.17 hmr heads again

woodfordfallow

Well-Known Member
IN november i reported my gun problems. with a head getting stuck in the barrel wrighting the gun off a ruger 77/17 HMR.Well the bullet manufacture replaced the rounds and a new gun .I must say john at the GUNROOM has been great.Went and collected it on monday cleaned the barrel out. Put the scope on and went and zeroed it. The mag was faulty but i had three more from my old gun. so on we went last night a couple of rounds diden't load i couldn't shut the bolt.Put those rounds to one side.Then we noticed that one didn't load and closed the bolt not quite right. unloaded the gun and the head STAYED IN THE BARREL . So we put the gun to one side and used the other .17 hmr a cz. This gun fired aprox 20 rounds he ran out of his ammo. So we checked some of mine for zero. That was ok on we went shooting rabbits. Then the same thing one got stuck up the chimny this was about after 8 rounds two guns disabled in one night.The first gun was useing winchester in november. Last night Hornady all new gear.I have not claimed anything for my losses .

Do i have a claim for damages as his is my work full time.I have contracts to clear rabbits and i am losing money because of this.
I was nearly injured in the first gun/ammo fault. .:cry:
 
This is very disturbing. I hope that the manufacturers of the HMR round either commit to producing a safe product that we all can have confidence in or buy up all the HMR rifles off us.atb Tim
 
Yes you do have a claim for damages,if this is your work,If you can provide details of loss I am more than sure you will have a claim.
I have also had issues with a had from a remmington round stuck in the barrel.

I am leaving the .17 HMR at home now and will concentrate on using the .22 instead
 
Just got a hmr and must say this is making wish I had put in for a .22 instead very worrying indeed that's for sure
 
I dont know if you saw my post today on HMR rounds woodfordfallow but I'm in the same boat as you, I could have easily lost an eye last night but thankfully I was using a NV add on. I to am a Pro pest controller and need my HMR for my job. I wrote to the importers and they were straight on the case but in the meantime I have no rifle.
 
Had the same last week Hornady blue tip hmr stuck up the tube bad primer, had one also with a split case:mad: never had this problem when i could get hold of the red tipped bullets??
 
For the 4 years I had my HMR I loved it, never had a single problem, not even a spilt case from 15k rounds.
But all the recent stories had me worried about buying more ammo, I am now very glad I decided to sell the rilfe instead of buying more ammo.

Neil. :)
 
i had a couple missfire remmington and hornady blue and red tip so i switched to federal black tip and never had a problem
after switching
 
The fact the manufacturer has accepted their faulty goods caused the damage to your rifles would indicate they would be liable for the consequences of you not being able to continue your normal day to day activities.
As an analogy they would almost certainly be liable for any injuries you received which would also include loss of earnings.
 
This has just happened to me tonight a a pest control job , fired the 1 st round went to reload and luckily the bolt won't completly close checked it with lamp
and saw a Remington stuck in the barrel:scared:Luckily nobody hurt but christ it was close, back to the gunshop on monday for a wee chat.
 
As woodfordfallow knows I had the same problem with a synthetic stocked Browning T-bolt, the mag blowing out and also a 3 inch section of the left-hand side of the stock! A phone call from a Browning rep to the ammo manufacturer, and a replacement rifle was granted on the spot! Accepting instant blame or what? I also know that Singing Stalker has had exactly the same problem too. I'd like thank Woodfordfallow and Singing Stalker for the advice they gave me at the time. Top blokes.
 
I got rid of my HMR because the ammo quality control seemed to have gone down as reflected on by the poor accuracy.

I have been saying for a couple of years now that HMR ammo was in the tank. I'm sorry to hear about good rifles being hurt by the bad rounds. Marine PMI (of this site) and I tested barrels for Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Co back when this stuff came in plain, unmarked boxes. It was amazingly accurate and lethal. Suddenly, about the 3rd production run, the bullets weren't expanding reliably any more. Then the accuracy went. Now misfires, blow-ups, and stuck bullets. I have a 500 rounds of Hornady 17HMR in my basement that will not take a prairiedog cleanly at 75 yards. PMI shot seven dogs on open ground, under 80 yards, and all but one made it to their holes. I quit using it for even these rodents at that point; that was almost 4 years ago. At that time I switched back to the 22WMR and never looked back.~Muir
 
Must say that I had this experience with a friends Sako Quad when we were out zeroing. A round was fired and immediately noticed the report was different.
The other giveaway was no hole at 100m! The bolt did not close on the next round so we put the rifle aside!
At home used a cleaning rod to push out the bullet.
I do like the 17HMR but ammo problems like this should just not happen!
I'll stick with the 17rem!
 
