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Old 06-28-2008, 01:51 AM
GLWenzl GLWenzl is offline
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Default Danger-Marlin 717 Owners Beware

With no intentions to lay blame on anyone but my own self I want to make others aware of a *near miss* incident that I was involved with.

Want to start by saying this Marlin 717, 17 HM2 has probably killed more PDs this year than any other rifle I own, it has been the best 180.00 I have ever spent…. At least until this happened and am somewhat concerned more for the safety of others than my own self at the moment.

I also want to say that I was shooting it with a 10 round magazine which says for 22 LR only and which has worked great in the past with many rounds through it however after giving this whole scenario a lot of thought this may be a bad practice and may have lead to this particular issue???

It all started when shooting PDs and having a great time, you know one of those days where *I couldn’t miss* not sure how many rounds I had down the tube but *if* I cleaned it the last time and was pretty sure that it got cleaned I will say maybe 80-100 rounds shot before hearing a very loud report coming from the bolt and magazine area.

I was almost scared to look thinking I might see something like a clip missing or even worse wood splinters…. (U-know all of the sories i have read about this kind of stuff) I never felt anything, just heard noise….

As I turned the sweet lil Marlin on its side everything appeared very normal??? I first pulled the clip out and then pulled the bolt back noticing that there was still a round in the chamber which did not appear normal. Although it appeared to be fired I kept the muzzle in a safe direction cycling the bolt a couple times I could see that it was not coming out…. I carefully used a plastic pick to see if I would get lucky and it might just come right out… I was and it did.

What I had laying in my hand was a fired 17 HM2 case that looked a bit short and the rim was about to fall off only attached by a small amount of brass. Confused I then swept up every piece of brass looking for other evidence of funny looking cases that might help solve the puzzle… I did find a piece but not sure if it was fired right before or at another time. I think it may have had something to do with this issue???

Now you have to put yourself in my shoes to understand what I wanted to do next…. U-C there was a bunch of small PDs now tormenting me by running around my vehicle saying naa, na, na, naaa ,na you can’t get me…. I wanted soooo badly to insert the clip and let them little suckers have it!!! Well I didn’t and decided to put’r up and give it a good cleaning/inspection. Then I got out my all time favorite 17 CCM and let em have a lil of that!!!

Thank God that I put the 717 away with no intentions to shoot it until after a good inspection and cleaning. U-C there was a blue tipped 17 gr bullet lodged in the barrel about half way up…. That sure would have ruined my day if I had shot just *one more round*


The case I found in the chamber – A good fired case – The bullet that was lodged in the barrel – And a spent case found on the floor mat

After a good cleaning and inspection I felt that the riffle was functioning properly but started making calls looking for some info. I received some good advice and info from several calls I made. I was however very disappointed with the gentleman I spoke with at Marlin. His first words were U-know that there are problems with the ammo don’t you? I responded by saying other than split necks and a few chambers that wasn’t quite right I know of no other issues, and I went on to ask, can you be more specific than problems??? Other than splits necks he could not offer any solid info. This started us off on the wrong foot. I get very disappointed when anyone does not listen and immediately will look to bad mouth anything but them selves…. He farther went on to say that he wanted my 17 HM2 back to inspect and that I would have to pay the shipping one way because I was shooting Eley ammo in it!!!! First off I don’t think they still make this riffle and in no way will I send it to them knowing I might not get it back??? I just like this thing waaaay to much!! Second, paying the shipping was not so much the issue for me as it was that it made me feel that they really did not want to see my riffle very bad…. Lastly I forgot that I was using this 10 round 22 LR only clip and I am sure that if I would have told this guy (and I sure would of if I had remembered) it would have really voided my warranty and rendered the riffle useless….

I made a decision to not send it back and felt my own inspection was darn near as good or better than this guy could provide for me and decided to shoot it at least 150 rounds in which I did without any issues at all

Well…. Here is a copy/paste from the owner’s manual???

Rifles chambered for 17 Mach 2
ammunition:
Any commercially available 17 Mach 2
ammunition will function in your rifle.

Kind of pissed me off a lil bit. I do my best to offer accurate honest information and get lied to in return and have to listen to the blame game…. We need to make America better.

IMO and like I said in the beginning it was probably all my fault shooting a dirty semi-auto and using a Marlin 22 LR 10 round clip.. Just don’t want to see this same thing happen to someone else and hear that they pulled the trigger on that next round.

IMHO the 17 Mach 2 is an under-rated round that has served me very well but we need to keep em clean!!!!
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