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Do I HMR or not.


Raifuru

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A guy I know in my local recently bought a .17HMR , I tried to tell him buts he`s not an internet user , he listened to his shooting workmates , what annoyed me most is he asked his RFD about them as I suggested , the RFD said "nothing to worry about" and sold him a new one ! bar steward.

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well I have just done the same in the last few months,

 

purchased a 17 CZ hmr 16" varmint ase mod and scope etc for a job I was asked to do but

the area I was asked to remove the bunnies from was not good for the 22 lr (I don't have one anyway) but I purchased 500 hornady rounds and never has one bad round,

 

sadly now the jobs done the hmr is sat in the cabinet after firing just 350 shots and has been unemployed since, love the round but I don't need it now.

 

Bob.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I had one. It lasted about 6 months in my cabinet. Long story short ...... I had greater consistency if I threw pebbles instead. One minute it was sub moa, the next I was lucky to get sub 5 moa. The final nail in the coffin was when I fired some Winchesters and had 10 split cases in 15 shots. :mad: . That's no good at all.

 

.17 Hornet every day of the week. :)

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I can honestly say thatI've shot a couple of thousand of Hornady rounds through my Anshhutz 17 and never had a problem.Plenty of split cases after firing but nothing thats affected accuracy at all

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I don't get it...I'm with WSM on this one. I've had one (CZ452 varmint) till last Friday: always accurate (if the wind was not at gale force), never had a problem with (Hornady 17gn) ammo, apart from the odd split case AFTER firing (which never affected accuracy), good for up to 200yds on bunnies, squirrels and crows (which was the only thing I'd point it at anyway). A great fun gun at almost centre fire performance.

Probably made a mistake selling it...

 

Finman

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I can honestly say thatI've shot a couple of thousand of Hornady rounds through my Anshhutz 17 and never had a problem.Plenty of split cases after firing but nothing thats affected accuracy at all

 

Yep, mine was a 1517. That was one of the main reasons that I purchased an Anschutz ........... I could never blame the rifle for a crap shot.

 

I tried periods of regular cleaning and periods of non cleaning during my ownership. This inconstancy continued. This only left one perpetrator that I could see, the ammo. I don't confess to being anything like a benchrest champion, but even I should be able to manage around 1 moa with rimfire ammo. I finally gave it up as a bad job. Second guessing the poi when you are about to pull the trigger isn't where you want to be.

 

Fair play to you all the guys that the HMR does work for though. I'm sure that it is a devastating tool in the correct circumstances.

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I have a 1517 hmr, a great rifle that i have had for nearly ten years, shot thousands of rounds, mostly remmington, and when i started using hornady funnily enough i started having problems like poi shift, under powered shots, and on two occasions overpowered shots, which luckily didn't cause me or the rifle any harm, but you could tell it wasn't a normal load that had just gone off. I recently got a new batch of remmington rounds, and am now having trouble with them not expanding on impact, shot numerous rabbits when the bullet just travels straight through, much like an fmj round, then another box would be fine!

I tried winchester, what a load of crap, definitely overpowered loads, case separation on a few occasions, total case splits, and nearly every one jammed in chamber, having to be dug out, great fun...

 

I love the .17hmr round, a perfect tool for me at certain times of the year in conjunction with my job, just a real shame about the crap ammunition.

 

Would i sell it? I have threatened a few times, even thought about a .17 hornet, but the hmr's still in my cabinet. Glutton for punishment comes to mind lol.

 

Just my experience over the years with a hmr i thought some would be interested in reading about, cheers.

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Finman must have magic ammunition.

 

My issue was with Hornady - no split necks possibly as my HW66 had a very tight throat but far too many cases - no pun - of fizzing and stuck bullets. This was four years ago.

 

A situation I could not accept.

 

A shame as I loved the calibre and for me without starting a contentious debate, it was a very effective fox round with head shots at 70 - 100 yards. You only have to look at the back of a pine pallet at 80 yards to see the exit.

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hmr is dead , long live the hornet.hunting with a hmr is pot luck ammo problems make it unusable

I saw a front page leader on the Shooting Times today that said 17HMR was the caliber of the future or something similar, god knows where that writer has got his facts from. Certainly in my book ammo issues have at present put a severe brake on it. Having said that it is a lot safer round than 22LR with a far longer reach.

