Hello all
This post has brought me in from a casual observer to poster.

Nice forum with lots of sound advice and shared interests.

As for the 17M2 in agree with everyhting DoubleD has said regards the round. I have one myself and have been very happy with the performance on small game. I intend to use it on game up to the size of foxes with well placed shots.
Currently firing a 17gn soft nose projectile (be great if they brought out 20gn) at over 2000fps it offers a lot flatter trajectory than standard high velocity .22LR rounds which is a significant advantage for small targets as is encounted hunting small game.

As for penetration the bullet is suprisingly a better performer than I thought. Using a large dead fox the bullet punches through and cracked the skull cavity at 100m. Head shots will be necessary on game this size. I have been succesfully shooting birds the size of crows out to a max of 140m (cross-wind) but with ease out to 120m where the bullet has only dropped approximately 2 inches from a 100m zero. The trajectory reaches its highest point at about 3/4 inch at 75m.

Finally being as quiet as it is and with the dramactically reduced chance of ricochete's this rifle has a neiche around built up areas. IMO 17M2 is well worth a look and coupled with a 223 or 22250 completes a very good small game combination.
regards
robe