Mach Speed

Hornady Manufacturing has developed a brand-new rimfire cartridge, called the .17 Mach 2. It's based on the classic .22 Long Rifle rimfire case, necked to seat a 17-grain .17 caliber Hornady V-Max bullet and is powered to a nominal 2,100 fps velocity from a 24-inch rifle barrel.

From a rifle at 175 yards, the .17M2 is still traveling faster than a .22 Long Rifle at the muzzle. The muzzle energy of the .17M2's 17-grain bullet (166 ft.-lbs.) is 18 percent greater than a 40-grain .22 (140 ft.-lbs.), and its trajectory is flat. Zeroed at 100 yards, the .17M2 has only a 0.7-inch mid-range rise at 50 yards; a .22 has a 2.9-inch rise.

The overall length of the new .17-caliber load is the same as a .22 Long Rifle cartridge, although the length of the necked-down .17M2 case is longer than a .22 case to accommodate the smaller bullet. However, the matching overall length and case-body dimensions of the .17M2 and the .22 will allow the .17M2 to function in standard .22LR magazine configurations, meaning any gunmaker that produces .22 Long Rifle guns can manufacture .17M2s simply by fitting them with .17 caliber barrels with a .17M2 chamber.

The cartridge has actually been ready for production for more than two years, but its announcement was delayed by the unexpected success of the .17 HMR, whose ammo simply couldn't be made fast enough.

The .17 caliber Hornady V-Max bullet is not easy to make. It involves a carefully assembled drawn copper cup, lead core and polycarbonate tip insert, perfectly balanced and concentric. The tiny components are difficult to work with, and the tolerances are much more critical than with larger-caliber bullets.

The .17M2 ammo will be loaded by Hornady, Remington and ATK/Speer in the USA, and Ely in Europe. Hornady will remain the sole .17 rimfire bullet supplier for the other ammo makers, at least initially, and the only difference will be the color of the plastic tip. The ATK loads will feature the TNT hollowpoint bullet (made by Hornady) as well as V-Max bullets.

On the firearms side, Hornady initially supplied specifications and ammo samples to Ruger, Marlin, Thompson/Center, Taurus, Savage, Remington, North American Arms, Browning/Winchester and Smith & Wesson. European makers Anschutz and CZ will also soon be offering .17M2 guns. As recently as February, production-ready .17M2 rifles and handguns were being announced by Taurus, T/C, Browning, Marlin and Anschutz. Ruger and Remington will join the parade later in the year.

I got to try the new cartridge during a visit to the Hornady plant last January. The .17 caliber V-Max bullet is phenomenally accurate in the .17M2 loading. The first five-shot group I fired through a Thompson/Center G2 Contender rifle at 25 yards punched a literal single hole. Even rough, function-proving engineer's prototypes of the T/C Classic semi-auto rifle and a Marlin Model 795 .17M2--as well as the T/C G2 rifle--yielded sub-minute-of-angle groups at 100 yards.

Terminal impact performance of the V-Max bullet was impressive. Fired into 10 percent gelatin at 15 yards, the bullet expanded explosively, with large jacket fragments cutting wicked channels to the side of the primary penetration channel line, and the main core and jacket heel penetrating bonded together to 8.5 inches.

The total weight of the recovered fragments came to 12.92 grains. A fragile bullet at high velocity that still retains 56 percent of its weight at its furthest penetration is a good bullet by anybody's standard. With that level of penetration, superb accuracy and a retained rifle velocity of 1,530 fps at 100 yards, it will be death on small varmints well beyond the normal range of the .22 Long Rifle.