Hornady V-Max 17 Cal .172 20 Grain V-Max Bullets: Unrivaled Precision for Varmint and Small Game

Are you a dedicated varmint hunter seeking to push the boundaries of accuracy and terminal performance? Do you demand consistent, devastating results on even the smallest targets at extended ranges? Look no further than the Hornady V-Max 17 Cal .172 20 grain V-Max bullets, available in convenient 100-count boxes, designed specifically for enthusiasts who prioritize precision and dramatic fragmentation. This exceptional projectile, identified by Hornady part number 21710 and UPC 090255275001, stands as a testament to Hornady's unwavering commitment to ballistic excellence.

For those who engage in pest control, target shooting, or simply appreciate the pinnacle of small-caliber bullet design, understanding what sets the Hornady V-Max apart is crucial. These bullets are engineered from the ground up to solve the critical challenges faced by varmint hunters: achieving incredibly flat trajectories, maintaining pinpoint accuracy, and delivering explosive energy transfer upon impact. Whether you're targeting prairie dogs across vast open fields, handling troublesome groundhogs in your backyard, or engaging coyotes at distance, the 20-grain V-Max bullet ensures your shot counts.

What Makes the Hornady V-Max Bullet So Effective? A Deep Dive into Revolutionary Design

The secret to the V-Max bullet's legendary performance lies in its innovative construction, where every component is meticulously designed to work in synergy, delivering unparalleled results.

The Polymer Tip: Precision and Expansion Unleashed

At the forefront of the V-Max bullet is its distinctive polymer tip. This isn't merely a decorative element; it's a critical component that serves multiple vital functions:

• Aerodynamic Superiority: The sleek, pointed polymer tip significantly enhances the bullet's ballistic coefficient, reducing air resistance and ensuring a flatter trajectory. This means less bullet drop over distance, simplifying holdovers and increasing hit probability on small targets.
• Initiating Explosive Expansion: Unlike traditional soft points, the polymer tip acts as a wedge upon impact. As it drives back into the bullet's core, it initiates rapid, dramatic, and often violent fragmentation, delivering maximum energy transfer within the target. This ensures humane kills and minimizes the chance of runners, a critical consideration for ethical varmint hunting.
• Protection of the Meplat: The polymer tip protects the bullet's delicate meplat (tip) from deformation during handling, loading, and recoil, preserving its ballistic integrity and ensuring consistent accuracy shot after shot.

The Match Grade Jacket: The Foundation of Accuracy

Beneath the polymer tip lies the V-Max's gilding metal jacket. This isn't just any jacket; it's a match-grade component crafted with exceptional concentricity. What does "match grade" and "concentricity" mean for your shooting?

• Unrivaled Accuracy: A perfectly concentric jacket ensures that the bullet spins true as it travels down the barrel and through the air. Any deviation in jacket thickness or form can lead to imbalances, causing the bullet to wobble and degrade accuracy. Hornady's precision manufacturing ensures near-perfect concentricity, leading to exceptionally tight groups on target.
• Controlled Fragmentation: While designed for explosive expansion, the gilding metal jacket also plays a role in controlling this process. It holds together just long enough to allow the polymer tip to initiate fragmentation, then allows the core to disintegrate effectively, creating a wide wound channel.
• Superior Barrel Protection: The gilding metal composition is chosen for its balance of hardness and lubricity, minimizing barrel fouling and extending barrel life, even with high-volume shooting.

The Specially Designed Lead Core: Energy and Devastation

The heart of the V-Max bullet is its specially designed lead core. This core is engineered to complement the polymer tip and jacket, ensuring maximum lethality on varmints.

• Optimized for Fragmentation: The lead core is formulated and formed to readily fragment once the polymer tip initiates expansion. This rapid disintegration upon impact ensures that virtually all the bullet's energy is dumped into the target, creating a devastating hydrostatic shock and minimizing pass-throughs.
• Consistent Weight and Balance: Hornady maintains incredibly tight tolerances in the manufacturing of its lead cores, ensuring consistent bullet weight and balance. This consistency is paramount for achieving repeatable accuracy, shot after shot, box after box, case after case.

Key Performance Attributes for the Discerning Shooter

The combination of these advanced design features culminates in a bullet that offers a suite of performance attributes highly sought after by varmint hunters and precision shooters:

• Flat Trajectories: The streamlined design and high ballistic coefficient (.185) of the 20-grain V-Max result in significantly flatter trajectories compared to heavier, less aerodynamic projectiles. This translates to less bullet drop over typical varmint hunting distances, making target acquisition and shot placement easier and more forgiving.
• Explosive Expansion: This is the hallmark of the V-Max. Upon impact, the polymer tip drives back into the core, initiating rapid, dramatic fragmentation. The result is a highly effective, humane terminal performance on small to medium-sized varmints, ensuring quick incapacitation. This characteristic is particularly vital for minimizing suffering and preventing animals from escaping.
• Maximum Accuracy at All Ranges: From the meticulously crafted match-grade jacket to the consistent core and aerodynamic polymer tip, every element of the Hornady V-Max is geared towards achieving unparalleled accuracy. Shooters can expect sub-MOA (Minute of Angle) performance from quality firearms, allowing for precise shot placement even on challenging targets at extended ranges.
• Low Ricochet Potential: Due to its design for explosive fragmentation, the V-Max bullet tends to break apart upon impact, significantly reducing the risk of dangerous ricochets, an important safety consideration when shooting in varied terrains.

Ideal Applications: Where the 20 Grain 17 Cal V-Max Shines

The Hornady V-Max 17 Cal .172 20 grain bullet is purpose-built for specific scenarios where its unique properties deliver optimal results.

• Varmint Hunting: This is the primary application for the Hornady V-Max. It excels in hunting:
  • Prairie Dogs: Its flat trajectory and explosive fragmentation make it devastatingly effective on these small, often numerous targets at long distances.
  • Groundhogs/Woodchucks: The immediate energy transfer ensures quick, humane kills, preventing these burrowing pests from retreating underground.
  • Coyotes and Fox: While specifically designed for smaller varmints, the 20-grain V-Max can be effective on larger predators like coyotes or fox at moderate ranges, provided shot placement is precise and ethical considerations are met. Its explosive nature minimizes pelt damage compared to through-and-through shots from less frangible bullets, which is often a concern for trappers or hunters who wish to preserve furs.
  • Other Small Pests: Suitable for a wide array of other nuisance animals where a highly frangible, accurate bullet is desired.
• Small Game Hunting (where legal and appropriate): For certain small game species, where rapid, complete energy transfer is preferred and meat preservation isn't the primary concern, the V-Max can be highly effective. Always check local hunting regulations.
• Precision Target Shooting/Plinking: For shooters who want to practice precision and confirm their rifle's capabilities, these bullets offer excellent consistency and accuracy. While designed for terminal performance, their inherent accuracy makes them a joy to shoot at paper targets or steel.

Why Hornady? A Legacy of Innovation and Quality

Choosing Hornady ammunition components means investing in a legacy of ballistic innovation and uncompromising quality. For over 70 years, Hornady Manufacturing has been a leader in the shooting sports industry, renowned for:

• Scientific Engineering: Hornady employs advanced scientific principles and cutting-edge technology in the design and manufacturing of every bullet. Their ballistic laboratories are state-of-the-art, ensuring that every product performs to the highest standards.
• Unwavering Quality Control: From raw materials to finished product, Hornady implements rigorous quality control measures. This meticulous attention to detail ensures that each V-Max bullet you load is consistent in weight, dimension, and performance, providing the reliability serious shooters demand.
• Performance-Driven Design: Hornady doesn't just make bullets; they engineer solutions to real-world shooting challenges. The V-Max is a prime example of a product born from a deep understanding of what hunters and shooters need to succeed in the field.

Understanding Key Ballistic Specifications

When selecting ammunition components, understanding the technical specifications helps you make informed decisions and predict performance.

• Bullet Diameter (.172): This indicates the precise diameter of the bullet in inches, essential for matching to your rifle's bore (e.g., .17 HMR, .17 Hornet, .17 WSM). A precise fit ensures optimal gas seal and accuracy.
• Weight (20 grains): Bullet weight directly influences trajectory, recoil, and terminal energy. For the .17 caliber, 20 grains is a popular weight, offering an excellent balance of speed and downrange energy for varmint applications.
• Ballistic Coefficient (BC): .185: The BC is a measure of a bullet's ability to overcome air resistance. A higher BC indicates a more aerodynamic bullet that will retain velocity and energy better over distance, resulting in flatter trajectories and less wind drift. The .185 BC for a 20-grain .172 bullet is excellent for its class.
• Sectional Density (SD): .097: SD relates the bullet's weight to its diameter, indicating its ability to penetrate. While the V-Max is designed for fragmentation rather than deep penetration, its SD still contributes to its stability in flight.
• Jacket Material (Copper): Specifically, gilding metal, which is an alloy primarily of copper, known for its malleability and strength, ideal for forming precise bullet jackets.
• Core Material (Lead): The traditional, effective material for bullet cores, optimized in the V-Max for rapid fragmentation.

Reloading Considerations for the Hornady V-Max 17 Cal 20 Grain

For reloaders, the Hornady V-Max 17 Cal .172 20 grain bullets are an outstanding choice due to their consistent quality and predictable performance. When reloading with these bullets, consider the following for optimal results:

1. Powder Selection: Choose powders that provide consistent velocity and pressure within your desired firearm and cartridge (e.g., .17 HMR, .17 Hornet, .17 WSM). Consult reputable reloading manuals for specific load data tailored to your caliber and barrel length.
2. Primer Choice: Match your primers to the powder and cartridge. Small rifle primers are typically used for .17 caliber cartridges.
3. Overall Length (OAL): Experiment with seating depth to find the optimal OAL that provides the best accuracy in your specific rifle. Slight adjustments can often lead to significant improvements in group sizes.
4. Case Preparation: Meticulous case preparation, including trimming, chamfering, and deburring, is critical for achieving consistent neck tension and bullet seating, which directly impacts accuracy.
5. Crimping: A light taper crimp, if necessary, can improve consistency and prevent bullet setback during feeding, but avoid heavy crimps that can deform the bullet or reduce accuracy.

The Hornady V-Max 17 Cal .172 20 grain V-Max bullet represents the pinnacle of varmint and small game bullet technology. Its unique combination of aerodynamic design, explosive terminal performance, and Hornady's legendary quality control makes it the definitive choice for shooters who demand precision and devastating effectiveness. When every shot counts, trust the bullet engineered to excel. Find your supply of Hornady 21710 V-Max bullets, UPC 090255275001, at DEGuns today and experience the difference superior ballistic engineering can make in your shooting endeavors.

Hornady V-Max 17 Cal .172 20 Grain Specifications

Feature	Detail
Brand	Hornady
Model	V-Max
Caliber	17 Cal
Bullet Weight	20 gr
Bullet Diameter	.172
Bullet Type	V-Max
Bullet Tip	Polymer
Jacket Material	Copper
Core Material	Lead
Ballistic Coefficient	.185
Sectional Density	.097
Application	Varmint
Rounds Per Box	100
Boxes Per Case	40
Manufacturer Part Number	21710
UPC	090255275001
SKU	87540