HMR17 casing splitting open?

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ezglider

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Any body experience this? ...... I have a Savage HMR17 riffle, shooting Winchester Super X , 20 Gr, JHP.
Anyway, was out at the ranger, target shooting and had two FTE ( fail to eject). I had to pry the spent casing out from the breech. I noticed that the casing had a hair line crack all the way through, but about 3/4 of the length of the casing, bullet end. I had this happen with 2 bullets. Never experienced this condition before.

Several questions come to my mind;
* is this a problem with the amo? Weak or thin casing?
*is the breech in my gun machined too large, allowing the casing to expand during the combustion of the amo?
*is this or can it lead to dangerous conditions within the barrel?

This is the only type of ammunition that I have fired through this gun and it seamed to happen from the same batch of bullets from the same pack of 50.

.??????? :cool:
 
When I first bought my 93R17 many years ago, first thing I noticed was the chamber was cut generously long. The shoulder of a fired case was much further forward than an unfired case and I was getting a few splits. I made a few phone calls to the factory and a gunsmith or two and consensus was there was nothing wrong and nothing to be worried about.

So now I can't tell you if I still get cracked brass because I stopped looking for it.:)

But the splits I got were just small ones in the shoulder area of the cases. Your splits sound longer and are likely a bad batch of brass. Not sure how much of that particular lot# you bought, it sounds like a single box. You could stop shooting that particular box and try another lot#/brand. If it was me, I'd just keep shooting it to get rid of it.;)
 
joe-nwt said:
When I first bought my 93R17 many years ago, first thing I noticed was the chamber was cut generously long. The shoulder of a fired case was much further forward than an unfired case and I was getting a few splits. I made a few phone calls to the factory and a gunsmith or two and consensus was there was nothing wrong and nothing to be worried about.

So now I can't tell you if I still get cracked brass because I stopped looking for it.:)

But the splits I got were just small ones in the shoulder area of the cases. Your splits sound longer and are likely a bad batch of brass. Not sure how much of that particular lot# you bought, it sounds like a single box. You could stop shooting that particular box and try another lot#/brand. If it was me, I'd just keep shooting it to get rid of it.;)
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That's pretty interesting Joe-nwt, that your having the same issue or noticed I at one point. I wonder if Savage is milling the receiver area too large in diameter. What kind of amo were you using when you had split casings?

Mine split way past the shoulder area, wish I could post a picture, maybe I'll try tomorrow.
 
I can't remember what kind of ammo I was using at the time, this was back when the 17HMR first came out. I never thought my chamber was too big, just too long. In my case, it obviously is not an issue; I'm pretty sure I'm close to 8-10K though it. Like I say, I just quit looking at the spent brass.:)
 
17 HMR split cases

This has happened with certain lot numbers of cartridges. There have been some issues with thinner brass cases, or cases with an improper alloy of brass.

It is more common in semi-automatic rifles, and was one of the reasons that Remington discontinued the Model 597 in 17HMR, although the .22 Rimfire Magnum is still being produced in this rifle.

I would try a different brand of ammunition to start with. Also, check for lubricant in the chamber area, which might allow the case to not adhere to the chamber walls. A dry chamber works in this case.

.
 
It's not like you are reloading the stuff anyways.

I'd suggest that if you had gasses reaching the bolt, or that the cases were showing signs of soot all the way back to the rim, you may have a problem, but until then, you are looking at the results of the manufacturing process of a component that is meant to be useful exactly once, then sent to the brass bucket.

If it bothers you, try other ammo.

I'd not worry about it, unless there were signs that the gasses were leaking back to the bolt area.

Cheers
Trev
 
trevj said:
It's not like you are reloading the stuff anyways.

I'd suggest that if you had gasses reaching the bolt, or that the cases were showing signs of soot all the way back to the rim, you may have a problem, but until then, you are looking at the results of the manufacturing process of a component that is meant to be useful exactly once, then sent to the brass bucket.

If it bothers you, try other ammo.

I'd not worry about it, unless there were signs that the gasses were leaking back to the bolt area.

