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Barrel Life in a 17 HMR

20K views 24 replies 9 participants last post by  Smoothtrigger  
#1 · (Edited)
There was a started thread in here earlier that has since been deleted regarding barrel life. The original postings said that the Anschutz barrels were loosing significant accuracy and showing worn throats at only 10,000 rounds. I have never fired that many rounds through a 17 Annie having just bought my first LH 17 Annie.

Here is what I had posted in terms of my experience with a Marlin, a Savage and 2 CZ 17 HMRs

Interesting post but if my new Anschutz goes south after only 10,000 rounds I am going to be REALLY ****ed off. I have put 30,000 rounds through a Marlin, A savage and 2 CZs now. All of them were still shooting great when I sold them at the end of that many rounds.

The Marlin I sold to a buddy and he is creeping up on 45,000 rounds total. He is just now starting to see his groups open up. To get that much mileage out of the barrels they do need to be really well cleaned every 1000-1500 rounds but given 4 "cheap" rimfires, 3 with moly barrels and the Marlin with SS, have all gone 30,000, and one plus a lot, rounds and still shoot well I have to question the poor life on the reported Anschutz barrels. They may need a good cleaning with Wipeout and Butch's but if that isn't it I really hope my new one is much better. I may just pick up another CZ for a back up just in case.

All of those guns would easily put 5 shots in less than 1/2", even after 30,000 rounds. We use the HMRs a lot gopher shooting close to town or rural subdivisions because they are quiet and don't ricochet. Going through 10,000 rounds a year is pretty easy to do, though not cheap as 10,000 rounds costs $3000 or about 5 times as much as the gun. Like I said before, my buddy has my first Marlin. He is now at 45,000 and the groups are just starting to open up. If the Anschutz I just bought doesn't last at least 30,000 rounds I am going to be pretty upset because it was $1400, and the CZs are $600.

This I posted after taking the new Annie and the old CZ to the range.

Well my new LH Annie 17 HMR showed up so took it out to the range to sight it in a try it out. Thought that while we had it out there I would test the CZ for group size now that it has about 25,000 rounds through it. The CZ was cleaned real well about 400 rounds previous. Using Federal 17 Grain HPs, which it always shot well, it will easily shoot 1/4" 5 shot groups, outside edge to edge, at 50 yards. If you deduct bullet diameter those groups are under .1 (.250 -.179=.071).

So far the worn out CZ is out shooting the brand new Annie, though to be fair the CZ has a real light Rifle Basix trigger and has been Devcon Bedded, where the Annie is still box stock. It took about 200 rounds for the Annie to start settling in. Once it did it was shooting Winchester 17 grain Vmax into about .30 and 17 Federal HP into .31, both edge to edge. I do need to lighten the Annie's trigger as it is significantly heavier than the CZ, and once I do I believe the Annie will be down under .25 as well.

Annie Target with 17 grain Winchester ammo.

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The CZ target was slightly tighter.

I believe the fellows that posted they were seeing large accuracy drops on their Annies after only 10,000 rounds. They are big Anschutz fans and have no reason to make up anything derogatory. For that reason I am beginning to think that the hammer forged CZ barrels and even the Marlin and Savage barrels may be made of a lot harder steel than the Anschutz barrels are but I have no way of measuring this. Does anyone know the Rockwell hardness ratings of Anschutz versus CZ or the others.

I would be very interested to hear what others on here have found for accuracy versus barrel life. By accuracy I mean still being able to regularly shoot less than .350, edge to edge at 50 yards and under 1" at 100.
 
#4 · (Edited)
To re-cap, my factory barreled 1717 D HB had gone form shooting in the mid .2's to the mid .3's to shooing in the mid .3's to the mid .4's.

So the rifle would still be and excellent shooter under Dean2's parameters.
It still would shoot the occasional low .2's and high .1's, but just not as often as it once did.

Of course over the 9000ish rounds it had shot, it had produced many groups in the ones and a few in the zeros.

That .1 inch increase was enough for me to have it re-bareled with a Lilja.
The work was done by ANA (Steve B.), and included a match* chamber and a beautiful bedding job.

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:Conical breech face.
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The rifle is now shooting super tight groups with CCI TNT.

Now it still won't shoot Hornady V-max, or any other flavor of V-max worth a dang.

Smooth

* Not sure there is a fully defined match chamber for .17hmr.
Steve says it's tighter than stock and I believe him. I have no way to check.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Remember I'm not talking about barrel burn out.
Just the slight diminishment from it's original capability.

Of the 9000 rounds that I shot through that original barrel, 99% were off the bench shooting for score or group.

So it was easy for me to detect the slight drop off.
How long would it take to go off the reservation and start shooting .75 to 1 inch 50yd groups, I have no idea.

Smooth

wwace

It's helpful to let us know to whom your directing your question. All of us or just a single poster.
In my case with the new barrel not very long. I just had to find the correct torque values and it started shooting great groups. That took about a 100 rounds.
I now have just over 500 through it and I'll be watching to see if it improves further. So far it's in a holding pattern (no change).
 
#11 · (Edited)
Let me help you.

I keep exact records of rounds fired through all of my rifles.
The total over the last six years, (thats when I started shooting again after a 40yr layoff) is 21019. That's with 4 different .17hmrs.

At 25 censts per round (taxes and shipping included) comes to $5254.75.

That's why I laugh when posters complain about spending $60.00 for a set of rings, or $130.00 for a (Brownells MAGNA-TIP SUPER SET) screw driver set, and on and on it goes.
It's not the cost of the firearms or their accessories (including scopes ) that when all added up will result in the biggest number. It's the ammo.

I've observed people who will refuse to buy the firearm of their dreams because it's $50.00 more than the very best deal they have ever heard about.

Smooth
 
#12 ·
Smooth, I think your right about the costs related to gun ownership and I am quite often guilty of being a scrimper. Another key thing to point out is I never shoot the kind of groups you guys are talking about. I may have guns that you could do it with but I simply do not shoot enough and spend the time on the range to get those results. I have a lot of respect for those of you that have put the effort and money into getting those results.

Glenn
 
#16 ·
10,000 rounds and counting

I've just finished up with a 7 day rat hunt and have shot around 10,000 rounds through my new 1727 so far this season and still hitting Sage Rats at 200 + yards ! I'll keep you all posted as the season goes on and let you know when the barrel goes south :snipersmi two days ago I put 900 rounds down the pipe as fast as you could load the 10 mags and shoot. I would never recommend punishing a barrel like this but there were more Squeakers in the scope than you could believe and I couldn't control myself :t lol !

Yesterday I was shooting my custom 1702 and ran over 1200 rounds through it the same way ;)
S&G
 
#17 ·
I've just finished up with a 7 day rat hunt and have shot around 10,000 rounds through my new 1727 so far this season and still hitting Sage Rats at 200 + yards ! I'll keep you all posted as the season goes on and let you know when the barrel goes south :snipersmi two days ago I put 900 rounds down the pipe as fast as you could load the 10 mags and shoot. I would never recommend punishing a barrel like this but there were more Squeakers in the scope than you could believe and I couldn't control myself :t lol !

Yesterday I was shooting my custom 1702 and ran over 1200 rounds through it the same way ;)
S&G
What are sage rats?