good rifle along with its flat trajectory allow the hunter to consistently make head shots on small game at distances deemed impractical for the .22 LR. This can extend its effective range on game of that size beyond 100 yards. With solid hits to the body, the .17 HM2 kills California ground squirrels--a varmint that is considerably smaller than fox squirrels--dead in their tracks out to 130 yards, perhaps a bit farther. Longer shots become iffy as the velocity of that tiny V-Max bullet drops off to the point where it begins to lose its ability to expand effectively.

The vital areas of animals such as squirrels and rabbits are quite small, so in order for a rifle/load combination to be entirely suitable for collecting them for the pot, it should be capable of shooting bullets inside an inch at whatever range game is usually taken. If you bump off most of your small game no farther away than 25 yards, then the rifle you use should deliver 1-inch accuracy at that range.

Having spent quite a bit of time in the field with several rifles that are capable of squeezing the most accuracy possible from the .17 HM2, I have become convinced of its ability to cleanly take small game out to 125 yards, as long as there are no breezes to blow that tiny bullet astray. You can duplicate its accuracy with .22 LR match ammunition, such as Eley Tenex and Remington/Eley Match EPS. Regardless of how that type of ammo is zeroed, it does not shoot flat enough for consistent hits at unknown distances once the range begins to exceed 50 yards.

You can come close to duplicating .17 HM2 trajectory with hypervelocity loadings of the .22 LR, but the accuracy of those loads in the most accurate of rifles usually restricts their practical use on small game to about 75 yards. Long ago, manufacturers discovered that for the best possible accuracy with .22 LR match ammo, velocity has to be held between 1000 and 1100 fps, and the greater the velocity increase beyond that point, the more accuracy suffers.

Its jacketed bullet makes the .17 HM2 immune to that idiosyncrasy, not to mention the fact that an accurate jacketed bullet is more easily mass-produced on high-production machinery than an accurate lead bullet. When it comes to delivering the entire package--accuracy, trajectory, energy, and the ability to buck wind--the .17 HM2 outguns any .22 LR load presently available.