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View Full Version : Quality problems with 22 cal Rimfire



CT Kid
01-31-2008, 01:11 PM
I was wondering if anybody was having this problem or if it’s my equipment.

I have a Ruger 10/22 which I use to pick off an occasional squirrel .
I was using CCI LR and was getting a lot of misfires so I bought a brand new box of Remmington LRHP. I am still getting about 20% misfires with my Ruger.

I purchased a new magazine thinking mine were tired after 20 years, cleaned and oiled my rifle and have the same result. I took the misfires and tried it in my lever action Marlin and they would not fire in that either You can see that the rims are well struck and are actually deformed.

Has anyone had similar problems with 22 ammunition?
Am I just unlucky enough to get bad batches of ammunition from two different manufacturers? The Ruger is feeding fine until it gets to the dead round so it does not appear to be a feed problem or other malfunction.

400cor-bon
01-31-2008, 01:24 PM
do the 22 rounds fire if struck a second time by the firing pin?
does the ammo have the same problem in another weapon?
it sound to me like a weak firing pin spring or
a battered firing pin.
Start with replacing the spring IMHO

Blammer
01-31-2008, 02:18 PM
if you have that many problems with 22lr ammo it's the gun for sure.

I'd look at anoother firing pin spring and firing pin.

joejr
01-31-2008, 05:46 PM
the only 22 ammo i have had misfires with is federal,afew 12 guage also

CT Kid
01-31-2008, 06:04 PM
As stated I tried it in another rifle and they will not fire. You can see the rim is well struck.

twotrees
01-31-2008, 06:22 PM
Years ago Remington green box standard 22's cost me a match. I had an indoor match to shoot at 50ft and was out of match ammo, so I stopped at the store and the only standard velocity ammo they had was Remington. I bought the box and went to the match. I checked zero with 3 shots, all good. During the match I had a shot go low and sounded weak. After a second low (out of scoring)shot, the rest of the match I was waiting for "the other shoe to fall". I shot the rest up that day outside and out of the box of 50 ,8 missfired. They sounded like no powder.

Yes you can get bad ammo 22 rimfire and center fire (Winchester White Box Varmint OVER LOADS !!!). If the box of ammo in question has some left call CCi and Rem and have the boxes with you when you do. They will need the code on the box and can tell you if they have any other reports of that batch being bad.

Good Shooting,

TwoTrees

bearcove
01-31-2008, 06:30 PM
I've shot 10's of thousands of rounds and don't remember a single misfire. Most of those were in a match grade rifle or pistol. They have tighter chambers. Try your ammo in more guns maybe you have some loose chambered guns. The rim should not be deformed, but should have a sharp strike mark from the firing pin. If the forward side of the rim is deformed then you are not getting a good crush on the priming compound in the rim.

BD
01-31-2008, 06:43 PM
I've had lots of misfires in the last few years from both Remington and Federal bulk packs of .22

BD

44man
01-31-2008, 07:20 PM
I get all kinds of stuff from misfires to bloopers, some crack, some pop. The factories are making the things so fast they gave up on quality. The machine that spins the priming compound into the rim might be warn out or run too fast. The powder dump is so fast some shells might not get enough and it goes on the floor.
I have had problems with CCI Blue tag ammo in my Mark II once in a while too. It used to be the best.
The Ruger 10-22 is reliable until it gets real dirty but I have shells that don't eject because they are so weak.
The bulk ammo is bad stuff but I don't think it is any different then what they stuff in the little boxes anymore.
By the way the WW bulk stuff sucks big time. Long gone is the time they were the most accurate.
.22 ammo is secondary at the factories, just a money maker made for plinkers.
I would not blame the gun

9.3X62AL
01-31-2008, 08:05 PM
I would latch onto some CCI Mini-Mags before taking tools to the rifles, CT. It costs, but the stuff is pretty decent quality and its use resuscitated a couple of my 22's that I thought were hors de combat. I'm thinking you have an ammo problem--my 10-22s (past and present) have been the most reliable and least ammo-sensitive of my self-loading 22 LR platforms, in a dead heat with the 22/45 Ruger pistol. The Marlin 39A has a healthy hammer strike, too. If I had happen what you are describing with my rifles--I'd bet the rent on sorry-assed ammunition. It wouldn't hurt to clean the 10-22's firing pin channel/gallery--if you haven't already--but Mini Mags are less effort and more likely to Do The Right Thing.

timkelley
01-31-2008, 09:28 PM
I had some Remington bulk pack that, in my autos, sometimes required two strikes last year, my Single Six would fire it everytime.

