Hornady - V-MAX - 17 Grain 17 HMR Ammo - 500 Rounds

There are so many great 17 HMR cartridges on the market that we’d be hard-pressed to declare the best one for varmint hunting. But Hornady Varmint Express is certainly in the running. This round’s V-MAX is without question one of the best small game bullets on the market, and Hornady doesn’t mess around when it comes to loading a round of their own invention!

This round’s 17 grain V-MAX is due to clear a 24” barrel’s muzzle at a velocity of 2,550 fps. Its 0.125 G1 ballistic coefficient is pretty high (relatively speaking, of course), and translates to -8.5” drop at 200 yards if you zeroed in at 100 with 1.5” high sights. The V-MAX owes its flat trajectory to several features, including its streamlined polymer tip, its low-drag jacket profile, its concentric Advanced Manufacturing Process jacket, and its rotationally stable swaged lead core.

The V-MAX saves the most impressive aspect of its performance for last. Once the polymer tip lands on a varmint, its tail slides down into the V-MAX’s precision-formed cavity. The instant the tail connects with the base of that cavity – kablooey – explosive fragmentation. And because the V-MAX conserves its capacity for terminal fragmentation at impact velocities as low as 1,600 fps, this round’s effective range stretches well beyond 100 yards!