What was the price? I don't buy old hm2 ammo anymore as I have had to much of it split in multiple rifles.

 

Original spec that i posted about recently. 2200fps at the muzzle. What is it worth to have original performance to you. If under $10 a box I would get it before someone with a sharp eye beats you to it.

 

Thanks guys...it was under $10. Just. Probably worth going back just to have it.
Neither the Remington, nor the Hornady had any indication of muzzle velocity on the box.

 

You may want to try some of what you bought first. If it shoots well, then go for the rest. I have never tried the Rem. version. My guns seem to like the Eley & the new CCI 17 gr. Do not like the Hornady quite as well, especially the NTX 15.5 gr. CCI makes Hornady, but they definitely shoot different in my rifles. Best I have found for accuracy in my rifles is long discontinued Federal brand, almost out of that ammo.

 

I second that, shoot it first. In my rifle eley shot best. Remington was equal to the new cci vmax which came in second. Hornady was last.

 

Only people that have shot Eley m2 ammo know what m2,s are truly capable of. A big difference in my 452. Too bad American mfg,s won't build good rimfire ammo. The " That's good enough" mentality just leaves so much unavailable. Yes run with plastic in hand and clean the shelf

 

Out of the older ammo, the Remington/Eley shoots very well in my Savage MkII GVL. I could not tell the difference between the Remington/Eley and Eley in that rifle. I haven't bought any new ammo in a long time since I stocked up years ago when everyone was closing out the Remington/Eley ammo. I'm down to 2 bricks now.

 

I'll go back and grab the rest of it. I can't test yet, as I haven't decided on a barrel...this will be my first HM2. I'll be using either a 455, or the 457 I picked up yesterday.
I will start a thread in the CZ section looking for thoughts/experiences with the various barrel makers. For now, I'm considering Whistle Pig, Lothar Walther, or Lilja, but I'm leaning towards L.W.
Thanks for any opinions you want to share...

 

It's a safe bet. I've shot some Remington from several lots and all has been good. It's eley with a yellow tip and R head stamp. Only difference is lot to lot variation and all of them use the very stable 17 gr vmax which has little variation from box to box, lot to lot etc. The last time I bought Remington at a gun show it was about $5 a box. With CCI/Hornady now running 2000fps I would feel good about picking up some original spec 2200fps ammo. It's a good find for you!

 

Thanks rc...I just read the thread you were speaking of, and realized I should have put this question in the 'ammunition' thread. I didn't know there was that much difference in velocity between the old and new loadings. I figured about 2100fps...2200+ is impressive.

 

The Remington actually had a better6 group with my 452 , don't know why but it was tighter

 

I would not buy older Mach 2 either. It would be scary to me,LOL

I do not what you paid for the ammo you bought. But I just purchased 500 rounds of new Hornandy for 6.14 a box.With shipping it came to 79.00 for 500 though. So 8.00 a box. I will pay a little more knowing I am not buying old out of the box defective ammo. I think Hornady even tells you not to use stuff over five years old or so.

I do not think 2000 to a 2200 velocity is going to make one bit of difference. I am actually thinking the slower FPS would be better accuracy for shooting paper. And if hunting. It will make no difference at all in my opinion, either way the squirrel will be dead,LOL

But I also do not get any fun out of shooting a piece of paper, like some people do. I need a countereactive target myself..LOL

 

I'm going to disagree based on the 17 hm2 ammo I've had for the last 15+ years. And 22LR I have shot that was over 30 years old. Ammunition built right simply does not degrade to a significant degree if stored well for many decades. People are still shooting ammo from WWI they have squirreled away and many members are shooting ammo they bought in the 70s. There is a lot of surplus 70s communist ammo in circulation that people are using without issue. While the general rule fresher is better for food, I don't think it applies so much for ammo. It's all about the build quality and stability of the powder/primer compound. Also with HM2, there is no wax on the bullets to degrade. So what can go wrong? I know some have talked about split necks on old ammo but I'm convinced they were brittle to begin with or their chamber is over sized since I have not seen that happen in my bolt gun. I think likely there was some bad batches of hornady produced with brittle necks. I had one eley round go click instead of bang this month. I pulled the round and it had a bullet that was not seated correctly and it peeled the brass over causing the round not to chamber. I didn't even notice when I was loading the magazine. Bad from the start.

 

I agree with RC. I have older Eley & Federal & Hornady .17 HM2 ammo that I shoot along with newer Hornady & CCI whenever I practice with my HM2's. Never had an issue with any of it in my CZ or Sako's with both factory & Lilja barrels. I have had fail to fire with some brands of .22 lr ammo & witnessed a squib Remington .17HMR load that apparently only had priming compound. Worst rimfire ammo I have had was Winchester .17 HMR - have had cases dented so bad & bullets mis-aligned so bad that they would not chamber. I do not buy Winchester anymore. Just my experience over the past several years.

 

From my reading. I do not know anything about any other brands than Hornandy. But is is well documented that early Hornandy Mach2 came with split necks right out of the box. As I said above. This was supposedly corrected and the brass annealed. As I understand the early Hornandy brass was not properly annealed or they did not know how to do it. But they supposedly figured it out..

Splits in a bolt gun that are present before even cambering are not as big of a deal.. Factory Splits in a semi auto are a much bigger concern.

 

Get all the Eley/Remington that you can. Have never had a split from the Eley boxed ammo, Remington should be just as good. Bolt action only though as the pressure curve spikes much earlier and will likely succumb to burst cases if fired from an unlocked breech.
Having said this, I get consistent velocities in the 2300's paired with a 1702 DHB, 300+ fps makes a difference. Still does not compare to the HMR which is putting out velocities just south of 2700 with an ES in the low 80's.
Great laser like round out in the Vineyards.
But alas I have been relegated to the NTX here in California. Can't even use it for the Roundup.

 

Get all the Eley/Remington that you can.

Eley/Remington 17m2 ammo has NOT ben made in quite a few years now. The only way to find it is people selling it on gun broker.

 

I forgot about this thread. At this point (2 years later), the rifle has been a 457 synthetic, a 457 MTR, and is now a 455 Stainless, in an OE Varmint stock. The barrel is a Lothar Walther 18" .17 HM2.
The Remington shoots a little tighter than new Hornady and CCI, but in the first hundred rounds, I had 3 that sounded a little off. Two of those also produced a little puff of smoke from the receiver. All three were split at the neck. After that, I put the Remington stuff aside for now. I will try it again when I pick up another rifle. I didn't try the old Hornady stuff I brought home. New Hornady and CCI Haven't been a problem.