17hmr Shooters, check your ammo!

Scrappy600

Copied this from a post i put on 17hmr.net recently so excuse the editing, was just easier to copy and paste.....
During a recent trip to the range with some Hornady 17gr vmax to see if she still shot straight raised a bit of a howler with me. I've heard pf plenty of cases splitting at the neck in the chamber before.
When i started shooting at the range i was using the ballistic tipped v-max and couldn't get the tight groups I know the gun's capable of, i noticed that i was splitting nearly every casing also. Anyway i decided for curiosity sake to try the Winchester 20gr gamepoints i have and these grouped way way better, which isnt really the norm for me, usually the ballistics group far tighter than the hollows. I also thought maybe i was just out of practice.

On returning home i did a bit of research at Rimefire Central about the split cases and decided to check the ammo after i read about a particular issue and found this....




Yup, thats right, casings are splitting in storage of new rounds. So much so that i was able to do this with very little effort...No crimp on the pill at all because of the split neck


Out of 1 unused box of 50 rounds, 27 of them are like that.
I've contacted Hornady who have obviously contacted the Irish importer for Hornady as they emailed me out of the blue today, but be warned that there is definitely a problem with 17gr vmax of a vintage i'm not sure when produced. Any of you guys that have it stockpiled id advise checking the rounds, and not just hornady either as they all come from the same place aside from Winchester. This could end in best case scenario bad grouping, but worse case scenario I could envisage a blown barrell if certain steps occurred as a result of this...

Quick update....
Quick update to this guys, ive been in touch with the importers for hornady in Ireland and theyre going to send 4 replacement boxes of v-max 17gr to a rfd of my choice once back in stock so good result.
Not so good result is this.....
Federal Premium V-Shock from my safe

and Winchester V-Max


looks to be across the board people, like i said, check your stocks of .17hmr.....

Snakezilla

Fair play lad !

HW100S

I also experienced this recently with a box of Hornady V-max 17gr. It felt like a delay in firing, hard to say how long between pulling the trigger and the bullet firing but it felt about 1 second.
This was happening every 4-5 shots so I thought there was something wrong with the rifle, as it was a new rifle. I then checked the casings and noticed they were all splitting like in the photo.
Changes to remmington ammo and no issue there. I have since fired v-max with no issues either so the ones that were splitting must have been old.
As you said plenty of complaints on Rinfire central on this.

Scrappy600

HW100S wrote: »

I also experienced this recently with a box of Hornady V-max 17gr. It felt like a delay in firing, hard to say how long between pulling the trigger and the bullet firing but it felt about 1 second.
This was happening every 4-5 shots so I thought there was something wrong with the rifle, as it was a new rifle. I then checked the casings and noticed they were all splitting like in the photo.
Changes to remmington ammo and no issue there. I have since fired v-max with no issues either so the ones that were splitting must have been old.
As you said plenty of complaints on Rinfire central on this.

You're hardly dealing with John in griffin hawe are you? He was telling me someone was having bother with v-max 17 misfires alright

HW100S

Scrappy600 wrote: »

You're hardly dealing with John in griffin hawe are you? He was telling me someone was having bother with v-max 17 misfires alright

No, not me. Seems like its a commom problem so if other are experiencing it also.
Thankfully since that particular box of ammo it hasn't happened.
I don't remember where I got them so couldn't even take them back.

Scrappy600

HW100S wrote: »

No, not me. Seems like its a commom problem so if other are experiencing it also.
Thankfully since that particular box of ammo it hasn't happened.
I don't remember where I got them so couldn't even take them back.

You don't go back to the retailer. Contact hornady directly and they'll have Gowen and Bradshaw (main hornady importer for ireland) in Galway contact you. I haven't a breeze where I bought my rounds but they're still replacing them.

HW100S

Scrappy600 wrote: »

You don't go back to the retailer. Contact hornady directly and they'll have Gowen and Bradshaw (main hornady importer for ireland) in Galway contact you. I haven't a breeze where I bought my rounds but they're still replacing them.

