You know Gary did some work with Steve Hornady
early on with the .17 HMR. I don't think he liked it (.17 cal.) too much, some mechanical hurdles. If you catch him just right he will confess to some really wild antics in the past fooling with .14 cal. stuff shooting pieces of wire and such silliness. Something like that anyway. Powder variations are so sensitive though I could see his patience running short fast. Some are wired for it but I could see him getting bored quickly. I think I would too.
GNR used to shoot groundhogs in TN he told me. In AZ he has almost no opportunities, so his interests have evolved in a different direction. But shake that tree and he is a trove of info.
In the single shot hunting handgun performance drops with small bore larger capacity rounds. Velocities can fall 750-1000 fps compared to normal rifle length tube. Gary built me a .22 K-hornet 16" that can be both handgun or carbine, it's great. I sold my .17 Remington to switch to the .240 Raptor. Preparing to test the versatility on Hogs and 105 gr. V-max I shot a Muntjac with my revolver in it's place. I found later the 85 gr. at 2600 fps seemed a great loading for anything reasonable from my Contender handgun. I'll have to revisit it and try those little 55-60 gr. pills.