A

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17HH is replacing the HMR for me. As soon as I start load development I'm kissing goodbye to squib rounds, variable ignition times, variable powder charges, split case necks, variable primer amounts, wildly different seating depths and missed shots.

 

Take a look over on Pigeon Watch, yet another HMR has destroyed itself with a case head separation that ignited the remaining rounds in the magazine. Marvellous!

 

For me the inconsistencies have ruled this one out as a calibre of choice.

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Got rid of mine after 5 years putting up with regular ammo inconsistencies. Had to re-zero every batch, far too many squib rounds but no split necks as chamber was good and tight. My rifle regularly jammed and wouldn't eject spent rounds too, almost every outing. Could rarely get a decent batch of my favoured ammo as once in, the shelves cleared in a few weeks so constantly changing brands....then re-zeroing again! In the wind it was a guessing game so longer distance shots often ruled out but up to 100m it was fine. Use the 223 now for similar uses as the HMR used to get used for and don't know why I didn't do it years ago and save myself a lot of wasted time and ammo. I was quite shocked just how much ammo was wasted on the HMR making it no-where near as cheap to shoot as I initially thought. A complete waste of time...I hate the calibre with a vengeance. 223 makes it look silly in every single respect and isn't a great deal noisier with a decent mod.

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Find all of the negative reports at odds with my own,and others,experience with the HMR.Of six that I`ve known in use for several years ,all are highly praised by there users .They are all used as working tools ,and have accounted for thousands of head of vermin collectively ! My own example would be the last rifle that I would part with.

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Nope, mine is destined to be moved along. Having just been out with the fire forming loads in 17HH this does everything I wanted from the HMR and more. Last night I consistently hit 12 rabbits in the head from everything from 40 yards to 160 plus. No drama, no missed shots that left me wondering, best of all I came back with all the formed empties ready to reload and go again.

 

I wanted a quiet rifle that fired a small, extremely frangible projectile that rapidly lost energy over sensible distances which was accurate, reliable and consistent. I thought the HMR was that rifle, sadly not. The 17HH is. It moderates as well if not better than the HMR due to the caliber specific, true centrefire moderator and leaves head shot rabbits in a completely useful condition, unlike the 223 that simply caused too much damage. On fox, though not my caliber of choice, it would no doubt be effective out to those sensible distances that HMR shooters quote, something I never found true; the ammunition inconsistencies meant that bullet placement could never be relied on. I simply stopped shooting anything bigger than a rabbit with mine years ago.

 

The downside though is cost and complexity, which places the 17HH outside of being a direct HMR replacement for 90% of vermin shooters. If you go factory the ammunition costs will be prohibitive. If you opt to reload by forming cases the stages in the process would leave many bewildered. It's taken me a great deal of research and expense to get all the components to create my own cases. It's also quite time consuming to create the cases for initial use.

 

The results, however, are spot-on. My fire forming loads, with a 20gn bullet are leaving the muzzle a full 650fps faster when compared to an equivalent in the HMR. By the time it comes to load developing for the formed cases you can up that to around 1150-1200fps faster. That makes the 17HH virtually flat shooting out to 200 yards with minimal holdover at 300 yards. Plus, developing the loads yourself means that the ammunition becomes consistent, reliable and can be tuned to the individual rifle.

 

It's not really comparing apples with apples though.

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Now that lambing season is amongst us again, I have been called in for culling crows which have accounted for several lambs already, and not a pretty sight. Trouble is, they are so wary that getting within anything like reasonable distance always proved impossible on the land I shoot. The HMR was what I used to use up until last year and ammo inconsistencies ruined many's an outing. By contrast yesterday, I accounted for at least half a dozen, rain and light breeze not helping. Thing is, closest was 70 yds and furthest was 300 yds. I would never have attempted anything over 100 yds previously with HMR as I didn't have the confidence in POI with the ammo on such a small kill area. 200yds shots with the 223 are regular and I do have the confidence to know that shot placement will be precise to surgical every time out to 200 yds. At 300, the wind becomes more of a factor, but in yesterday's light winds, Strelock suggested 2.5 inch deflection for full wind of a few mph. It was spot on and the pest dropped on the spot with the bullet entry precisely where intended (within half an inch). That is a shot that I would never have taken at 130yds never mind 150 with the HMR. The 223 round is devastating at close range on vermin and humane dispatch is all but guaranteed. To those who do get on with HMR, good luck to you and happy that some are at least having success with it.