Thats good to know, i'll get onto them so.
Did you need to send them photos or any proof?

Scrappy600

HW100S wrote: »

Thats good to know, i'll get onto them so.
Did you need to send them photos or any proof?

No just sent them the lot number from the bottom of the box. I think that may have been enough for them to know it was part of an affected batch. When g&b contacted me on email I sent pics alright. They want the ammo returned so hornady can examine it/destroy it

mixerbarcoe

have my 17HMR over a year now and every box of bullets i get theres always 1 or 2 like that in the box.. thats using federal and hornady.. and from different rfds

Scrappy600

mixerbarcoe wrote: »

have my 17HMR over a year now and every box of bullets i get theres always 1 or 2 like that in the box.. thats using federal and hornady.. and from different rfds

They shouldn't be. Could have disastrous consequences......I'd be checking them before you leave dealers if that's the case

skipking

where did you buy the winchester game points, as i never seen them anywhere.

Scrappy600

skipking wrote: »

where did you buy the winchester game points, as i never seen them anywhere.

Bought them from John O'Brien in waterford a few years back. Have a good amount left if you really want some ill do a deal with you, I'm moving back to the ballistic tipped for rabbit I used to use the gamepoint for fox but haven't shot fox in a long time so don't really use them too much any more.

pf85

I've found 5 cracked cases in one box of Hornady ammo, has anyone else come across this? I've heard this could be a widespread issue

philmire

pf85 wrote: »

I've found 5 cracked cases in one box of Hornady ammo, has anyone else come across this? I've heard this could be a widespread issue

Widespread issue for years there's loads of treads about this

pf85

philmire wrote: »

Widespread issue for years there's loads of treads about this

So what's the general consensus; disguard them and switch to another manufacturer or is there any point contacting Hornady

skipking

scrappy600 got a half box from a mate to try out. will also be checking the rest of my ammo thanks.

Scrappy600

pf85 wrote: »

So what's the general consensus; disguard them and switch to another manufacturer or is there any point contacting Hornady

Impossible to switch to another manufacturer...... there isnt one.....its all made by CCI in their plant, just the different stamps applied to the brass and different colour tips for each brand...
Contact Hornady, i wouldnt trust any round that doesnt have a crimp on the pill...theyll replace them, id especially do it if you've any decent quantity of boxes thats affected...

http://www.hornady.com/contact_us

Thats the link to their contact page, if its done the same as they did with me then they should pass the issue to Gowan and Bradshaw in Galway. Only way stuff like this ever gets sorted is if enough people complain, although from what i can see, it has been resolved, it seems to have been a problem with annealing the cases after they were necked down from .22wmr, but they seem to have fixed that

raymo19

Hi lads, this case splitting is very serious. I sold a semi auto Remy to a friend and he had a blow out while shooting it. He was lucky and I'm lucky he was not a lefthander. There were several parts blown out of the gun.I later found out that Remy had issued a recall on the 597 semi auto I'm .17 hmr. The importer replaced the gun for me. What I didn't realise that there was a recall on the Remington .17hmr round also. I gave several boxes of remmy .17 hmr ammo to my friend in the original deal. I got him a .17 hmr marlin as a replacement for the remmy .17. Low and behold my friend had another serious blow out while shooting. This blowout broke the ejector claw and other parts of the gun. The gun is currently going back to the importer. I would recommend dumping any old .17hmr ammo. I think CCI make all .17hmr ammo as detailed earlier. I did notice that the ammo was jamming after firing in the marlin barrel and the extractor claw was unable to clear it. My friend thinks that I'm trying to kill him.

raymo19

I checked an old box of Remy .17hmr this morning and out of the first twelve rounds I inspected two were clearly split at the neck and two more were stressed looking at the neck.
I would advise checking all .17hmr before use. Return all old ammo that's been lying around.
Regards
Raymo