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[lgray88 4]

Its ok saying dont worry when nothing has happened yet but its better to get the problem sorted before something does, I had alot of split necks in the remmington rounds i was buying but never in my hornady, i was getting around 9 or 10 in each box but didnt bother me at first so just put them to one side and told the shop i got them from he just said he would replace them but was hardly worth it for so little unless i saved them till i had a box full but this would have took me a while as i dont just shoot .17......so one day im out on the field and i set up around some bunnies probably about 6 or 7 bunnies sat out by the hedge around 40yrds so i set up with the bi-pod and scoped my 1st bunnie and dropped it clean sighted up the second and CLICK so i ejected as i though and in one motion chambered another untill it stopped and the bolt didnt close so as i took the bolt out and had a look down the chamber i seen that a round had gotten stuck dont know how to this day but the only thing i have thought of since is, if that round had gone a little further and got stuck and i had fired the next round i just cant think about what could have happened, i tapped it out with a rod and on inspection it had a split neck but was it the split that had made this jam or was it just coincidence???

 

I have had a few plit necks since and wont fire them just in case and i know i should check every time you hear a click and i always do when i have a miss fire, and the miss fires are always in the .17 hmr round and only in the remmingtons...thanks for reading mal

 

 

You mention here you pushed the round out with a rod. Surely the fact that you had to remove a full round by the use of a rod would mean a second round would never chamber anyway while the first was in the breech, So do you mean you knocked the bullet head out the barrel or did some catastrophic thing happen to the whole brass case that the rim collapsed and disappeared into the barrel, surely not?

 

If not when you ejected the case you would of seen a split neck anyway and not when you knocked it out with a rod.

 

Anyways i have never had any problem with the Hornady stuff ,but previously useing the winny 20gr rounds i had a few that were a bugger too extract after fireing but im not sure if this is down too sakos chamber size being slightly tighter than normal as the same barrel for the 22lr what a bugger too remove rounds from.

[Hmr Hunter 2]

I bought some Hornady 17G Red Tips from Sportsmans in Newport South Wales a few months back, 2 boxes, had a misfire due to damp powder in the first box, rodded that out changed to the 2nd box and exactly the same! Now use the Federal Premiers, cracking round in my Ruger

[bewsher500 3]

 

any split in the case before can allow moisture in

 

Lot of people here who seem to disbelieve there is a problem

just look through a selection of these:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?ix=ieb&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=hmr+problem#hl=en&safe=off&sclient=psy-ab&q=hmr+ammo+problem&oq=hmr+ammo+problem&aq=f&aqi=g-m1&aql=&gs_l=serp.3..0i5.9774.15145.2.20487.4.4.0.0.0.1.181.657.0j4.4.0...0.0.9FJxodjvWDA&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=f9cdab9b2f3592a9&ix=ieb&biw=1024&bih=509

 

there is a reason Hornady themselves have had to sticky a note about HMR semi autos!

http://www.hornady.com/in-the-news/latest-news/17-hmr-notice

 

why do you think some manufacturers have said the HMR in semi autos can be more dangerous?

because of the higher risk of squib rounds getting stuck in the barrel and being followed by a normal round.

 

I have no problem with split necks as I have fired many that are split before and many that showed no sign before but were split after. It may have no noticeable effect on POI but it can't be helping!

 

and FYI the case is not "annealed" when it is fired, if it was no-one would ever need to anneal CF cases.

 

 

any info you can provide would be useful.

thanks for your help

[paulus 26]

Bob Palmer at Hornady, in an e-mailed reply to George's enquiry:

CCI makes the cases for all the .17 HMR ammo and loads it for the different companies. When they make the cases they draw the case out to a .22mag case that has a straight wall. Then the priming compound is put in the rim of the case. The case is spun to put the primer evenly in the rim.

 

After the priming is complete the case mouth is reduced to the .17 calibre to hold the bullet. The reduction process, however, puts stress on the neck of the case. They obviously cannot anneal the neck of the case to relieve the stress because of the compound in the rim, so from time to time you will get a case that cracks. Some batches may produce more splits than others. The chamber pressure on .17 ammo is so low that it does not hurt the chamber on the rifle.

 

They have tried to anneal the cases more before it's formed to .17, but this did not eliminate the cracks altogether. If the cracks were minor I would continue to use the ammo. The cracks do not affect the accuracy of the round and the brass is not reloadable.

[mal mason 7]

I had to knock just the bullet head out of my barrel sorry didnt mention that, and didnt know if it was split when it went in but was when the case was ejected, i also have 12 rounds on a shelf in my safe that are split right down the neck.

[matt_hooks 188]

IMHO any round that is split from the box represents a failure of the manufacturers QC procedure. Some rounds split on firing, and this will probably have no adverse effect (note... probably) but I would personally not consider chambering a round with a split neck. The case expands against the chamber wall to provide a seal during firing, any crack is likely to cause a weak spot and may mean an escape rearwards of hot gases. I don't need to point out what's directly to the rear of the bolt on firing!

 

What I don't understand is why they can't spin the priming compound in to a fully formed case?

[paulus 26]

IMHO any round that is split from the box represents a failure of the manufacturers QC procedure. Some rounds split on firing, and this will probably have no adverse effect (note... probably) but I would personally not consider chambering a round with a split neck. The case expands against the chamber wall to provide a seal during firing, any crack is likely to cause a weak spot and may mean an escape rearwards of hot gases. I don't need to point out what's directly to the rear of the bolt on firing!

 

What I don't understand is why they can't spin the priming compound in to a fully formed case?

my best guess would be the process was designed prior to the discovery of the problem and the cost involved in altering the process would outway the potential risk the problem may cause.

[matt_hooks 188]

Then the person designing the process had a major brain fart and missed a fairly obvious pitfall. Anyone who has worked with metallic materials, in particular with softish alloys, will well know the problem of work hardening.

[tegater 789]

This is what I sometimes experience, as described earlier. A split at the shoulder.

 

From a previous picture I can clearly see that slpit knecks occur prior to firing, but I have never seen this to date.If I do find any at a later date I will let you know.

 

I have painstakingly gone through my stock which includes blue tips, and a newer batch of red tips, and nothing shows up. The red tips are almost pink they are that discoloured but that really doesnt bother me I am afraid, its just a lump of coloured polymer.

[bewsher500 3]

they cant anneal them after the neck sizing because they are primed at .22WMR on the same machines that they use for the earlier case variant.

they are primed and then sized.

 

that said they could easily anneal them before they are primed!!

prime them then size the neck.

 

its a cost thing.

what do you think that would do to the already ridiculous prices you pay for HMR ammo?

 

it would kill the round in my opinion

who is going to pay £25-30 for a box of 50

[Tobias 0]

I had this problem about a month ago with Hornady 17grn blue tips i got a batch of 500 in january and all was good with the 1st 200 then noticed some misses and strange sounding shots not many to start with then it got worse and on one little practice session i had 5 duff noise rounds so i checked the empties and they were split open so i opened and checked the other boxes when i got home and found 32 with split necks down to the shoulders and this was before shooting them so i got them all together and took the to my local gunshop and showed him he was suprised and exchanged them for a new box and said he would speak to his supplier not heard anything from him since. Hope this helps all were shot from my Anschutz 1517 14" barreled gun.

[matt_hooks 188]

Bewsher, I don't care how much a box of .17 costs, I don't shoot it. WMR all the way for me!