.17 hmr bullet defect

deano2882

Went to load my .17, but the bolt wouldn't slide forward. I removed the mag and put it back in to try again. No joy. Removed the bolt a second time and noticed a rattle. Tried to remove the bullets from it with no joy. Finally noticed 2nd round in mag had no bullet (confused face) Got it out and the actual bullet had gone inside the case. Just wondering has this happened to anyone?

Checked the rest of the box and they all sound.

bravestar

It's happened me with 9mm ammo

Cass

If you push the bolt forward a little too slowly the round can lift and jam against the chamber. If you continue to push the bolt you are pushing the bullet/case. Too much pressure can you might be able to push the bullet back into the case. The neck tension of a such a small caliber would not be much.

Now if the bullet was already in the case before you tried to load it then it's a simple manufacturing fault. As long as the rest are not the same you're fine.

Just dispose of the round, but DO NOT even attempt to fire it for obvious reasons.

LIFFY FISHING

Lots of reports in the UK about Hornandy .17v max bullets splitting at the neck of the round, you could have encountered some of the same defective batch?

deano2882

Cass totally agree but this was second bullet down first bullet was intact..yes have had few split cases wit .17 but also had a few .22 mag split on me b4 also... Bullet has been disposed of in good deep hole so no problems there just never seen this b4 so said I'd throw it out there...

Cass

As said it could be as simple as a missed fault in the manufacturing process. When seating it was pushed down either fully or partially (too much). Just keep an eye out when loading the mag for any other ones.

Nekarsulm

Hi Cass, if the case was filled with propellant, how could the bullet move back into the case?

Cass

It's not filled. None are.

A .308 case can hold a tad over 49 grains of propellant. However if they put that much in it 99.9% of .308 rifles would suffer catastrophic failure as the pressures would be too much for the action/bolt to handle. So they load it to a safe charge. Usually in th 42-44 grain mark. It's why if you shake a round you can hear the propellant rattling in the case.

Same with every other caliber. The manufacturer must load each one to a set level to provide the necessary performance, but most importantly at a level that is safe to the shooter. So the "free space" left in the case is room enough for the bullet to take up should it get pushed down into the case.

Nekarsulm

Cass wrote: »

It's not filled. None are.

A .308 case can hold a tad over 49 grains of propellant. However if they put that much in it 99.9% of .308 rifles would suffer catastrophic failure as the pressures would be too much for the action/bolt to handle. So they load it to a safe charge. Usually in th 42-44 grain mark. It's why if you shake a round you can hear the propellant rattling in the case.

Same with every other caliber. The manufacturer must load each one to a set level to provide the necessary performance, but most importantly at a level that is safe to the shooter. So the "free space" left in the case is room enough for the bullet to take up should it get pushed down into the case.

OK, thanks, you learn something new every day!
That's about 10% free space. When the various calibres and case sizes were developed, were propellants a bit less powerful? I do not refer to black powder, but modern smokeless powders. regards, nek.

Cass

It's only a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess), but i'd imagine it's for reloaders as well as factory stuff. IOW the case can accommodate not only an increase in charge, but different length bullets too (as they are not all the same length).

For example if you compare a 155 gr .308 beside a 200 gr .308 bullet there is a sizable difference in length. As the case size remains constant then the extra length has to go into the case (in most cases, but not all). So if the case was topped to the neck with propellant the bullet would immediately start to crush the propellant as it's seated. Not only is this dangerous while performing, but dangerous to the person shooting the round, dangerous for mass production (as i'm sticking with manufacturing and not hand loading). So the manufacturer backs off the charge to a workable load while maintaining a safe charge and allowing enough room for the bullet to be seated without any "ill-effect" from the process.

Remember the key term. Lawyer friendly. That is how everything is usually done these days.

Plus back when some calibers were developed safety was not what it is today. IOW the same level of health and safety, etc was nowhere near the same.