.17 Hornet

[foxhunter]

dan cooper once refused to chamber a rifle in 17 ah for me. said the cartridge did not meet their accuracy standards. 2 years later I was talking to walt berger and he told me he was thinking of shooting his cooper ve in benchrest competition because it shot one hole at 100 yards. don't know if he ever did it but we sure talked about it a lot.
tight sub sami specs are the key to accuracy in a 17 ah/hh. if the cartridge headspaces off the rim and the bullet is perfectly square with the throat abd bore I think (opinion)great accuracy can still be achieved

[Rocklong]

Originally Posted by Rocklong

I was messing with the hornet tonight and decided to sand down the firing pin a little to shorten it and see if it made a difference. I shot ten rounds through it right at dark and didn’t have hardly any primer flow at all and not one piercing with the same lot of 25’s I was having the trouble with. It shot really well too ten shots in 3/4” at 100 yards. Maybe I solved the problem.

Didn’t solve the problem. Was shooting some pdogs tonight with 25’s and it pierced three out of about forty rounds. Guess I’ll give up on them and shoot 20’s for now. Hornady told me they have had no problems with the 25’s and I think they are full of shit because of the replies to this thread.

[Daryl]

Originally Posted by Dean2

This often fixes primer piercing with the CZ 527s. For some reason many of their firing p[ins come out without a properly rounded and radiused tip. Be careful you don't sand it down too far.

The other thing with CZ is they typically have a very tight chamber compared to Savage and Ruger, this will make loads run from a bit to a lot higher pressure in them. It is why you see CZ 17 HHs reaching 3600 FPS out of a 22" barrel vs the 24" test barrel, long before most of us hit max load in published load books. Mine hits 3600 FPS at 9.6 grains of Lil'Gun rather than at 10 grains as Hodgdon publishes. I have seen other CZs hit 3600 at as low as 9.1 grains, which is .6 grains below Hodgdon's start load.

Based on that I am not surprised that Hornady factory loads tend to be on the hot side for our guns. Hornady has always had a reputation for pushing the limits on their factory ammo, to get the most speed possible, so I have seen their ammo be too hot in some hunting rifles as well. I have never seen it dangerously too high but past comfortably usable in some guns.

Good observation, Dean2

[Bayou City Boy]

Originally Posted by Rocklong

Didn’t solve the problem. Was shooting some pdogs tonight with 25’s and it pierced three out of about forty rounds. Guess I’ll give up on them and shoot 20’s for now. Hornady told me they have had no problems with the 25’s and I think they are full of shit because of the replies to this thread.

I understand your frustration...... However.......

Boy, howdy.......... Comments like that concerning some folks favorite red t-shirt donor company can really cause you to have a major life crisis. For simply relating the results of two phone calls in 24 hours to Big H over their 17 HH factory ammo issues here, I suddenly found myself awhile back to be totally devoid of human characteristics. I'm just now getting my self confidence back...............

-BCB

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by Rocklong

Didn’t solve the problem. Was shooting some pdogs tonight with 25’s and it pierced three out of about forty rounds. Guess I’ll give up on them and shoot 20’s for now. Hornady told me they have had no problems with the 25’s and I think they are full of shit because of the replies to this thread.

Your are right, they are full of it. They know full well that their ammo shoots WAY hot, and not just the 17 HH. They reduced the load in their 17 HH 20 grain because it shot way hot in a lot of different guns. It now shoots a full 100 fps less than the original ammo did. They should be taking the hot ammo back and giving a full refund but with the slow down in the sales of ammo and components this isn't top of their list right now.

On top of what I said earlier about CZ chambers, their barrels tend to be tight as well, likely from the hammer forging process. If the 25 grain ammo is too hot for your gun, sell or trade it and load your own or go back to 20 grain ammo.

Hornady is going to end up blowing someone up and the lawsuits will come down like hail. I would hate to see a great company killed off because their lawyers and risk guys underestimate the potential liability of not dealing with these well known issues.

[B23]

I'd like to measure some brass from these so called tight chamber CZ's because my two CZ 527's were purchased two years apart and they are/were a far cry from having tight chambers. In fact all I've ever heard is people complaining about the bulged brass from their CZ 527 17 Hornets.

[Rocklong]

Yesterday the last one I shot blew the primer and stuff hit me in the face so I don’t think I’ll be shooting the 25’s anymore. Kinda hurt but no damage to me or the rifle.

[Bayou City Boy]

Originally Posted by B23

I'd like to measure some brass from these so called tight chamber CZ's because my two CZ 527's were purchased two years apart and they are/were a far cry from having tight chambers. In fact all I've ever heard is people complaining about the bulged brass from their CZ 527 17 Hornets.

I have no idea if tight chambers are part of the story for some 17 HH owners, but if all you've heard "is people complaining about the bulged brass from their CZ 527 17 Hornets", (because CZ chambers apparently are all to big???), you're missing a big part of the story.


No pierced primers, no backed out primers that leak gas and etch bolt faces, no dished cartridge faces/rims...?? If these are new issues for you, you've missed a bunch of the 17 HH factory ammunition saga over the past few years since the cartridge hit the market.


-BCB

[B23]

Originally Posted by Bayou City Boy

I have no idea if tight chambers are part of the story for some 17 HH owners, but if all you've heard "is people complaining about the bulged brass from their CZ 527 17 Hornets", (because CZ chambers apparently are all to big???), you're missing a big part of the story.


No pierced primers, no backed out primers that leak gas and etch bolt faces, no dished cartridge faces/rims...?? If these are new issues for you, you've missed a bunch of the 17 HH factory ammunition saga over the past few years since the cartridge hit the market.

No, I've definitely heard/read the complaints with the Hornady 17 Hornet ammo. It sounded like most of the factory ammo issues was with the early production stuff and if I recall, I read something about the earlier 17 Hornet ammo that had problems could be identified by the color of their primers. I think the early stuff with issues had silver colored primers and the newer stuff had brass colored. I thought most of those problems were cleared up early on and the stuff that's been on the shelves the last couple years was good to go, but maybe not.

My comment/s was with regard to blaming the issue on CZ 527's in 17 Hornet having tight chambers. As I mentioned, I have two 527 17 Hornets and they were purchased two years apart. I know several people with CZ 527 17 Hornets that have been purchased at different periods since they were introduced to the market and every one of them has the same two complaints. One, they would like to see CZ fix the feed issue with the 17 Hornets, and two, their brass always comes out slightly bulged from them having such a generously cut chamber. But, all of the people I personally know that have these and those that I've talked to, are generally very happy with the way they shoot.

[Bayou City Boy]

To be very frank, to this day, the only 17 HH brass that I trust as being reliable is the brass I made for myself from 22 Hornet cases at a time when Hornady's "tech specialists" couldn't even agree among themselves as to what the ammo problems were.

In one 24 hour period, one told me that they knew they had brass problems and that they were working to resolve them. The next day another "expert" told me that the brass was fine and that all of the issues people were having were the result of excessive head space in CZ rifles....... Take your pick...............

And through it all, people still seem to be having problems at the present time with 17 HH factory ammunition as evidenced in his thread.................

-BCB