A friend has just bought a 22A on the used market. The gun is failing to eject one or two rounds for each mag shot. The cases are usually found between the slide and barrel, protruding outward. I believe he said the problem occurs with both mags. I suggested trying different ammo. Any suggestions as to what might be wrong. Is the warranty still in effect as the gun was bought used? Thank you.

I've spent the summer trying to figure out why my Ruger 22/45 pistol was doing the same thing as my grandson was using it to shoot competitively with it. I was able to solve the problem by using 22 Stinger ammo which has an advertised velocity of around 1650 fps. I tried every other type of high velocity ammo I could find and Stinger was the only one that was completely reliable even after a 125 round match without cleaning.

A dirty or tight chamber, a worn buffer rubbing the inside of the slide are a couple of things that come to mind. As mentioned differant brands of ammo should be tried. I prefer to stay away from the hyper-velocity ammos for target work myself, but the gun also needs to work everytime for competition. I have run across a number of rough/tight chambers in the 22As' and P22 Walthers. S&W will usually take care of most problems even if you're not the original owner.

Looked at my friend's pistol today. Chamber is not tight and changing the buffer didn't cure the problem. With the slide off, the extractor would not hold a cartridge in place on the breach face so I suspect that the extractor may be where the problem is. In any case my friend called S&W and they are sending him a sticker so all should be well soon.

To follow up. My friend just received his S&W 22A back from Smith the second time. The first trip to the factory and the pistol got an 'ajustment' that did not fix the problem. On the second return, the extractor was replaced and the problem was fixed. S&W sure didn't make money on that gun as they payed the freight for both round trips. It is nice to know that the factory stands by their product.