I was at the range the other day with my 15-22 and had a FTF with a round of Federal 550. By the way, this was the first FTF in at least 3 boxes of 550's. When I pulled the bolt back the cartridge did not extract from the chamber. I cycled the bolt several times but the cartridge remained stuck in the chamber. I then used my pocket knife to pry out the round although it didn't take a lot to pull it out. I reloaded this round into the rifle (rotating it from the first strike) and it fired without a problem.

To find out if the extractor was working, I cycled several rounds through the rifle by pulling the bolt back an letting it go. All these fresh rounds extracted without a problem. I realize that when the firing pin hits the casing it will cause some distortion but I would think the extractor should be strong enough to still remove the cartridge.

The rifle has run well ever since I made some slight ejector adjustments and replaced the springs with a set from JP about a thousand rounds ago. Has anyone else had this problem on their 15-22?

The extractor on a blowback rifle doesn't normally extract the cartridge case, it's blown out of the chamber (hence blowback). Since this case was left in the chamber I suspect a dirty or rough chamber. I polished mine by spinning a cleaning patch and polish on a drill chuck.

Next suspect is dirt and crud under the extractor itself since it won't extract the case manually. An under-diameter case rim won't give the extractor much grip, but these seem pretty consistent. Any way to measure the bad case rim diameter compared to good cases?

-- Chuck

What did you use for polish?
Thx, Bear

JB Bore Paste Flitz are both on my work bench so whichever one was handy is what I probably used.

-- Chuck

chuck is right, it was probably a misformed case or a dirty rifle... either way this is part of shooting rimfires. it happens keep a pocket knife on hand..lol

__________________
07/SOT2
NRA Instructor

Thanks for the replies. The rifle has been running flawless other than this one problem. If I have to manually extract one cartridge every 1500 rounds with my pocket knife I can live with that.