New Ruger .17hmr keyholing

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marine6680

New member
New American Rimfire in .17hmr is keyholing at 50yds.

We fired about 50rds. The keyholing wasn't consistent. When it was shooting well, groups under 1/2 inch, but it would open up groups and keyhole randomly.


It has 100rds through it total. I don't see anything abnormal on he bore.

Today was CCI and Federal 17gr vmax.
 
As it is a new firearm, I would get on the horn with Ruger on this issue. - Something is very wrong for it to be doing that with any factory ammo.
 
Yeah... it seems odd. Just wondering if this was common for 17, needing a very clean bore .

I planned on making a call Tuesday.
 
How about some pictures. Lots of time people think they have a keyholing problem and it's actually just tears on the paper target because of no backing.
 
Something is not right. I have a Ruger American Predator in 17 hmr. GREAT shooter. Consistently under an inch @ 100 and most of the time (wind not a factor) under 1/2".

Nice tight little clusters of little tiny holes.

Clean the carp out of the bore and inspect the crown closely. Give it another range session and see what happens.

It SHOULD not do that
 
TMD... I been around the block a time or two, its definitely key-holing... Perfect bullet profile shaped holes, and a few are 6-10 inches from point of aim. I have a good backer for my targets.


I'm going to look it over well in a bit. The first trip to the range was at 25yds to make sure the scope was on paper, and I didn't notice any odd behavior.

All I did in between was run a short 17cal brush down the bore twice, and a mop to clean out the loose fouling, and the bore looked clean. I used an Otis small caliber cable.

EDIT:
Pulled a brush and mop through, the bore wasn't really dirty though.

Crown looks fine, bore looks fine.
 
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Have you tried different ammo?
What most folks don't understand is that "keyholing" doesn't ALWAYS produce profile bullet holes in the target. In fact tumbling bullets hitting the target perfectly sidewise is a very random occurrence.
I've seen cocked suppressors(bullet strikes every shot) showing some "not so bad" groups at 25 yards with all the holes showing evidence of yawing but none showing a full profile.
I've had some problems with my RAR 17 and found mine just doesn't like certain lots of ammo. I have a lot of older Hornady 17 tipped ammo which works extremely well in my 77/17 but causes stuck cases 20-25% in the RAR. I found the CCI "Green" ammo works quite well-16 grains 250 fps slower than the Hornady.
 
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17 hmr is a hot little round--so my guess is something is slowing/destabilizing your bullet before it exits the muzzle. I'd get a box of hornady's v-max (the best shooting hmr I've seen so far) and see if it keyholes with that. That bore is not much bigger than pencil lead and it's a tight fit getting anything to clean it, my first guess would be something is lodged somewhere between the chamber and muzzle--wouldn't take much.
 
I have some Hornady stuff...

I just don't see anything down in the bore, looks clean and smooth. Not sure what is the cause.

Everything I have shot so far has been loaded with vmax...


Not every shot shows a keyhole, but groups would randomly open up, so I know those rounds are not stable.
 
Do you have a 17 cal jag? If so, run it down the bore with a good tight fitting patch and see if there is anywhere in the barrel where it gets tighter/looser.
Also you could take a q-tip and just rotate it at the muzzle, see if anything snags. Shouldn't have anything at the muzzle that would snag the q-tip.
 
Clean the carp out of the bore and inspect the crown closely.
Click to expand...

Only someone named Sharkbite would worry about carp in the barrel. Lol.

I would try a couple of different ammo brands after a very good cleaning.
 
If it's new as mentioned just contact the factory, let them deal with it. Life's too short to shoot defective products :)
 
Oddly enough, My new Henry is having similar accuracy issues--I can group around MOA one day and 2 hours later using the same ammo in the same conditions the impacts group spread 7" apart.
 
Sure sounds like bad ammo to me. If it was a barrel issue it seems like it would happen more consistently so if it is randomly keyholing I would try a different lot of ammo. You could even be getting odd fouling left in that tiny bore which is picked up by the next bullet exiting the barrel causing this to happen.
 
More information would help.
How often do the keyhole/flyers happen?
"Random" isn't nearly specific enough to help describe things.
Does it do it with a hot barrel or cold?
Are the bullets being in any way damaged in their travel from mag to chamber?
(Chamber, extract and take a look).
Are there any faulty looking cartridges while still in the box?
Might want to do some careful measuring on the still new rounds.
All this effort might be a waste of time, and the rifle might indeed need to go back, but maybe not.
Details matter.
Just a thought or twelve.
 
I say random, because it is hard to give a accurate number and time it happened. I believe that when the groups opened up, means those were unstable too. I didn't notice the keyholing until I walked up to the target holder. Those little bullets have keyholes that look not much bigger than the regular bullet holes.

I believe the federal stuff was the biggest culprit, but the CCI had issues too.

I didn't notice any damage to the rounds before loading, and the fiance ejected a couple after they chambered, but the action wasn't locked. So while fully chambered but action not locked, they did experience the feeding cycle and I saw no issues with those.

The barrel was warm when I noticed the issue, so I let it cool, until it was barely warmer than ambient, then fired a couple more mags. Still had issues.

I didn't shoot much of the federal stuff as I noticed horrid groups, I will hit them with a caliper.
 
It sounds like you've covered all the bases without discovering anything so far.
But it could be worse.
It could be my gun instead of yours! :eek:
 
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