Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires VQ HMR

I have long been interested in owning a Volquartsen rifle as their owners sing high praises. Also I’m always down to add another rimfire to the herd..

I picked up a used 17 a bit back that was priced right and in great shape. Mounted a scope and took it to the range a few weeks ago. I was getting some light primer strikes and it seemed the trigger was “gummy” so I took it home and completely cleaned the whole rifle including pulling several patches down the bbl.


Put it away knowing it was coming to the hills next weekend to get wrung out

Shot it a bit with several different types of ammo but it was still giving me trouble so I frustratedly tossed it back in the truck. It would fire, eject and feed a new round just fine but it was not re-cocking

Anyway pulled it out the next day and tried again. Loaded up the magazine with CCI 17gr and after about round 4 or 5 all hell broke loose. Loud bang and flash and stinging [bleep] blasted me in the face.

After I said wtf and made sure I was still pretty I noticed it had blown the magazine apart and out of the gun. Buddy shooting next to me said wtf was that and I said I’m not sure sure but I think not was the sound of “I told you so”

I picked a few chunks out of my eyebrow and ear and went and had a shot of whisky to calm myself




I picked up some of the brass I could find and if you look closely from left to right you can see where the rounds below all exhibit some degree of head separation and the last in line being the case that gave up the ghost

Told ya

Dang sorry to hear that cert. I'm glad you are alright buddy!!! That's a beautiful rifle, but with the wrong system for the high pressure 17HMR cartridge. These require a delayed blowback system, such as what the Savage A17 uses. Now you know I guess. Ruger knew of this issue long ago and discontinued the 10-22 magnum rifles because they were worried guys would be putting 17 barrels on them. Volquartsen should definitely know better. If I were you, I'd ask them to rebarrel it to a 22WMR. Far less headache (literally) that way. The 22 magnums shoot good too. One of my buddies has 5 VQ 22WMR's, and they shoot very well. However, they don't function well after about 100 or so rounds down the barrel. They start having feeding issues. Probably because of the tight match grade chambers?? Anyway, that is the route I'd take with that rifle, if it were mine.

Glad you are ok
I am learning about this didn’t know the 17 pressure was such an issue

Hank

Straight blowback 17's,can only respond in said manner. Hint.

THE key is delayed or locked blowback. Mike Garrow perfected it and I've a few. Franklin opted a piston. I have one of those too. Hint.

Straight Blowback is an "adventure",with fingers pointing everwhere. Hint.

Just don't.............

Stick I’ll trade you straight up for a Franklin..

She’s a beauty, hardly used and only been dropped once!

Comes with one magazine and a tube of super glue, some assembly required…

Franklin gets it right,but billlet mags are $100 a pop and I've more than a "few". Garrow is where it's at,but nobody listens. Mike capably solved all and Black Dog mags abound. Hint................

Ok, this has happened to myself and 2 others in our shooting group.

First off call Volquartsen and talk to Scott or Nick and tell them what has happened.

Second, record the lot # of you ammo that created problems.

Third, get a round count of your ammo that has the same lot # as that which caused your magazine to explode.

Fourth, get your rifle sent to Volquartsen so it can be evaluated and, if needed, repaired.

Fifth, purchase A-17 ammo to use when the rifle is returned.

Six, contact CCI and get them to exchange your defective ammo.


I have shot well in excess of 10,000 rounds in my 17 HMR Volquartsen and my only issue, which had identical case head problems, and magazine explosions, as yours, was ammo related. And CCI and Federal replaced them.

As to the guy whose Volquartsens don’t work past 100 rounds, they obviously are not worth much so have him email me for possible sale.

You are a slow learner aren't you??

Well, certainly not as slow a learner as you and your buddies......"don't function well after about 100 rounds or so down the barrel"....Talk about stupid.

7x57…

I contacted VQ and the rifle will be sent back as soon as I can get it packaged up.

My question to you is…

I have shot this and several other makes of HMR ammo without issues thru my cooper, ruger, and tikka rifles.

There is a Garrow in the family that has never bobbled with several diff types and ammo as well

One does not need to search the webs too hard to find more than a few examples of VQ HMR issues tho

So that being said how can this be blamed on the ammo and not the design? I’m curious as to why CCI would agree to replace ammo that only seems to cause problems in one specific rifle?

We had the same issue on 3 different rifles and the only common component was the ammo, all of which had the same lot number. We had problem with Federal and CCI ammo (each had their own lot number and all were common to our rifles) and Federal, right off the bat, said tell us how much you paid for it, ship it to us and we will send you a check. CCI was just the opposite - you stored it wrong, it was too old, yada yada yada. I pointed out that storing instructions were not on the box and age was not either. Bumped it up the ladder and they replaced every bit of it. I figured it was a new guy on the job so the bump up was necessary. I still purchase and use CCI ammo (as well as Federal too).

As to the design- it has been around a reasonably long time and works irregardless of what others will tell you. Takes a good salesman to get one to switch from that is tried and true.

Volquartsen's custom service was fantastic when we had our ammo issues. I sent an email to Volquartsen and Scott answered it same day. On a Sunday. Heck yes he gets my business.

7x57..

When you say you had the same issue on 3 different rifles I assume you mean 3 individual Volquartsen rifles?

Yes.