Dangerous Ammo??

[Skull Hooker 185]

Went out to zero my Anschutz 17 HMR yesterday with a different scope. It was perfectly clean. Put a few down and was checking each one on the paper target.

On the seventh shot, no hole appeared in the paper. I racked the bolt and the empty cartridge flew out. Pushed it forward to put another in and the bolt wouldn't close. There was clearly a blockage preventing the bullet entering the chamber by about 0.25". Blew the smoke away and couldn't see daylight down the barrel. Took it home a put a cleaning rod down the barrel from the dangerous end and out popped the bullet.

"F*@! me" thinks I. How dangerous is that. If that bullet had gone another 0.25" and I had managed to chamber another round , I'd have blown my gun up and even worse, possibly me.

I cleaned the gun and went off again. About ten rounds in, it happened again. This time the bullet had gone a bit further up.

 

The ammo was Hornady V Max 17gr.

 

Has this happened to anyone else? Do you reckon I should notify Hornady?

 

I've switched to Remmy ammo now and that seems ok, but I'm a bit apprehensive about using the rifle now in case its a fault with that, but I don't think it is.

[StephenWalsh 73]

Bloody scary.

[shropshire dan 467]

A recurring problem with hmr. I havnt had it happen but heard alot of stories. I always keep a rod in the hmr bag just in case. Check the necks of the cases for hairline cracks. I normally find at least 2 per box but have found 13 before now. I just zero with them and double check the bore before chambering the next round

[SportingShooter 0]

Happened several times with Hornady rounds in my HMR,

 

Never had a problem with bad cases or duff rounds with Winchester ammo.

[maktayla 50]

My HMR doesnt like Hornady. Ive been using CCI 20 grain for the past 18 months and its been great. Incredibly accurate, no misfires (touch wood) and never had the same problem as yourself. It is very concerning. Was it the same batch of ammo you was using. If so, and you have more, try another box. It aint gonna hurt to contact Hornady.I am sure they will be interested to know. I cannot imagine it being your rifle. Your firing pin is striking the rim and the round is going off. Maybe there is someone on here with more knowledge than me when it comes to the technical sides of things, but maybe its a powder load problem with that batch?? Ive had shotgun loads that have made a very dull noise and ive found the wad and shot not travelling very far. If there is ever a slightest doubt as to whether the round has left the barrell or not, I always check before cycling the next round. You were indeed very lucky.

I know you state your Anschutz is new, but have you had this calibre before? As I said earlier, my rifle does not get on with Hornady. I am certainly not saying its a bad round, I'm just trying to say its worth looking at different ammo if you have lost your trust in Hornady. As Sporting Shooter says, its happened to him and Ive heard it happening to others. I also agree with Shropshire Dan. Check your rounds, look for any signs of defect.

[dadioles 68]

I have not yet had a duff hmr round with the effect you describe.

 

Presumably the main charge is not igniting? Just the primer?

 

Did you not hear a significant difference in the 'bang'. That surprises me.

 

If your rifle is moderated, the bit of the 'bang' that takes place in the barrel is not too loud. The loud 'crack' is when the bullet goes supersonic and is responsible for most of the noise. I do not understand how you failed to notice the missing supersonic bit of the sound and only realised there was a problem by a missing hole in the target.

 

I would hazard a guess that you have some ammunition that has been badly stored in damp conditions. It would be interesting to pull a few heads and see if the powder is 'clumpy'.

 

In my experience, cracked hmr cases are not a problem.

[Skull Hooker 185]

Thanks for all your comments. The report from the rifle was not noticeably different, and the ammo is always stored correctly in my safe in a warm dry room. I was thinking about selling this rifle anyway and this has made up my mind. I can't have that amount of risk. Night shooting with it brings an extra element of danger as its more difficult to check whether or not its stuck in the barrel. I wouldn't expect any ammo at todays prices to be split or undercharged. Outrageous really.

Skully

[celticrusader 78]

Mmmm quite a common with some people but like dadioles I've put about 1200 rounds through mine in the past year and experienced no problem whatsoever.

How you clean your barrel and how rounds are stored may have something to do with it.

Being that its a tight barrel do you pull through with a rod or just add a copper solution, how many rounds before you clean your bore aswell...tell us what's your routine?

[charlie caller 3,654]

I am afraid it is only a matter of time before someone is injured or worse, this is happening FAR too often.

[Born Hunter 17,751]

I find it very hard to believe that a solution to this problem couldn't be found if a company actually invested a pot of R&D money in to it. Coupled with the fact that it is potentially very dangerous I'd of thought that it could easily be justified. Straight off the cuff I've a few ideas...

 

But perhaps they already have and have found that there is no real risk with a well maintained firearm?

 

All that said, I'm yet to see a problem. And if I'm to believe the reports of how regular folks are seeing problems I should have done by now...

Edited July 14, 2014 by Born Hunter

[Skull Hooker 185]

My cleaning routine is generally the same with all copper jacketed bullets every time I use it, generally the same day or maybe the day after:

1. Run a p/b brush through three or four times to get rid of heavy fouling

2. Soak a patch in Tetra ammonia copper solvent and run through, then leave it for 15 mins to do its work.

3. Run patches through until they come out absolutely clean, can be anything up to 15 patches with this gun, as the 17 round I've often found quite dirty IMO.

4. Outside of gun cleaned with gun oil as is the bolt.

5. Mod removed and screw thread cleaned and oiled

5. Spray of WD40 in the mod.

 

This has sufficed for years. I'm convinced its the ammo batch

[charlie caller 3,654]

Well there was a chap on the Stalking directory had the bolt face blown off, and to be honest having a round stuck up the spout is never good news, lets face it.

[Born Hunter 17,751]

Well there was a chap on the Stalking directory had the bolt face blown off, and to be honest having a round stuck up the spout is never good news, lets face it.

 

Did it cause the man any harm? Or just rifle damage?

 

I'm just trying to figure out if the problem has been considered not worth solving by the manufacturers. You know, have they actually intentionally fired rounds with one already wedged up the spout? Just seems amazing that if it is potentially dangerous they dare to keep producing the ammunition? You'd also think they have statistics for the failure rates of their ammunition to help asses the risk. For a relatively small sum of money, there's a lot that could be learnt about this problem.

 

I'm not saying that that is satisfactory by any means, just getting my head round this.

[Born Hunter 17,751]

My cleaning routine is generally the same with all copper jacketed bullets every time I use it, generally the same day or maybe the day after:

1. Run a p/b brush through three or four times to get rid of heavy fouling

2. Soak a patch in Tetra ammonia copper solvent and run through, then leave it for 15 mins to do its work.

3. Run patches through until they come out absolutely clean, can be anything up to 15 patches with this gun, as the 17 round I've often found quite dirty IMO.

4. Outside of gun cleaned with gun oil as is the bolt.

5. Mod removed and screw thread cleaned and oiled

5. Spray of WD40 in the mod.

 

This has sufficed for years. I'm convinced its the ammo batch

 

Sorry mate, I wasn't accusing you of poor maintenance of your rifle. What I meant was; have the manufacturers of hmr ammo carried out tests by intentionally lodging a bullet in a barrel and then firing another through it to asses the risk... if so perhaps they had found that their is no risk with a well maintained rifle...

 

If not, they really ought to!

[charlie caller 3,654]

I dont think it caused him any physical harm, but it buggered his rifle, I know what your line of thought is mate, to be honest I have read loads of similar incidents, and have got a bit bored with them now, I do hope nobody comes to any harm, but I would be worried by all the tales, if I had a hmr.