17HMR woes

[Smellydog]

Another interesting video re bolt shims on rimfires.

 

[jb1]

I'm confused, what is more common with CF rifles?

I still think hmr is still very popular in the UK.
Some may of chucked the towel in but most seem to of adjusted to the issue and waited for the industry to make changes. They deny it but a few claims made them wake up.... eventually.

Now on laptop,
With RF you are limited what you can do with the ammunition, as not much at all, with the head space and firing pin issues thats not common practice for RF shooters to mess with to get a rifle to do what its supposed to do out of the box. As you say though the bolt problems are an unknown issue to many many RF owners me included, but for me at the time of the problems it was a tool that was at the time not fit for purpose.

Compare that to CF rifles its more common, if you reload of course, you have the ability to fine tune ether its powder choice, charge weight, bullet weight,type, seating depth etc etc.

 

[Smellydog]

Now on laptop,
With RF you are limited what you can do with the ammunition, as not much at all, with the head space and firing pin issues thats not common practice for RF shooters to mess with to get a rifle to do what its supposed to do out of the box. As you say though the bolt problems are an unknown issue to many many RF owners me included, but for me at the time of the problems it was a tool that was at the time not fit for purpose.

Compare that to CF rifles its more common, if you reload of course, you have the ability to fine tune ether its powder choice, charge weight, bullet weight,type, seating depth etc etc.

Ok but I can assure you I've had a few center fire rifles leave the factory not fit for purpose also and no amount of load development fix it.

As for the original poster he would do well by eliminating a headspace issue via some simple steps and a decent vernia caliper .

 

[jb1]

Ok but I can assure you I've had a few center fire rifles leave the factory not fit for purpose also and no amount of load development fix it.

Can't disagree at all, while i wait for a replacement to arrive for a new Sako 90 that was just unbelievably rubbish.

 

[nocturnaldave]

No idea of round count…. So many that we can call it “LOTS”…. 17hmr through a T1x and the rifle is deffo staying never had an issue with it apart from the usual odd split neck but it has always gone bang. I had a similar issue to the OP with the rim fire I had before it. Dam good strip and clean solved it. Hope yours is as easy a fix…..!

 

[Donnington]

Update on the original post: Glad to say that everything is resolved. Degreasing everything didn't remedy the problem so I decided to follow the advice here and buy some shims from triggershims.com, which arrived in next to no time. At the same time I ordered an aftermarket firing pin which also came with a new firing pin spring.

I put the new pin and spring in the bolt at the same time as adding the .005" shim and headed out to one of my perms. 5 test shots to confirm zero and there was no shift in POI which was great. I rattled off about 50 shots and no a single failure to fire. I'd normally have had at least one by now. Even better, the groups were outstanding. The gun always shot well but groups were noticeably tighter. The .005" shim was the fattest of the lot but I'm more than happy with the groups and reliability so have decided to leave it as it is rather than mess about with the other sizes and tinker for the sake of it.

I can't notice any difference in strike depth on the cases which is good, as I had been a bit worried about case piercing given the length difference in firing pin (see image and compare the position of pin stops). I'm not sure if its the change in spring, longer firing pin or reduced headspace but the gun is performing flawlessly so I couldn't be happier. Even bumped into my mate from the original post and as you'll see from the photo, things worked out a little differently this time!

I did have a little drama on the drive home but that's a story for another post!

 

[Smellydog]

Update on the original post: Glad to say that everything is resolved. Degreasing everything didn't remedy the problem so I decided to follow the advice here and buy some shims from triggershims.com, which arrived in next to no time. At the same time I ordered an aftermarket firing pin which also came with a new firing pin spring.

I put the new pin and spring in the bolt at the same time as adding the .005" shim and headed out to one of my perms. 5 test shots to confirm zero and there was no shift in POI which was great. I rattled off about 50 shots and no a single failure to fire. I'd normally have had at least one by now. Even better, the groups were outstanding. The gun always shot well but groups were noticeably tighter. The .005" shim was the fattest of the lot but I'm more than happy with the groups and reliability so have decided to leave it as it is rather than mess about with the other sizes and tinker for the sake of it.

I can't notice any difference in strike depth on the cases which is good, as I had been a bit worried about case piercing given the length difference in firing pin (see image and compare the position of pin stops). I'm not sure if its the change in spring, longer firing pin or reduced headspace but the gun is performing flawlessly so I couldn't be happier. Even bumped into my mate from the original post and as you'll see from the photo, things worked out a little differently this time!

I did have a little drama on the drive home but that's a story for another post!

Thank you.