Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Problems With Two RAR .17 HMR Rifles

A friend and I plan to go PD hunting in SD this June, and we both purchased new Ruger American Rimfire rifles in .17 HMR at the same time. We also purchased a total of 6000 rounds of Hornady ammunition with the 17-gr. V-Max bullet.

Both rifles shoot accurately enough, but they both also frequently malfunction. There are frequent failures to extract, requiring the fired case to be pried out of the chamber.

There are also frequent failures to feed from the magazine. This is most common with the 4th, 5th and 6th rounds in a fully loaded 9-round magazine. The bolt will bind when it is still about 1/2 inch short of closing. I am not sure, but I believe this is a problem with cartridges binding in the magazine rather than refusing to enter the chamber.

These problems occur in BOTH rifles. Today I tried some CCI A-17 ammunition and it produced the same problems as with the Hornady ammo in both rifles.

I read many glowing reports about the RAR .17 HMR before we bought these rifles, but these two are turkeys so far. Are others experiencing these problems and is there a fix, short of returning both guns to Ruger?

Did not have feeding problems. Did have extraction issues. No pattern to it. All ammo I tried stuck occasionally. I sent it to Ruger. They claimed there was a problem with the chamber and replaced the gun. I am guessing the headspace was bare minimal or under spec or chamber was tight. My chamber looked good did not look like it was just a case of poorly cut and machine marks. The 17 in general can be a bit erratic with velocities and pressures round to round. So I figure a hotter round expanding more in a tight chamber or incorrectly headspaced chamber equals stuck case.

I'd send that sucker back why should it be your problem to fix?

I've owned one for a year now. Never had any of those issues.

ITs a ruger. LOL.

But seriously, call em and send em back to check em out. Gives Ruger a chance to make it right.

I have no doubt they will. I know plenty of rugers sent back in over the years and not a single one came back not fixed.

OTOH I've never sent any of my Rems in. LOL.

Don't brag too loud. I sent a quite high dollar Remington back due to it shooting patterns at 100 YDS. They put a new barrel on it......

I never ever even got close to saying any brand was perfect.

I had a Rem that shot patterns at 100 with Barnes bullets.

But with 63 semi points in 22-250 it shot around 3/4 inch at 100...

I"d be willing to be every brand has a lemon now and then.

I've just seen more ruger issues. And I only own a pair of ruger 22 pistols, a 10-22 and a Ruger #1 that I can think of.... so its not been mine that have been sent in.

The cool thing about Ruger, 15 years ago a buddy got his dads 7 rem mag from him. Looked in the barrel and there was a ring about 4 inches from the muzzle. Gun still shot ok. NO clue how the ring got there but pretty sure not like that from the get go. It was a ranch truck gun so there is no telling but 99.9% probably not a ruger problem. They put a new barrel on for him, I don't recall the cost but it was WAY cheap. I almost want to say for 50 bucks...
You can't beat that for service.

Dang, they charged me $300 for mine. Bulged barrel with factory ammo (150 grain core lokts, as I recall).

Both rifles are on their way to Ruger. They provided a shipping tag to cover the cost of sending them in. Can't ask for more than that under the circumstances. I will post an update after I get them back and test them.

Kinda hard to get mad at a $275 rimfire.

I have a Savage 17 that had some extraction issues, but I think that it was just a bit rough. After smooting the chamber a bit, it functions fine now and is really accurate.

I got a RAR predator for Christmas, for the first couple hundred rounds it was perfect but lately it started failing to extract. I emailed Ruger and they are sending me a new extractor and spring. They said if that doesn't fix it they'd like to have it sent in to them.

So we'll see. I did find other cases posted around the interwebs.

Ruger seems to be standing behind them though.

One of the first 700 BDL's I bought had chamber issues. I had to send it back to Remington. When I got it back, I sold it..

I tried to like 17HMR, but when rimfire costs almost as much as 75 Amax, Amax wins..

I had the same problem with the extraction. It started with the first shot. Never extracted.
I returned it to Cabela's and they said tough luck, return it to Ruger. I reminded them that they were Riger's agent and dealer and therefore responsible. Cabela's policy is that out the door and it is the buyer's problem even if defective from the first shot. I sued them.
Done with that outfit.

Ruger scrapped both of the original rifles and sent us two new ones, which arrived yesterday. I haven't had time to wring them out on the range yet, but I did put a full magazine through each of them and they functioned 100% with the same ammo that would not feed or extract in the first rifles.

Ruger did fine by us as far as I am concerned. It took about 3 1/2 weeks from the time I sent the bad guns in until the good ones arrived.

I fail to see why a retailer should be responsible for a manufacturers issue.

How did the lawsuit turn out?

Me, I'd have done the smart simple thing and contacted the manufacturer and sent it back in.

Bring a cleaning rod with you to SD. Enjoy your PD hunt.