 

For many of us though, CF in 17, 222 or 223 just makes more sense, especially for vermin control where we aren't shooting for the pot. One thing intrigues me though is just how polarised on-line opinion seems to be on the HMR. Some claim 1000's of rounds with no issues and high success rates (I do wonder about that). Often, the other side of the coin are reported major ammo inconsistencies, issues with wind at anything like reasonable distances (same goes for 22LR mind) and stories of squibs and worse. What I don't understand is the reason for the polarisation. Generally one would expect mixed reviews, but not the polarised views. Do we think then, that this points towards success being dependant upon specific rifle chamberings and specific ammo batches?

 

It would be interesting for those with success to list their rifles used and ammo used, ditto, those who had less success. If there is no pattern to be had, then it remains a marmite calibre for other reasons, perhaps not understood.

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Lovely light wind in wensleydale today so I took the hmr with me round the crow pens. Shot half a dozen rabbits to feed the call birds on. Then something strange happened, I pulled the trigger and there was a crack followed by a ringing noise and a big puff of smoke out of the mod. Bullet made it out of the barrel but only just I would think. I use roughly 3k 17 rounds a year and this is only the second time I've had an incident with hornady 17 hmr ammunition. Perhaps I've just been lucky.

The rifle is a bog standard cz American.

Drum.

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Ive todate not had any issues with my hmr..A cz 452 american, which was my first rifle and ive shot foxes and rabbits and crows aplenty..Ive put hornady ammo through it mostly with some winchester and remington as well in the early days...For foxes i used the hornady tpx 20 grain hollow point round and achieved good results....Today after reading some of this thread i decided to check my remaining ammo and was quite shocked at the results..Out of 20 winchester rounds no splits...the same again from 25 remington rounds...from 210 hornady rounds i found 10 with splits down to the shoulder...Also ive noticed with the winchester and remington rounds the plastic tip was of a uniform colour with the hornady rounds it varied between bright orange to dirty brown and this was from freshly opened boxes...Maybe its inconsistancy in the plastic of the tip thats causing the non expansion issues which could be seen in the colour differances..Im out this evening and im going to try the split necks to see how i get on...Hugh...

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I have a CZ452 varmint / American, heavy - short barrel..

I always use Winchester ammo, 17gr vmax, as it was the best grouping when I first bought it,

Never had any issues !!!

 

I re stocked it, in a home built AI copy , and still no issues ....

 

Due to shortage at local RFD, I even put 2 boxes of Remington through it, & in the past I've used CCI TNT..

 

Guess what ?!? ..... No issues. !

 

I currently have a photon 4.5 XT NV unit on it & use it on a golf course to great effect..

 

But, I must admit, for the right price, it's up for sale , as I don't use it half as much as it should be used.

post-10623-0-68644900-1459702210_thumb.jpeg

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Why would you want to try the ones with split necks ?

To see if they work ok to be honest..ive have my hmr for 5years and have never checked my ammo till today..i have had split necks after firing and have had no issues at all in the way of hang fires or squibs etc...went out this afternoon and shot some bait for my foxing..i shot all 10 split neck rounds and 7 found their target...5 expanded and 2 penciled but all targets were dead... all 10 rounds fired ok and the cases were split to the same level as before firing...i was ready for any problems carrying a cleaning rod etc...but to be sure i will have fired some split rounds in the past i just didnt know it...i intend to buy some new ammo in the near future and i will make a point of checking them etc...i will say it was my nut behind my but and i was responsible for my own safety being the rifles owner..however it would be PC of me to say that you should bin in a sensible fashion any rounds you find split or damaged...Hugh.

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My mates cz had a few click bangs over the years.Non have found the target,though we are using sticks and nv rather than off the bipod.Week before last on the golfcourse we had two click bangs from 5 Shots where the case ended up being split down past the shoulder after firing.I can recall a fizz bang with my cz,but I sold it a few years ago before the ammo issues came to light.I've had no fizzers with my quad yet, though the accuracy like other peeps went to pot last year,with groups opening up to 1.5 to 2 inches at 100yds in near ideal conditions.

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I have two Quads and the 17 is without a doubt my favorite rifle. I only use the CCI V-Max 17 grains and have never had any issues with cracked cases or bullets stuck in the barrel so far. The groups has also never climbed over 0.5 MOA either. I might have been lucky with the ammunition that I've bought, but I have shot several thousand shots with it.

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