The .17 Winchester Super Magnum is the most powerful rimfire in production — 3,000 feet per second and 400 foot-pounds at the muzzle, which is roughly a .22 Hornet’s performance out of a rimfire case.
It is also the cartridge on this site with the least published data behind it, and that is worth a page of its own.
The loads
| Brand | Load | Grain | Bullet | Muzzle | Muzzle energy | Downrange data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winchester | Varmint HV (S17W20) | 20 | Polymer tip | 3,000 | 400 | none published |
| Winchester | Varmint HE (S17W25) | 25 | Polymer tip | 2,600 | 375 | none published |
| Winchester | Varmint X Lead Free (X17W15PLF) | 15 | Lead-free polymer tip | — | — | none published |
| Federal | American Eagle † | 20 | Speer TNT | — | — | not sourced |
The missing data
Winchester invented this cartridge, sells it on its ballistics, and publishes no ballistics for it. Their own product pages carry a muzzle velocity and a muzzle energy and then say there is no ballistic data available. There is no 100 yard figure, no 200 yard figure, no trajectory.
That is not an oversight I can work around. Every other table on this site is the manufacturer’s published figures, and for the .17 WSM there are none to publish — so this page shows what exists and says the rest is missing, rather than running the numbers through a calculator and presenting my arithmetic as theirs.
What you can say from the muzzle figures alone: 400 foot-pounds is roughly two-thirds of a .22 Hornet and about sixty per cent more than a .17 HMR. The bullet is still a 20 grain .17, so it will shed that advantage quickly — but from a standing start it is comfortably the most capable rimfire there is.
The coyote question
Better than a .17 HMR and still not a centerfire. The .17 WSM roughly doubles the .17 HMR’s muzzle energy, which moves the honest limit out but does not remove it.
Without published downrange figures I am not going to put a yardage on it, and anyone who does is guessing too. What I will say is that the .22 Hornet starts at 732 foot-pounds against the WSM’s 400, costs about the same to shoot, and comes with published data you can actually plan a shot from.
Check your state. Several prohibit rimfire for predators regardless of how good the rimfire is. The state regulations have it.
Notes on the data
Muzzle figures are Winchester’s published ones. Source: Winchester Varmint HV and Varmint HE.
† Federal also loads a 20 grain .17 WSM and its figures are not yet on this table. Winchester’s full rimfire line is worth a look if you want to see how thin the .17 WSM listing is next to the .22 WMR beside it.
If Winchester publishes a ballistics table for this cartridge, this page gets rebuilt the same day. Tell me if you find one.