Typecaster
01-31-2008, 09:42 PM
I've had problems with Winchester standard velocity in a Browning .22 auto—I thought it was because it was old ammo.

Frank46
01-31-2008, 09:59 PM
I've had some similar problems with mini mags in a marlin model 60. Some would just go pop others would go bang. Difference in the sound was quite apparent. Stingers would go bang every time. This was with a rifle that had the innards cleaned every time it was fired, so carbon/gunk build up on the bolt face and breech was minimal. Frank

400cor-bon
01-31-2008, 10:29 PM
spray lubes and oil can kill rimfires too

MT Gianni
02-01-2008, 01:16 AM
I have had plenty of misfires in a bulk pac of Remingtons. Gianni

Swamprat1052
02-01-2008, 02:00 AM
I havent shot a 22 in a while but I was having misfires with Remington and Federal a few years ago. I switched to Winchester and quit having them. I had a rat problem in my barn back in TX and bought some CCI Ratshot, they'd fire but I had to point the barrel at the ground to get the shot to roll out of it.

The last Remington 22 LR's' I bought, most would fire but you could tell from the sound of the report that they weren't all loaded the same. I have just about quit shooting 22 rimfire on account of the ammo.

Swamprat

shotstring
02-01-2008, 03:52 AM
I've had a lot of problems over the years shooting all different kinds of 22 ammo. It seemed that I got the most problems from the cheaper "bulk" brands of ammunition from pretty much all of the major manufacturers. When I went to their regular standard boxed ammo, I had less problems. But I still had some problems with all different brands of handguns, until I went to Ruger Single Six handguns. It seems their springs are so robust, the ammo has to be completely defective for them not to set a round off. Rifles, I haven't had a problem with really.

selmerfan
02-01-2008, 09:07 AM
I've had lots of misfires in the last few years from both Remington and Federal bulk packs of .22

BD

I'll second that. I only buy CCI 100 round packs anymore, usually .22 Short HP for squirrel hunting. Plinking misfires don't bother me much because I shoot single shot falling block or a single-shot bolt, but I won't stand for them hunting.
Selmerfan

sniper
03-24-2008, 09:08 AM
First, go cheap and simple. Clean your rifle well being sure the receiver, chamber, bolt face, bolt body, and extractor grooves are all free of excess crud in the crevices. Lubricate properly.

As stated, check the firing pin and spring. Use a consistent ammo to check function, (CCI mini mag comes to mind) and that should solve your problems.

If not, your friendly neighborhood gunsmith should be able to help. What you do there is enter the shop in the correct frame of mind, genuflect deeply at the counter, extending said rifle in one hand and a large amount of money in the other.
Gets results every time!:mrgreen:

corvette8n
03-24-2008, 10:10 AM
if any of you frequent the .22 forum at rimfire central you will see that Rem, Federal and Winchester, all have problem with some of the bulk and low cost ammo they produce. Its funny I never had a misfire with some of the Russian steel case olive drab .22's I've used but the stuff sure is dirty. Someone must have had a deal on this stuff cause at the range the other day there must have been a foot high pile of empties at the shooting line.

Hip's Ax
03-24-2008, 10:26 AM
Few (maybe several) years back when some guys were running Federal Gold Medal at the smallbore matches some folks encountered misfires. They'd recock and try again but some still wouldn't go. This is especially annoying in a custom match barrel as many won't eject an unfired round due to the amount of bullet engraving present as set up by the smith. They had to dig them out with a screwdriver.

They would save the problem rounds and later pull the bullets and dump the powder onto a white piece of paper to look for primer material in the powder. They would also look down into the case with a flashlight to verify that the round had a ring of primer in the bottom.

At this time Federal's GM primer compound was green and easy to see if it had shattered from the firing pin strike as flakes of green would be seen in the dumped powder. Federal had two problems, most prevolent was no primer compound in some rounds and to a lesser extent insensitive primer compound.

Gussy
03-24-2008, 11:35 AM
I've had the best luck cleaning gunk out of my ruger as follows:

Remove the wood.
Lock the bolt back.
Use a dental pick to clean the chunks out of the bolt and extractor recess, case rim recess.

REALLY hose it down from every angle with starting fluid. ONLY DO THIS OUTSIDE AND BE UPWIND. Allow some air out time.

Reoil with small amount of good sythetic oil.

