17 HMR ammo quality

[Wapiti]

I was discouraging the arrival of Indian Mynas to my native bird feeder this morning. I am really disappointed in the ammo we, as consumers, are required to put up with.
I'm told that 22 magnum cases are used for 17HMR, and that they undergo an extra step which is to neck them down to the dimensions required to grip the tiny 17 bullets. The story is that they do not undergo a separate annealing step after that process as it would "add considerable extra cost in time and equipment investment".
So neck splitting is the result. As one of the pictures shows, even unfired cartridges have splits in some cases so be aware, when this is happening, the bullet can easily be driven back into the case when chambering and make for those unexplained "flyers".

hmr1.jpg (679.35 KiB) Viewed 673 times

Hopefully, it's also not "micro-etching" the chamber walls at all points of the clock.
I will say that it certainly is and gets to the point where cases will become hit and miss to extract because the chamber gets contaminated with residue and a roughened surface, unless scrubbed out and cleaned up with a stiff brush and solvent.

Not much we can do about it I suppose, it'd been happening since the cartridge first appeared and the manufacturers would be well aware it is happening.

hmr2.jpg (682.43 KiB) Viewed 673 times

[mchughcb]

I think you are 20 years too late in the observation and I believe its wrong.

I have a sako quad, with 4 barrels. It used to be topped with a Weaver T36 and used in benchrest. I've have fired thousands of rounds of 17HMR and you used to be able to see my groups on Rimfire Central in the 50 yard club both for 17HMR and 17HM2.

I've shot some of the best groups with splits and some of the worst groups with no splits. The ammo is not match grade and I could see the difference between using Eley EPS or Eley 10X in the 22LR barrel versus any number of combinations in the 17HMR. The 17HMR would do better than common 22LR hunting ammo but would not come anywhere near 22LR quality match ammo for consistency and this is a 50m range used for the commonwealth.
Nothing wrong with the HMR but getting 5 shots consistently to shoot sub MOA at 50m is almost always for upset by a flyer. Such is the quality of hunting ammo. Still good enough for a rabbit at 100m though.

[Wapiti]

What, it's wrong that the neck splits are from non-annealed ammo case-necks? C'mon mate.
That's how we, as reloaders get neck splits, from cold working the necks. They would not crack if they were returned to the annealed state after forming, but I'm not going to argue online. On the subject of flyers that just happen to be at the same time as a neck split, who gives a sh*t. Too late once the round is fired.

I watched the issue of the HMR neck splits being discussed on a video about a CCI rimfire ammo factory tour. The technician mentioned that was why the extremely thin necks split after being necked down, but it wasn't considered worth another manufacturing step and therefore more cost, to stop it as the rimfire cases are only used once and can't be reloaded.

Had a ball this evening, the silly buggers kept coming, and I shot probably a little over 20 which was extremely unusual especially how skittish these birds are. It wasn't pretty. One of the deer saw one suddenly get spifflicated and reared up and repeatedly stomped the dead mynah bird, finishing up tossing the thing away from the feeder over it's shoulder. Much more fun watching that than watching someone shooting targets on YouTube. No thanks. IMHO anyway.

[mchughcb]

Your observation is that neck splits cause cause flyers. My observation in a match environment over thousands of rounds removing all other variables because I just change barrels and everything else is the same are that it's not.

[Bugman]

Apparently just about all 17hmr ammo is made in the same factory. Maybe quality control is an issue. Don't really know so don't really care.

[Wapiti]

Your observation is that neck splits cause cause flyers. My observation in a match environment over thousands of rounds removing all other variables because I just change barrels and everything else is the same are that it's not.

Sorry mate, bullets driven back into cases because they are loose from split necks when rounds are chambered will cause flyers, or even worse.

Cartridges lovingly cared for, batched, inspected, even rimfire matches where fanatics measure and batch different rim thicknesses, or race out to cut each others throats to buy the same batch of overpriced target ammo isn't my thing.
I expect ammo to work and feed from magazines, in the dirt, rain and dust. I don't put any worth in experience gathered from lovingly single loading cartridges at a rifle range. We expect different things and our experience comes from different planets. Justified in each case, sure. But don't discount something because it's not from your world.

[mchughcb]

Your observation is that neck splits cause cause flyers. My observation in a match environment over thousands of rounds removing all other variables because I just change barrels and everything else is the same are that it's not.

Sorry mate, bullets driven back into cases because they are loose from split necks when rounds are chambered will cause flyers, or even worse.

Cartridges lovingly cared for, batched, inspected, even rimfire matches where fanatics measure and batch different rim thicknesses, or race out to cut each others throats to buy the same batch of overpriced target ammo isn't my thing.
I expect ammo to work and feed from magazines, in the dirt, rain and dust. I don't put any worth in experience gathered from lovingly single loading cartridges at a rifle range. We expect different things and our experience comes from different planets. Justified in each case, sure. But don't discount something because it's not from your world.

Ok.