Ok guys, help me out here..

[Aussie1001]

Soren how are you ?
Firstly i own a BRNO (who are now CZ) and the rifle i have is an great piece of harware, nice and light and very accurate, since i live on a farm we often go rabbit shooting and for that sort of game it is perfect, but the range is rarly more than 50 feet. Have you considered a .22 hornet a mate owns one and from all accounts the are quite good.
reguards
Aussie 1001

 

[Soren]

Hi Aussie

I'm just fine, you ?

Yeah CZ used to be BRNO that's true. Glad to hear you have good experience with the brand, I'm really looking forward shooting mine on thursday

As for the .22 Hornet, I thought about it but the .17 HMR suits the role like a glove, so I went for it.

Interestingly I didn't research how much .22 Hornet ammunition costs (.17 HMR isn't exactly cheap)..

 

[Soren]

Btw, Aussie how does the landscape arround your farm look like ?

50 ft is pretty short range, unless it's in the bush ofcourse.

 

[Aussie1001]

I'm well thanks.
Well indiceindently today a couple of mates came over to sight their rifles in and we had a blast, they had a mk 4 SMLE, i tell you what their's nothing like the feel of a SMLE. They also had an old .310 cadet rifle bored out to a .357 magnum which was also a bit of fun.

 

[Aussie1001]

Soren we live on 3000 acres which is mainly flat, with a big mountain in the middle, although we can't just go loosing big bore rifles off anywhere as we have livestock on it. the place we go shooting bunnies is on a gentle slope which levels off to a flat plain, we go shooting in our 40's series landcrusier and it all works out pretty darn good.

the reason it's only 50 feet is because it's at night and the spotlight can't light up much beyond that, we also have to take cows into consideration and watch where we are firing, so far we havn't killed one so fingers crossed.

we also shoot ducks (but rarely) and we have quite a few large dams which they all flock around.

 

[Matt308]

3000 acres! Sounds like heaven.

 

[Soren]

Sounds very nice Aussie. Sure wish I had that much space to play around on!

I understand that you don't hunt during the day or in the morning ?

And yeah, the SMLE Mk.4 is a very nice rifle, esp. the very smooth action

 

[Aussie1001]

no, we only hunt during the night as that is when most of the game in our area comes out i.e. Dingoes and rabbits.

 

[Soren]

Dingoes Rabbits are out in the early morning as-well. Don't want to get up that early Aussie ??

 

[Bucksnort101]

I think the .17 will suit you well, but wind dows affect that tiny little bullet more that you think. Did some shooting in windy conditional and the bullet was pushed of it mark by several inches. The heavier .17 bullet faired a bit better that the lighter ones though.
As far as which rifle, I owned a Savage .17, great little rifle for the price, but make sure you buy it in person and have several to choose from as the trigger pull and smoothness varies drastically from on rifle to the next. All have a pretty hefty trigger pull. I picked the one with the least creep and brought it to the gunsmith to have it smoothed out and lightened a bit . There are some drop in triggers for the Savage line out there, but they can get a little spendy as well.
Read good things about the CZ Rifles as well, but I cannot find any locally, plus I am a lefty and like to have a lefty rifle for hunting.

 

[Bucksnort101]

Forgot to add , the Ruger .204 Caliber night be another route for you, depending on availability of ammunition. Reloading this round would probably be the way to go if you do a lot of shooting.

 

[Aussie1001]

not soren i'm not a morning person.

 

[Matt308]

Ruger .204 is definitely technically good. But too early to see of it will be adopted in the long term as an investment in reloading gear.