Quote:You think it's bad lots? I was sort of thinking that when the Hornady I got 2500 rounds of didn't shoot well in anything, but other people were saying that the Hornady they'd got shot fine in their rifles, then the last Hornady I got is good in my CZ.
i can just about carve that in stone for you. for a VERY long time - before winchester pulled its 17hmr ammo from the CCI production lines - we used to get sometimes 3-5 folks a week over on the 17hmr forum complaining about accuracy issues. Now that rimfire ammo is just comign back on the shelves in the last 6-8 months those posts have gone down significantly, but i think thats more of a fault of the ammo just not being there than it is of the production quality being that much improved.
that post i made in the other 17hmr thread regarding doing lot testing to find out what your gun likes... i used to almost have that on copy/paste readiness to help new 17hmr owners out who were frustrated with the crap for accuracy they were seeing. bad lots could easily go 3 MOA in many rifles. aint much squirrel shooting to be had with ammo that only groups 3 MOA.
sure enough, do a lot number test with multiple boxes and all the sudden one would shine and you'd have a 1-1¼ MOA capable gun again.
higher end rifles seem to be less susceptable to the issue - annie's, coopers - maybe the cut their bores a bit tighter or something. Savages, henry's, marlins, rugers, remington's all seemed to face the issue on a regular basis.
and the same would hold true if the bore was dirty or clean - and not just in my rifle. bad lots just threw flyers.
my savage is one of the "dirty girl" rifles that wouldn't shoot after a major cleaning. I used to save my bad "test lot" ammo boxes to foul the barrel after a big cleaning, and then once th barrel settled back in (usually 25-50 rounds) not do more than basic cleaning until accuracy fell off again - in my savage 93 this was usually somewhere between 600-800 rounds give or take. maybe a brush here and there, but usually just some rem oil and the bore snake. but no solvents until my good MOA capable lot number opened up and wouldnt shoot anymore.
we even tried to get CCI to make a match grade 17hmr vmax load. they said if there was enough interest they'd be game for it. had it on a half dozen forums and i think we got 30 signatures on the petition. this was pre-sandy hook. with that few sigs we never bothered to even submit the petition to CCI. I would happily pay $20 ish a box for a match load of 17hmr. really its match grade ammo - or the distinct lack of - is whats kept the 17hmr out of the rimfire competition world. its just so out-classed by the 22lr world that its not even worth your time to show up to try to compete with one.
