Warning - Winchester 17HMR ammo

[mdw717]

Remember when Outdoor Life published stories in the back of the magazine titled "This Happened To Me?"

My story is not quite that melodramatic. While shooting my new Ruger American rifle in .17 HMR, I noticed the bolt gradually became more difficult to open until I got closer to an 80 round count. I also had a round that lost its crimping force on the bullet such that it rattled into and back out of it's brass casing.

Then, as I was shooting at a ground squirrel, the rifle discharge sounded completely different and it felt like someone had thrown sand in my face. After wiping my face and blinking my eyes a few times, I looked down to find my magazine "grenaded" and beside it on the ground lay the head-stamp end of a .17 HMR round. A quick glance in the chamber showed the rest of the rimfire casing. I packed everything up a returned to my cabin to inspect more closely.

A closer inspection showed the bore to be obstructed with the bullet. It tapped out with a wooden dowel. Also, I noticed the ejector was damaged and bent so as to be non-functional. The extractor and bolt appeared to be okay to my naked eye. I removed the now baseless cartridge casing from the chamber. It came out pretty easily and had a longitudinal split running the length of the case neck into the shoulder. This made me curious, so I recovered and examined more fired brass casings and they showed the same split along the neck from case mouth to shoulder. Next I examined some unfired rounds in the cartridge box and they showed what looks to me like a scored groove (possibly a tool or die mark) in the same location I was finding splits cases.

I could find no recall on this ammo so I photographed everything and have contacted Winchester for resolution.
This is Lot #1NH30 of 20gr jacketed hollow point ammo.

 

[CVCOBRA1]

Glad you weren't hurt. I think I would also contact Ruger and point out you are not blaming them for anything, just think they should know. That way they might want to issue some type of warning also. Good luck with Winchester, obvious they have a problem there.

 

[mlayne]

I had this issue with my Ruger American and Winchester 20 gr 17 HMR rounds. I was trying out Winchester 20gr and CCI 17 gr rounds. About 1 out of 5 Winchester rounds split at the neck. I didn't have the dramatic results that others have had but I've never bought another Winchester product and likely never will.

 

[mdw717]

FWIW....
Winchester made good. They offered to replace my 2000 rounds of ammo which I returned to them as requested. I declined saying I preferred a refund. Received a check yesterday. They told me they found nothing wrong with the returned ammo. They also agreed to pay Ruger for a new rifle. All in all, a satisfactory customer service experience.

 

[mdw717]

As a follow up....
Win-Olin did pay to replace my damaged rifle which I had sent back to Ruger. However, Ruger's customer service was absolutely horrible (even cutting them slack for COVID).
First the customer service rep I was fiiiiinally able to contact only works two days a week! She never told me that up front so I assumed she was just being unresponsive and blowing off my emails asking for status. I actually found this out from my Win-Olin contact.
Next, after each contact (about bi-weekly) she was asking me to sign the paperwork and send it back to her (I sent it 3 times) or she was having trouble contacting Win-Olin about payment (playing phone tag, etc. ....not daily phone tag, weekly phone tag due to her short work week). Ruger has had the rifle since July 2nd. They were not repairing anything...just shipping out a replacement.
Two weeks ago, I got fed up waiting on Ruger and purchased a Tikka T1.
Last week I asked Ruger what is the status of my (now un-needed) rifle. "Oh, we shipped that on Sep 11th. You need to contact your FFL dealer" Wow....thanks for notifying me!
So I have my new Ruger rifle in a box in my safe... waiting for it's next owner. I will never buy another Ruger product!!!!
I did write Ruger's CEO a letter discussing the corporate wisdom of having customer service reps working two days a week and their inability to provide timely information.

 

[Hugnot]

No more Winchester .17 HMR ammo for me! 7 fail to fire out of 50 and several of those were noticeably more difficult to extract from my CZ457 despite not firing. Accuracy was not as good as Hornady, CCI, & Browning ammo. I should have not bought this stuff and after the first round failed to fire, which was the 1st of 50, I should have dumped the rest of the 49. No damage done, other than a loss of $12-$13 for ammo. The CZ appears to have a normal force and protrusion firing pin strike. All other ammo shot well with no other fail to fire. I guess I could have pulled apart some of the Winchester .17 HMR ammo to check things out but did not. Lot K7494 E129725 LA1913A S17HMR1

Before using, I checked each round for loose bullets or brass defects and found none.

 

[L.Sherm]

I saw this same thing happen on a CZ with Hornandy ammo about 4 years ago, it lodged a bullet in the barrel bulged it and split the stock.
CZ replaced the stock but wouldn't the barrel because they said could have been an obstruction in the barrel that caused it i know for a fact that wasn't the case.
If anybody has something like this happen DO NOT KNOCK OUT THE BULLET leave it in there and send it in.