NoDakJak
03-24-2008, 12:24 PM
All the answers above may be correct. I maintain the local range and see a lot of cartridges laying around that have misfired and have experienced them myself. One thing to check for is whether there is an indentation in the edge of the chamber where the tip of an over long firing pin can hit it when dryfiring. I have seen many cases of this and have purchased a special swaging tool to force the metal back into place. A severe case of this may cause sticky extraction as the brass expands around the extruded steel.
Crumby ammo definetly is the problem in many cases. I had several thousand rounds of MkII Winchester ammo that suffered numerous misfires. Then there can be the opposite problem. In 1961 I checked a Model 75 Winchester match rifle out of Special Services at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada for use in reducing the Jckrabbit population. I was using Winchester Hollowpoints. I was shooting across the top of my car and my final shot left me laying on my back on the ground. Tempororarily blind in both eyes. Armory personell sold me later that the rifle was shipped to Winchester. The entire rim had been blown off. The case was brazed into the chamber and the case head had been brazed to the bolt face. Winchester informed the Navy that it had been caused by a million ot one accident with a gross overcharge of priming compound. The Navy scrapped the rifle and i ended up wearing glasses. Neil

Ed Barrett
03-24-2008, 02:13 PM
I've had problems with Federal 22LR's, maybe one in 100 won't fire. Recock ans try again still nothing, Rotate 90 degrees and about half fire. I have not gone to the extent of pulling bullets and checking primer distribution or anything like that. I went to Aguila standard Vel. hollow points and I'm on my fifth brick and have not had any problems at all.
A few years ago I got a bunch of 22's from a friend of mine who bought a house and in the garage were several bricks of various make 22LR, 22longs and shorts. From the markings on the boxes the newest stuff was 15 years old and had been stored in an unheated and uncooled garage for at least 6 years. I shot that stuff for a couple of years and I can't remember ever having a misfire. The brass was a little green but it worked fine.

KCSO
03-24-2008, 02:14 PM
22's are not what they use to be, in particular the cheap stuff. I got ahold of some S and W 22 ammo years ago and had 5 misfires of out of every box of fifty. Sent it back to S and W and they replaced it with equally shoddy ammo. At that time I switched to Federal and had good luck
Lately it has been Remington in the 550 boxes and there are not firing about 1 out of 50-60. Since I test guns and have several to swap off I KNOW that this is an ammo problem. For the most part it seems to be poorly spun primer as if you hit the rim in different locations sooner or later the rounds will go.

In the 10-22 you do need to make sure the breech face and bolt are clean or the bolt won't seat fully and that will contribute to problems.

HamGunner
03-25-2008, 03:35 PM
It is probably a miracle that the new mass produced 22 ammo will shoot as good as it does, with them producing it zillions of rounds a day. I started noticing more and more problems about 15-20 years ago, and I finally went out and bought a few boxes of every brand that I could get my hands on and spent about a week or two checking them all out for accuracy and functioning in a heavy barrel 10-22 Ruger.

Nothing seemed to make any sense as most of the old standby's that used to shoot well seemed to be only so-so. Many of the cheaper boxes shot better than the expensive stuff. I checked them all at the same time through a chronograph and consistancy was really sorry with most of the inaccurate ones having a wide range of deviation.

I picked out the best ones and only bought them for years and then even they seemed to start having that pop, pow, pow, pow, pop inconsistant ignition and velocity variation. I was constantly searching for a consistant brand. Some worked better than others, but I finally decided that it was futile to expect accurate 22 ammo such as it used to be years ago.

Winchester Superspeed ammo that I believe was manufactured in Austrailia was looking like the best for me, then for some reason it was not being imported anymore. My supply ran out and I just stopped shooting 22 as much.

Rifle magazine advertises a micrometer tool that checks the rim thickness of your 22 ammo and it can be sorted into piles according to brass thickness and therefore consistant primer strikes. Most serious match shooters segregate theirs and I suppose if we want to get accurate ammo these days, we will all have to do the same. Unfortunantely.

Johnw...ski
03-27-2008, 05:03 PM
It's not always the manufacturers fault. Years ago I saw a UPS guy drop a case of Remington .22 Target from about 4 feet onto the floor at my favorite gun shop, guess what? there were a lot of misfires in that case.

John

Ricochet
03-27-2008, 06:08 PM
With standard velocity .22LR in rifles, or high speed in pistols, the average MV is often right at the speed of sound. Relatively small velocity variations can then cause the bullet to exit the muzzle supersonic or subsonic, making a big difference in the sound of the shot when the actual velocity variation may not be too bad.

w30wcf
03-27-2008, 07:34 PM
For the past few years, I have shot a few thousand rounds of PMC Scoremaster made by Aquila and stated to have Eley priming. Never had a misfire! :Fire:

And the other great thing about it was that it shot as well as the much more expensive Wolf Target in my rifles.

Unfortunately, PMC Scoremaster is no more but Aquila Standard Velocity with Eley priming appears to be just as good.:drinks:

w30wcf