Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Yesterday was out on the home range shooting some targets with the 17HMR Volquartsen and I had multiple ammo failures from Federal Premium V-Shok 17 grain 17 HMR with the V-Max Polymer Tip

The ammo is from 2003 best I can figure, got it with Doug's stuff. Anyway, I was having some mis-fires, a few hang fires when firing it through my Tracker 17 revolver... but nothing serious enough to merit concern until my buddy shooting the 17 HMR Volquartsen next to me had the magazine explode, and I mean explode. Cut his hand and he had plastic (or powder?) burns all over his hand.

He's fine, if a bit shaken up and had to dig a little plastic out of the hand.

Anyway, the bullet pancaked on the firing pin end of the casing, and the bullet left the gun but the casing stuck in the chamber. From what it looked like, the primer exploded out the sides, pancaking the section of the case where the firing pin strikes, but also the casing near the nose of the bullet split vertically open.

I took a look at the casings from when I had been firing the tracker, and noticed those also had splits ... that looked like the one I posted at the bottom of this thread.

I fired through another box of 17 HMR I bought yesterday, with no problems in the same guns after the fact.

What do you guys think?

1) User error (I'm new to 17 HMR)
2) Ammo batch failure
3) Gun failure (17 tracker & Volquartsen custom rifle)

Gun Porn / Examples:

Custom Volquartsen HMR Rifle:





My tracker 17


Ammo I was using


split example (not mine, but similar)

Hornaday which makes all the .17HMR ammo ( yeah I know CCi, Federal and others have their name on it) has admited the .17HMR will not function properly in semi-auto's. Remington is even offering a $200.00 voucher to people who have bought the 597's in .17HMR and return them. As far as the problem with your tracker, I don't have a clue.

OK, so the Semi-Auto on the Volquartsen is part of the problem. Is this par for the course with all 17 HMR rifles?

Also, does this occur with 17 HMR Mach 2?

The tracker was causing the same problem however, split casings just like the one pictured above. Seemed to be an abnormal amount of blow off from the chamber as well, but we were firing as it was getting dark so that might have been normal.

From what I have heard the .17HMR ammo is a issue for all semi-auto's. I haven't heard anything about the .17HM2 being a problem in semi-auto's. People were blaming the gun manufacturers for the problem with the HMR but Hornaday stepped up and took the blame.

Hmm... I'm in for a long night of Googling you've led me in the right direction...

Anybody else who knows about this 17 HMR fiasco please enlighten me.

Too bad, I think I'll be taking the risk even if I can't find a solution this rifle is the nicest shooting rifle I think I've ever laid my hands on.

Very curious if the problem carries over to a Semi-Auto 17 HMR Mach 2!

There is a short article about this in the most recent 1st Freedoms magazine from the NRA, may have made it into the other magazines too but I don't know. Like Henry said, 17HMR in a semi-auto is a problem. Nothing said about 17HMR in anything else (I use a bolt action without problems) or about 17HM2 at all.

I have a Ruger 77/17 and have never had a problem with it. I have a 3X9 scope on it and at 200 yards it is deadly on groundhogs.

I put about 200 rounds through it before I had this problem, but I went back through my casings and a few of them had splits like I pictured.

Then I put 50 rounds of new 2009 ammo (the other was 2003) through the rifle, and also through the revolver with no problems.

The semi-auto thing I understand, as the pressure if you were firing in rapid succession would not have time to "bleed off" from what I've read...

However the casings splitting similarly in the revolver lead me to believe the problem lied with the ammo, not the rifle.

I'll put another 200 rounds through it with newer ammo and report back.

Meanwhile if anyone has / or had a similar problem, please let me know!

Hey, had some issues with exact same ammo shooting from Taurus 17 pump action today. Splitting of casings, hang ups, with added issue of projectile being shoved back into casing. Anyone else seeing this or heard anything about bad ammo? Thanks for any help.

ipebbles2 wrote:Hey, had some issues with exact same ammo shooting from Taurus 17 pump action today. Splitting of casings, hang ups, with added issue of projectile being shoved back into casing. Anyone else seeing this or heard anything about bad ammo? Thanks for any help.

I haven't head anything except that 17HMR shouldn't be used in a semi-auto (as indicated by VaHunter in the second post of this thread). I also read an advertisement in this month's American Rifleman (NRA publication) indicating the same with regard to 17HMR and semi-auto usage (i.e. don't do it).

Not sure how your Taurus pump fits into the equation...

I have since bought new ammo and have not had a problem with it. I ended up sending the rifle back to Volquartsen as after talking with them I learned that there was a "recall" of sorts.

They were offering to convert it to a .22LR or they had a fix for the .17HMR that they said would solve the problem. Once they put in the beefed up semi-auto parts,...from what I can tell, I have not had a problem with the rifle since and put a lot of rounds down the tube.

Those Volquartsen are sweet rifles, eh? Wish I had one or a dozen.

I have one in 17HMR and one in 17 Mach 2, they are probably the nicest rifles I own.

I have a marlin 17hmr bolt action and had the same problem with split case necks using CCI TNT ammo. I would not buy the TNT, not because of the case necks but because they are very fragile. If your not paying close attention you could load up a crushed or deformed bullet easily. Never had a problem with the V-Max.
From what I understand CCI makes all of the .17hmr at their plant. Hornady paid to have all the equipment installed in order to produce it.

How many rounds did you fire before the hangfires/kaboom?

Some of the .17s have/had problems with chambering and firing out of battery when the chamber got dirty. I've got a 10/22 coverted to .17mach2 using the Rimfire Tech barrel/bolt and no problems. Then again I run a bore snake through it every 50 rounds and ONLY shoot Eley/Remington.

Cheers
Chris