Henry Rifle Forums

Good day folks. New to this forum but not new to forums or guns overall. Nor a professional at either one.

Been wanting a Henry .17 hmr for several years after shooting my brothers Varmint Express. Picked one up a couple of weeks ago, took it to the range last weekend and attempted to break it! On round 185 I had a blow out. Cartridge blew the head off and violently exhausted through the ejector port. Don't know if round 184 was a squib or not. Cartridge is stuck in the chamber. Contacted Henry and the rifle is now on its way back to its maker. The scary part was that I was shooting left handed and caught the blow out in my left cheek. Looked like I was going through puberty with pimples on my face. Remember boys and girls to always wear your safety glasses! Sure was glad I had mine on.

A little disheartening with a new gun but I've read about these sort of things as I also have several pistols, a revolver and an AR 15 that I reload for.

Thanks for letting me participate in your little party here.

Bruce C.
Hilton Head Island SC

welcome aboard, delighted to have you join us .... any clue as to the reason for the blow out ..?.. please, take a look at our How Many? thread and add your Henry to our total

http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... 535#p31535

Glad your ok and I know Henry will take care of you. Welcome from Colorado.

Welcome from Alberta and congrats on the new Henry and one of the most explosive intros to the Forum. Glad you're ok!

Welcome aboard, glad you weren't hurt any worse than homemade acne.

Welcome to the forum from Pennsylvania and glad that you are ok from this incident.

Hi Bruce .... welcome to the Forums!

I have heard a lot of stories about explosions from .17HMR's. It is one of the reasons I will never buy one. The failures are caused by a weakness in the shoulder and neck area that causes them to crack and release the pressure into the receiver area. There have been several cases of chain detonation in magazines as a result, as well as innumerable ruined rifles.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum from Grassy Creek North Carolina.

Welcome from CT and thanks for sharing your report. I'm glad you joined our little party of Henry rifle enthusiasts. Let us know how you make out.

Welcome from just up the road in Charleston.

Hope your Henry makes it back to you soon. My .357 Big Boy steel has quickly become a real favorite for my daughter and I. It gets a workout most weeks.

Welcome from Wisconsin.

Welcome from Michigan!
Glad your ok! Can you tell us more about the ammo?

ace73 wrote:Welcome from Michigan!
Glad your ok! Can you tell us more about the ammo?

Was shooting four different types of ammo through it:
1. Winchester Varmint HV 17gr polymer tip;
2. CCI Gamepoint 20gr jacketed soft point;
3. CCI Speer TNT 17gr JHP; and
4. CCI A17.
Here's the sequence of fire:
10 rounds each - during the CCI A17 10 rounds noticed some grittiness of the lever action.
Started shooting the remainder of the 50 round packs in this order:
1. CCI Speer TNT - the grittiness feel of the lever started to go away;
2. Gamepoint - no problems;
3. CCI A17 - note: when shooting this the grittiness got worse; and
4. Winchester Varmint HV - this is when things got bad. On round 184 I didn't notice if there was squib load, still don't know. Not used to little to no recoil. On round 185, the cartridge blew the head off and had a discharge out of the ejection port. At that point I did a visual check and didn't even try to remove the spent/stuck cartridge. Unloaded the magazine packed it up. I did clean the gun before I ever shot anything out of it.

Bruce

Welcome to the forum from Dallas.

Sorry to hear about issues with your rifle. Hope you get it resolved quickly.

I will be following as I am interested in a 17 HMR in the future sometime.

I don't know how they are doing with the .17 HMR ammo, but I have sworn off Winchester rimfire ammo, and Winchester primers.

I had lots and lots of issues with .22lr Winchester over the last couple years. When things were really difficult to find, I bought some Winchester when it was available. Had lots of feed problems and a lot of duds. I have reserved the Winchesters I bought a while back to my Henry. It will feed and fire stuff that other weapons have issues with. I have only had one CCI that failed due to the ammo itself. That is over many, many thousands of CCI rounds. They aren't the cheapest, but I prefer them, if they are available and at a decent price. I managed to pick up 4 boxes of minimags yesterday for $7 a 100 box.

Never really thought about a squib with rimfire. You are right that most of them have such low report/recoil that it might be difficult to recognize one. Especially if you are used to centerfire shooting. The good news is that they are such low powered cartridges, there is a much lower probability of a catastrophic failure and subsequent injury.

BTW, if you want to shoot a Henry .357 Big Boy steel, and are going to be in Charleston sometime, especially during the week, let me know before hand. I have an annual membership at a range just around the corner from me in Summerville. I could meet you there and let you shoot the Henry as a guest with no range fees. I warn you, you will want one.

Welcome from Ohio

clovishound wrote:BTW, if you want to shoot a Henry .357 Big Boy steel, and are going to be in Charleston sometime, especially during the week, let me know before hand. I have an annual membership at a range just around the corner from me in Summerville. I could meet you there and let you shoot the Henry as a guest with no range fees. I warn you, you will want one.

Thanks for the offer but I don't get to Charleston very often. And yes I would probably want one as the reason I bought the .17 Varmint was that I shot my brother's Henry Varmint!

Bruce

Hearty howdy ho's from central North Carolina. I'm glad you survived the blast. Yes, safety first! Eyes are fairly important.

Hello and welcome from NY