I use an Anschutz 17/17 a lot and as yet have not had a single problem using Hornady ammo. Is anything being done as far as contacting the manufacturers to get their take on what is clearly a problem.
As far as I can remember there hasn't been such a problem before with other calibres, bullets jamming in the bore, guns disintegrating, it's crazy.
The 17HMR is getting popular in the States, are they having problems I wonder? One thing is certain when this round first appeared there were, as far as I remember, no problems. So what is going wrong, surely the factory equipment isn't wearing out already?
It would be a shame if what is inherently a very good round should be put to one side.
 
The fact that rifle manufacturers now appear to be replacing rifles damaged by faulty HMR ammo as quickly as possible suggests that they're more interested in playing down the problem with the customer rather than tackling it at source with the ammunition manufacturer(s?).

The makers of HMR ammo cannot be unaware by now that they're selling a faulty product, yet we see no recalls or any other remedial action taken.

It's hard not to conclude then that HMR sales make rifle and ammo manufacturers, and distributors and retailers, so much money that no one wants to blow the whistle or rock the boat.

I suspect this is because an HMR blow-up is very unlikely to cause serious personal injury and they reckon their profits can absorb sporadic claims for emotional distress, loss of earnings, or replacement rifles.

If anyone shoots an HMR and wants to avoid a premature end to an outing on account of a blocked barrel or a blown-up gun, you must (1) carry a cleaning rod, and (2) be alert to anything unusual when chambering a round or taking a shot - checking the bore at the slightest suspicion that all is not right. Even an unexplained miss should be taken as a warning sign.

Better yet, pick another cartridge.
 
I use an Anschutz 17/17 a lot and as yet have not had a single problem using Hornady ammo. Is anything being done as far as contacting the manufacturers to get their take on what is clearly a problem.
As far as I can remember there hasn't been such a problem before with other calibres, bullets jamming in the bore, guns disintegrating, it's crazy.
The 17HMR is getting popular in the States, are they having problems I wonder? One thing is certain when this round first appeared there were, as far as I remember, no problems. So what is going wrong, surely the factory equipment isn't wearing out already?
It would be a shame if what is inherently a very good round should be put to one side.


Getting popular?? It's popularity has waned. Hornady did a very good job selling this cartridge. Pre-release hype about this round being a "true 200 yards rimfire varmint cartridge" and carefully made ammunition primed the public and the release set them into a frenzy. Now the shelves are lined with 17HMR guns that aren't selling as fast as they used to, and the ammunition -which sold for $14/50 seven years ago- now sells for $9 a box; cheaper than 22WMR by a long shot. People aren't buying the hype anymore.

Hornady is aware of the problems. At the SHOT show they related that the HMR problems were "isolated" and that they were looking into them. My a$$. This is just the end of that long slide towards mediocrity. I have found 22WMR to be as accurate, kill as quickly, and FAR more consistent than 17HMR. I still have three custom HMR's gathering dust.~Muir
 
I think it's time to send mine down the road, probably for a baby centrefire and a .22lr if the kind folks at Wiltshire Constabulary approve.
 
I have just taken my rifle with the bullet head in the barrel to my local gun shop with all the .17hmr
rounds i have , good timing for once because the sales rep for edgar bros was there who import most of the
ammunition and cz rifles.He confirmed that this fault has been known about since they started selling the ammo,
they currently sell over 5 million rounds of 17.hmr per year in the uk and are getting 20-30 reports of this kind in the same time frame.He said the fault is caused by the neck of the case getting cracked in the annealing/loading
process , this small nearly microscopic crack lets in moisture and causes the powder to clump and therefore not
fire properly.
I examined the suspect case from my rifle and found this to be true, the rep was really honeast and helpfull
he gave me some free rounds and appologised and said that if the rifle had been damaged in any way he would have relaced it f.o.c.So get your spy glasses out boys and check those case necks !
 
Back
Top