Split Case

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These are not reloads but factory new. Posted over in wheel guns with no response, so I thought I would try here.

Ruger New Model Six 17 HMR

I had two split cases out of about 30 rounds.

Ammo is Hornady 17hmr vmax. I have never had this problem before and did not feel anything different when I was shooting.

Any ideas why all of a sudden I have two split cases? Could it just be a bad box of ammo?
 
These are not reloads but factory new. Posted over in wheel guns with no response, so I thought I would try here.

Ruger New Model Six 17 HMR

I had two split cases out of about 30 rounds.

Ammo is Hornady 17hmr vmax. I have never had this problem before and did not feel anything different when I was shooting.

Any ideas why all of a sudden I have two split cases? Could it just be a bad box of ammo?
I would contact Hornady and see what they say. The only split cases I’ve ever had were in really hot loads and they were range brass that I loaded hot.
 
.17HMR are rimfire, so probably not reloads. I would say call Hornady and don't leave the out in the sun.
 
Any idea if the split cases came from the same chamber in the cylinder?? It's possible that one is out of spec......


Could not tell you. Did not even know they were split until I got home and was separating brass.
 
I will be contacting Hornady tomorrow and see what they say.

Thanks guys
 
From my experience, split cases on the .17 HMR are not totally out of the norm. My rifle splits one on occasion from the same chamber and batch of ammo. My understanding is that when the case is necked down, it is not re annealed due to the size, so the neck is somewhat brittle and occasionally one will split. As it is not a safety issue and the cases are not reused, they do not feel that the ammo could be sold with the extra step/cost. May be wrong, but got this from a guy that worked at an ammo plant.
 
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From my experience, split cases on the .17 HMR are not totally out of the norm. My rifle splits one on occasion from the same chamber and batch of ammo. My understanding is that when the case is necked down, it is not re annealed due to the size, so the neck is somewhat brittle and occasionally one will split. As it is not a safety issue and the cases are not reused, they do not feel that the ammo could be sold with the extra step/cost. May be wrong, but got this from a guy that worked at an ammo plant.

I tend to agree with you. I have been doing some searching and it appears that this happens quite often. I normally just pick them up and toss them. This time I put them in my brass bag and noticed it. I am sure this has probably happened to me before and I just never noticed them.
 
I have had quite a few 22 mag cases split in my Ruger Single Six, from different manufacturers, Winchester and Federal.
 
I recently had a factory 10mm case split all the way from the mouth to the web. Had a couple others from the same box with short splits at the mouth. I've been shooting this factory ammo (PPU) to save the cases for reloading, and this is the first box out of 8 that I've had any split. I wish I had saved the other boxes to see if they were all from the same lot #. Nothing felt different about these rounds, though.
 
Another thing to remember that all the .17 HMR ammo is produced by CCI or at one time was. So if it is Remington ammo, they produce with a green tip, Hornady, a red tip. But all made in the same place.
 
My old department use to issue Remington pistol ammo. Our carry/duty round was the 230 grain JHP 45 ACP. On the range it was a constant ping here and there, You could hear the split case when it hit the ground, made a sound similar to the sound that a Garand clip being ejected makes . Very distinct sound. A few of the "good cases" would split when the were reloaded. . After every range session you could find quite a few split cases on the ground. That's the reason I don't use Remington pistol ammo today .I know this has nothing to do with a 17 HMR but wanted to share.
 
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Last summer, against my better judgment, I shot some very old .223 reloads my dad had loaded in 1989 and sat in a closet since then.

A lot of the rounds he gave me I pulled down the projectiles and threw out the brass. I got tired of pulling them apart, and decided to shoot some as is.

I ended up shooting about 50 rounds in one of my cheaper ARs. Almost 75% of them split at the neck. None of them damaged my rifle or face but it was probably one of the sketchiest things I’ve done with a gun. One thing I definitely noticed was the weird dead noise the split brass makes. Very different sound.
 
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