17 HM2 - do you shoot them

17 Mach 2 ammunition prices vary from province to province, and store to store.

Cabela's/Bass Pro Shop prices are absolutely ridiculous.....:(

Watch at your local Canadian Tire Store, if the 17 Mach 2 ammo sits on the shelves too long, they blow it out. When you find these clearance prices, buy 10,000 rounds.

https://www.gotenda.com/product/cci...0/?utm_source=arlsenalforce&utm_campaign=free

Tenda has CCI 17 HM2 VNT for $14.99 per 50 rounds.

https://shop.sylvestresportinggoods...n/?utm_source=arlsenalforce&utm_campaign=free

Sylvester Sports has Hornady 17 HM2 V-Max for $17.99 per 50 rounds.

The cost of 17 HMR Hornady rimfire ammo has skyrocketed to $34.99 per 50 rounds at our Cranbrook Canadian Tire. So even at $17.99 for the 17 HM2 ammo, it's almost half the cost of 17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire ammo.

I've seen the 17 HM2 ammo on clearance for $10.00 per box. One does have to search for those deals though......:)
 
Scar270 said:
I am on my second as i shot the barrel out on my first if that tells you anything. A lot of dead gophers, pretty much never take a 22 for gophers now.
Click to expand...
I gopher hunt near Stettler, ab so know what a target rich environment looks like. This spring on a gopher extermination “hunt” on my buddies pasture I shot almost 2 bricks over 1-1/2 day and two rifles. Barrels occasionally got pretty warm.

However, shooting out a 17HM2 barrel can’t be too common….any idea of what your round count was?
 
TJCote said:
I gopher hunt near Stettler, ab so know what a target rich environment looks like. This spring on a gopher extermination “hunt” on my buddies pasture I shot almost 2 bricks over 1-1/2 day and two rifles. Barrels occasionally got pretty warm.

However, shooting out a 17HM2 barrel can’t be too common….any idea of what your round count was?
Click to expand...
Best guess is 16-20,000, and i wasnt always kind to it, it got pretty hot on some days, one day i had 864 confirmed kills in about 3 hours if i recall. Barrel was toasty at times that day, and many other days as well.

Edit:

I should add i havnt found any reports of 17hm2s shot out besides mine, but it sounds like hmrs go about 9,000 rounds. When i couldnt hit a gopher at 20 yards with mine i cleaned the heck out of it repeatedly, changed ammo, changed scope, finally took it and a 22 to the range at same time to confirm i could still shoot a group before coming to the conclusion it really was shot out. I was quite a ways through the above process before it even occured to me that may be the problem.
 
Last edited:
I try to ‘pace’ myself on gophers…one brick in the morning and one brick in the afternoon. 5 rifles in rotation from 17HM2, 17HMR and .22LR. Even the .22LR rifles warms up a bit when you’re giving the 17teens a break. My buddy that’s joining us in Saskatchewan in May is bringing up a Savage.17HMR that has a totally shot out bore, you would be hard pressed to see any rifling but it still seems accurate enough for maybe just one more season.
Just wanted to share with others shooting large amounts of 17HMR with ammo from different ‘vintages’, manufacturers etc…. Especially in semi-auto rifles. I carry a 17cal cleaning rod in the vehicle because occasionally I get a hang fire/blowout and the magazine gets ejected violently in 20 different pieces out the bottom. Always a shocker and a mystery for a year or so. The rifle survives (Volquartsen) without damage. I incorrectly suspected that it needed a stronger recoil spring but the problem was traced to macroscopic hairline cracks in the necks of ‘older’ ammo that had been sitting around for years. Seems humidity penetrated these rounds and a 2 stage ignition causes the bolt to start travelling backwards a fraction of an inch and a micro second latter when the round achieves full pressure the rim isn’t supported anymore and gets blow out along with your mag and remaining rounds.
This has happened on too many occasions to me to be a coincidence. I pre-inspect my 17’s with a magnifying glass and will sometimes find as many as 3-4 faulty rounds per box. The manufacturers admitted that they may have work hardened the brass and were to correct that problem. Well…some of that old problem ammo still exists and I’ve noticed that some of the new ammo still exhibits those cracks in the neck. Like someone already mentioned on this forum that it may be better to fire 17HMR & HM2 ammo in bolt action rifles. Volquartsen Summits and Browning T-bolts are an excellent option also. Just saying, been shooting 17’s from the first year they were ever made. Also had the very first Volquartsen.17HMR ever imported into Canada. Just my .02 worth.
 
Scar270 said:
Best guess is 16-20,000, and i wasnt always kind to it, it got pretty hot on some days, one day i had 864 confirmed kills in about 3 hours if i recall. Barrel was toasty at times that day, and many other days as well.
Click to expand...
Wow!

Blown out cases and mags on 17 rimfire semiautos (HMR, HM2 and WSM’s) semi auto’s are all of a concern. Our local sports store, who was the biggest Volquartsen dealer in Canada, actually quit selling the VQ 17HMR for a while due to this condition.

My understanding was that Savage solved the problem in their A17 rifle using only A17 ammo.

I shoot A17 ammo out of my VQ 17HMR exclusively and never had an issue. So you might be correct that it is an ammo problem.
Wished they made 17HM2 ammo using the same technology. Semi-auto 17 HM2’s were fun to shoot and hunt gopher with (when they weren’t blowing up in my hands!).
 
I'm awaiting my A17m2 ( yes I have 1!) back from warranty repair for the third time for out of battery misfire. Now i only use the newest CCI into ammunition in it. I still find lots of split necks in the hornady ammo so that's only for the bolt guns.
 
brucecorporal said:
I'm awaiting my A17m2 ( yes I have 1!) back from warranty repair for the third time for out of battery misfire. Now i only use the newest CCI into ammunition in it. I still find lots of split necks in the hornady ammo so that's only for the bolt guns.
Click to expand...

Yikes, wondered how well those ran.
 
I ran into the issue of hornady ammo not having any powder in the case. Had 3 in one box
I love my 17mh2 for small game hunting. Mostly black squirrels and the odd unlucky rabbit or jack. Stellar performance on crows. No Lil groundhogs here in the southern tip of ontario but we got crows by the millions. When the shot at our fat old ground hogs we do have the Lil 17 just flattens them.

The 17hmr is a Lil to violent for small edible game. The 17mh2 falls in the realm of flatter than a 22lr while offering rapid expansion that isn't violent enough to cut small critters in half. Makes it perfect my uses
 
TJCote said:
Wow!

Blown out cases and mags on 17 rimfire semiautos (HMR, HM2 and WSM’s) semi auto’s are all of a concern. Our local sports store, who was the biggest Volquartsen dealer in Canada, actually quit selling the VQ 17HMR for a while due to this condition.

My understanding was that Savage solved the problem in their A17 rifle using only A17 ammo.

I shoot A17 ammo out of my VQ 17HMR exclusively and never had an issue. So you might be correct that it is an ammo problem.
Wished they made 17HM2 ammo using the same technology. Semi-auto 17 HM2’s were fun to shoot and hunt gopher with (when they weren’t blowing up in my hands!).
Click to expand...
The Savage A17's are also designed differently from a standard blowback. They have a locking delayed blowback to prevent what you describe from happening. The A17 ammo is actually hotter so it cycled semi autos better. Any other out of battery explosions that happen in the A17 would be because of faulty ammo, not the because of design.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom