How does a 17 HMR do on small game animals as far as whats left?

I've never shot any rabbits with mine but if you hit a squirrel anyplace but the head your gonna have a mess and mostly a wasted treerat. I think its CCI who makes some 20grain gamepoints for the 17. I have no personal experince with them though so i dont know if they are a lil more friendly on them lil buggers or not

What i found, was that the cci 17 grain hollow points were less explosive in general. Stay away from the ballistic points on squirrels

All head shots on smaller game.

Federal Premium 17grain TNT. Mine had a tiny entry and tiny exit

agreed.

Defiantly!! Try to only take head shots on rabbits. It can really be devastating on the meat if your going to eat it.

I've got a Savage R17 17hmr w/ Simmons 3-9x40. I shoot Hornady 17g.

Never personally had any killls with 17 but my friend shot a rabbit in the snow this last year and I had never seen my 22 leave such a blood spray LOL I would also suggest to keep it with the headshots.