Just wasn't sure if it would cause damage to the gun in any way. I purchased some different amo today, so I'll see if that cures it.
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17 mach 2

I have a 17 mach 2 in a sav and the last time i was at the range i saw some of the necks were split ! I was thinking that something was wrong with it then today i was showing a older guy i work with what the mach 2 looked like and i noticed something the case was split out of the box :eek: and it is Hornady ammo
 
mgerski said:
I have a 17 mach 2 in a sav and the last time i was at the range i saw some of the necks were split ! I was thinking that something was wrong with it then today i was showing a older guy i work with what the mach 2 looked like and i noticed something the case was split out of the box :eek: and it is Hornady ammo
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Hmmmm, I just bought a couple of boxes of Winchester higher priced than what I was using before, guess that I'll check them over before I fire them.
 
mach2split

its hard to see but its there
mach2split2.jpg
 
mgerski said:
its hard to see but its there
mach2split2.jpg
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Hey good picture mgerski, I can clearly see the splitting on the casing. I checked around 100 bullets that I still have, all are good, no splits showing on any of them.

Did you contact and show this to hornandy? It looks like the bullet is a tad too large in diameter than the casing opening is, causing it to split like that. Poor tolerances, I'm guessing.

The only way I found out that this happened to me was, I had two fail to eject after firing, and had to use a knife blade to pry them out.

Good on ya for spotting it!
 
ezglider said:
The only way I found out that this happened to me was, I had two fail to eject after firing, and had to use a knife blade to pry them out.
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I would say 15 out of 50 rounds of winchester super x and supreme either splits and needs to be pried out or it fails to fire. Never happened with Hornady or cci I am going to say that winchester is crap ammo in the .17hmr category.
 
ezglider said:
Hey good picture mgerski, I can clearly see the splitting on the casing. I checked around 100 bullets that I still have, all are good, no splits showing on any of them.

Did you contact and show this to hornandy? It looks like the bullet is a tad too large in diameter than the casing opening is, causing it to split like that. Poor tolerances, I'm guessing.

The only way I found out that this happened to me was, I had two fail to eject after firing, and had to use a knife blade to pry them out.

Good on ya for spotting it!
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thanks for the comment on the pic i took me like 15 to 20 pics to get one that you could see the split hade to cover the flash with my finger half way and that worked
 
I've had this happen with an older batch of .17HMR from Hornady. They had a split in the neck before firing which resulted in a squib getting stuck in the barrel before I realized what was going on. I also had this happen after firing with just about every ammo I tried in my stock barreled cz 452. I have since rebarrelled this gun using a McGowen blank and a new chamber cut into it and have yet to have a split case and also found that the cases come out a lot cleaner. I think factory barrels are a bit more loosely chambered and thus they have the room to expand the case more. Just my 2 cents.

stretch
 
mgerski said:
i would say that i had about 4 or 5 out of 50 that were split no never sent them any thing about this do you think i should.
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It wouldn't hurt, companies look for feedback from their customers. It helps them with quality control issues at their factories. I know our company deals with a large safety equipment supplier/ manufacurer, and their VP told us that after a couple of complaints on a product, they start an internal investigation as to what could have caused an issue and resolve it quickly. I know that this may not be the same for every manufacture out there, but most companies want to keep their customers ( customer loyalty) and will attempt to rectify any problems with their products. But they only way for them to find this out is from it's customers or vendor feedback.
Then again, some don't really give a rats ass about customer service. They tend to be short lived! IMHO
 
stretch said:
I've had this happen with an older batch of .17HMR from Hornady. They had a split in the neck before firing which resulted in a squib getting stuck in the barrel before I realized what was going on. I also had this happen after firing with just about every ammo I tried in my stock barreled cz 452. I have since rebarrelled this gun using a McGowen blank and a new chamber cut into it and have yet to have a split case and also found that the cases come out a lot cleaner. I think factory barrels are a bit more loosely chambered and thus they have the room to expand the case more. Just my 2 cents.

stretch
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Must be an inherent problem with rim fire ammunition, I also have a S&W21A .22 and have tons of FTF & FTE, some amo is better than other but always have problems.:bangHead:
 
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