The Ruger was cheap, $250? Still, if the ammo currently available was good, I’d consider another, either hunt down one of the older ones you mention, or even a Shilen for my 455. As it is, I’ll stick with .22s.
Wise of you to “squirrel away” a bunch of the good stuff while the gettin’ was good.
Centerfire Systems in Versailles, KY, closed out the Remington 17HM2 that was made by Eley for around $2.50 per box, so I bought 100 or so boxes to ensure that I'd have ammo to feed my rifles. I have also bought a few thousand rounds of Hornady when it has been on sale. The guys in the 17 Mach2 forum on RFC keep a pretty close watch out for ammo sales and give the diehards a heads up when ammo is both available and on sale. I bought 1K rounds of the 15.5 grain NTX because it was cheap, but the accuracy is so poor compared to even the CCI/Hornady 17 grain ammo, that it is really only useful for tearing apart empty cans and such.
One of the things that I enjoy doing at the range during the late summer is to put up a large dayglo pink target board and shoot the grasshoppers that settle on it at 100 yards. Now you see it, now there is a splatter mark and a small hole in the target board. Biodegradable natural targets that place and replace themselves for free, what could be better?
I don't recommend the 17 HM2 to anyone since the Eley/Remington ammo has become so scarce and expensive. After all, what good is an accurate rifle that you can't buy or make accurate ammo for?
EDIT: I received my RAR in 17 HM2 from Whittaker's in 10/19 and booked it in for $334 delivered to my front steps. The 17 HM2 is a great tree squirrel cartridge if you have a supply of Eley/Remington ammo. Everybody knows that rimfires are almost always ammo sensitive and the lack of accurate ammo, in most rifles that I've shot, made it a flash in the pan cartridge. Like many others, it is a useful niche cartridge that just never caught on with the majority of the shooting sports public.
