Smith & Wesson 22a Recoil Spacer

[Saint]

I just bought a S&W 22a-1 today and put a 350 round box of federal through it. I am really happy with it however when I took it home and cleaned it I noticed the recoil spacer took quite a beating. It is starting to look like I will be going through a lot of these. Fortunately it came with two extra's but eventually I will need more. I was wondering if anyone has seen any success at making their own. I know I can order them but I spend so much time out of town that its hard to get things delivered.

[acguy45]

I used to have a 22 A to. A pretty accurate and fun gun for the money. I would have kept it but i got a Mark III 22/45 and my friend needed a squirrel buster so I sold it to him. Your best bet IMO is to order the extra spacers and be done with it. I'm not sure how much you plan to shoot it but you might want to get some other parts when you get the spacers. I'm sure you could make them out of a sheet of plastic the same width but they are cheap and not really worth the hassle.

from the 22a Schematic :

# 7 firing pin (kind of thin I got about 5K ronds before they would crack in half)
# 8 firing pin return spring ( would find coils sheared off when cleaning)
# 34 Recoil Spring
#38 slide insert (made of plastic would get chewed up after awhile)

That being said when the parts broke the first time I called customer service and they sent me a couple spacers, the firing pin and return spring for free. I just got the spares to have so it wasn't out of commission while parts were in the mail.

[kyle623]

call S&W they sent me like 6 extra's for free

[MT Gianni]

It should not be that hard to make assuming you could find a similar thickness.

[jh45gun]

Thanks a lot LOL I decided to field strip mine and check the shock buffer clean and reassemble. Of course I sent the recoil rod and spring flying and I found the rod but no spring so I guess a call to S&W is in order on Mon. Not having very good luck with recoil springs lately.

[jh45gun]

Well ordered two recoil springs one Rod just to have an extra, 4 recoil spacers and taking acguy's advice ordered a firing pin and return spring and the slide insert. Parts were reasonable and I figured might as well make an order out of it to make the shipping worth while. I hate ordering one part or two and the shipping is as much as the order. The whole order with shipping was 25 dollars and change.

[jh45gun]

Well the gun is going back to Smith and Wesson seems that it has an issue it never had before when you put the barrel back on the Frame the button on the front of the frame that releases the barrel assembly from the frame does not come out all the way. I bet I tried putting the barrel back on 60 times and it is always the same the release button jams up yet comes out when the barrel is not on the frame. Something is not lining up right. Though every thing looks good some thing is haywire. Never had this issue before when I took it apart.

[Trey45]

I called S&W to ask where to buy more for mine, they told me they don't sell them, they give them to 22A owners free, they sent me 6. This was around 4 years ago.

[Andyd]

Thanks a lot LOL I decided to field strip mine and check the shock buffer clean and reassemble. Of course I sent the recoil rod and spring flying and I found the rod but no spring so I guess a call to S&W is in order on Mon. Not having very good luck with recoil springs lately.

Ha, you did not mention that you had lost the spring on RFC. Next time, put the gun in a large clear plastic bag. That will make parts retrieval a little easier.

As for the firing pin, I had mine break three times after pretty much 20k rounds but the last one is lasting now for over 40k.

S&W's warranty service leaves little to be desired.

[mdi]

[QUOTE=jh45gun;1655854]Thanks a lot LOL I decided to field strip mine and check the shock buffer clean and reassemble. Of course I sent the recoil rod and spring flying and I found the rod but no spring so I guess a call to S&W is in order on Mon. Not having very good luck with recoil springs lately.[/QUOTE

I used to rebuild carburators (remember them?) as part of my job. When I had a trainee I would put a cardboard "flat", the kind of shallow box used for a case of canned soda, in front or around the sides of the work area, providing a good, cheap backstop for all them itty-bitty springs. I'll occationally do the same when working on guns that have springs that tend to "run away"...

[tomf52]

Don't be concerned with he appearance of the recoil buffer. Mine looked bad after the first 250 rounds and still does after thousands of rounds since. Still the original buffer. Have extras but have never needed to use them.

[Throckmorton]

I hope u haven''t sent the gun back yet,I know why the button is not returning correctly..but I ad to read the manual to figure it out. LOL
to put the barrel on you 1st have to hook it at the rear,and THEN pivot it down towards the front and lock it into place.You sometimes have to push extra hard on the barrel and the button to get them to mesh,but hooking the rear hook 1st is the important part.

2 reps at 'Smith promised to send me some recoil buffers a 2 months ago..I"m still waiting. grrr

[jh45gun]

I hope u haven''t sent the gun back yet,I know why the button is not returning correctly..but I ad to read the manual to figure it out. LOL
to put the barrel on you 1st have to hook it at the rear,and THEN pivot it down towards the front and lock it into place.You sometimes have to push extra hard on the barrel and the button to get them to mesh,but hooking the rear hook 1st is the important part.

2 reps at 'Smith promised to send me some recoil buffers a 2 months ago..I"m still waiting. grrr

Thanks but I did read the manual several times and I did what it said till my hands got sore. NO GO. Smith has it back and sent a letter of confirmation they got it. Figure it should come back in a couple of weeks or less. I would call them back on the recoil buffers.

[Hoosier]

Well the gun is going back to Smith and Wesson seems that it has an issue it never had before when you put the barrel back on the Frame the button on the front of the frame that releases the barrel assembly from the frame does not come out all the way. I bet I tried putting the barrel back on 60 times and it is always the same the release button jams up yet comes out when the barrel is not on the frame. Something is not lining up right. Though every thing looks good some thing is haywire. Never had this issue before when I took it apart.

I have the same problem, what did S&W do for you?

[jh45gun]

They sent the gun back with a brand new barrel assembly on it. Works fine now.