Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires 17 HMR -splt cases

My little girl just bought a Ruger American 17 HMR, and while sighting it in we were getting some split cases.

Hornady and CCI were both splitting, about one out of four. Sometimes the bolt was hard to lift.
Sounds like higher pressure in some of the ammo.

This was older ammo that she got from a buddy.

Seems I recall some early 17 HMR ammo having this problem?

Anyone else experience this?

Thanks! Virgil B.

Where were the splits?

My advice is to call the manufacture and return the ammo for new. I was getting split necks, some extending down the shoulder too. We I kept shooting them on a hot patch of sage rats until one of the Hornady brass separated at the rim upon firing and blew up my Ruger 77/17. It completely destroyed the bolt face, extractors, blew the magazine into 53 pieces and bulged the nearly industructable skeleton plastic stock. It sounded like a 10 gauge going off. It thankfully was resting in sandbags which absorbed most of the energy. My girlfriend turned white and her weekend of shooting ended right then and there. It scared her good and she had raspberry marks on her thighs from the magazine pieces. It hit her with enough force to cause the raspberries through blue jeans. It also split open my dog-gone-good sand bag.
I was having having a little trouble with stickiness and bolt lift but did not think much of it. I did not realize the cases were splitting until after the blow up. That's when I picked up some empties and discovered a lot of them had been failing prior in the neck and shoulder area.
So please stop shooting that ammo until you call CCI and Hornady. I don't want you to loose a rifle and worse have her get hurt or not want to shoot anymore. I could care less about the gun I am more upset I lost my shooting partner for who knows how long over this ammo. My lot numbers were from 2005-2007. They are examining them and the rifle now. Hornady said they will replace the ammo with current production ammo if the find their ammo to be the cause of the failure.
This is not an isolated incident either. I had a CCI 17 HM2 blow up one of my rifles two years ago. CCI went above and beyond to make it right and I left satisfied and remain a CCI customer. Let's see how hornadys handles this. Last week another guy that shoots on our ranch also had a case separation on his 17HMR. It was a marlin and it was destroyed as well. He also is in the process with Hornady while they investigate the problem. His was a different lot of ammo but same age. I ended up sending them back all my 17HMR with the old label. I am not taking any chances.
I shoot about 5000 rounds of HMR a year on our alfalfa ranch at sage rats but it only takes one to ruin your weekend or worse. I have had no problems with Hornady ammo prior to this year. I hope they value heir customers and take good care of us when problems like this arise. If not CCI will be getting about 20,000 more rounds ordered each year from our group.

Don't take this the wrong way, but did you clean the factory goop out of the barrel before you fired it?

At one time, all the Hummer ammo was loaded by CCI, I believe. Winchester started making their own a couple of years ago.

Good luck figuring this out. Glad nobody got hurt.

I also own a Savage 93 .17 HMR. I also heard about the case splitting, after looking at some fired cases and found several split necks then started looking at unfired ones. Found four with split necks. CCI had me send complete box back. They replaced them but took about 3 months.

What I have heard through sources in the industry is that CCI initially had a difficult time getting the neck annealing down. Both the .17 Mach 2 and HMR are made by necking .22-caliber cases, which work-hardens the brass. I have also heard they solved the problem.

If a Hummer can torch a 77/22, imagine the damage if one of the new Winchester rounds let go.

Don't forget your glasses, Boys and Girls!

I had the same problem with some early Hornady ammo and when I called Hornady about it they said they would replace if less than 10 years old - if it was older than that "sorry for your luck" (of course mine was older than the cut-off!!)....kinda soured me on Hornady - plenty of others to do business with.

PennDog

Vbshootingrange: One of my closest friends and Hunting partners DESTROYED his Ruger 77/17 V/T in 17 HMR about 28 days ago!
He was shooting some older "blank" brand of 17 HMR ammo and was sighting in for the upcoming Varmint season.
He had on both ear muffs and ear plugs (we shoot from inside a shooting shed and he was checking some centerfires that morning also).
He "thought" he heard a light report but fired into his 100 yard target again anyway.
His gun blew up on this next shot!
The laminated gray Varmint style stock split in three large pieces, his two glued end to end Ruger ten shot rotary magazines were both destroyed and damage was done to some springs in the bolt/action!
In addition he had ten small bloody spots on his face - caused we think from plastic and plywood splinters.
The ammo company took full responsibility and bought him a new stock and two new magazines and had Clark Custom do the repairs.
The ammo company also replaced his ammo and reimbursed him for shipping coming and going for the Rifle.
The barrel, somehow, was NOT damaged!
The Rifle is back in his hands now and shoots as well as before (which is VERY well!).
The ammo company gave him the "lot numbers" of their questionable ammo.
Apparently the split necks he was getting, ON OCCASSION, cause one of two problems bullets stick in the barrel when incomplete combustion occurs in the chamber - but SOMETIMES this condition will cause a detonation in the barrel that blows back into the chamber/magazine areas.
I had to leave just after the Rifle was harmed but got to see it first hand along with the remnants of his glued together magazines!
It scared me!
The Clark Custom people took two bullets (17 grain slugs) out of my friends barrel.
I am not sure if your problem is the fault of the ammo or of a problem with your gun but I would NOT let the little one shoot that Rifle anymore until all questions are answered.
While I was just away to the west coast two of my Ground Squirrel Hunting buddies (one from New Hampshire and one from Iowa) were here and put thousands of rounds through their Volquartsen semi-auto 17 HMR's.
Both eventually had lesser "blow-ups" that put both Rifles out of commission!
I did not get to see or speak with them in person about their incidents.
Worrisome this turn of events.
Good luck to you.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

The cases are split in the neck/shoulder.

We were in a hurry to shoot, and didn't scrub the barrel beforehand. My bad.

Will pass this along to my Daughter. We don't need any blown up rifles!

Thanks! Virgil B.