I contacted S&W regarding my FTE issues and right off the bat he suggested bending the ejector towards the ejection port, I've since done that so the ejector is now as far in as the bolt will allow. Not touching the bolt but atoms would have a squeeze getting in there. Haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Someone else mentioned the possibility of the bolt rails needing polishing to allow a smoother ride in the bolt. My question is, how much friction should there be between the bolt and rails? If I remove the spring and rod and put the bolt back on the rails (all the way in) I can hold the black section and the bolt will not slide off (bolt having vertically of course), it takes a bit of a shake for it to fall/slide off. Now that resistance/friction is FAR FAR outweighed by the spring when installed but I'm wondering if this could possibly be adding to the issues I'm having. Would you suggest getting some fine sand paper and polishing down the rails just a bit to get the ride a bit smoother/lighter?

I already have labels to mail it in but if I can get this resolved myself, I'd prefer to do that.

You may just need to "spread its legs" just a tiny bit. I did that with mine. I wouldn't sand it or anything like that. There is a protective coating on there that you'll unnecessarily remove.

Also, make sure the 2 rails are in the same plane. In other words if you lay the rails on the table they should both be dead flat on the table. If not, somehow it got twisted and that can cause the problem you mentioned also. Gently bend them back flat.

Without the spring or anything else on there the bolt should easily fall off the rails.

There's no particular protective coating. Removing the sharp edges on the rails and polishing the surfaces is a common thing and does no harm to them.

As has already been said, make sure the rails are correctly aligned. Spread them very slightly often helps. The bolt should move freely on the rails and drop off under its own weight when turned upside down. If it doesn't, the alignment is the first thing to examine.

Make sure the channels in the bolt are clean and use no more lubrication than a single drop of CLP or similar on each rail.

You can say there is no particular coating, but my rail is black. Steel is not black. S&W definitely put a material on it for a reason and I seriously doubt it is just to make it look pretty. I guarantee you that if left unprotected, the coated one will not corrode as fast as a raw shiny steel one. Sure oiling it will keep it from corroding but somebody at S&W determined it should be put on it. The blackening is definitely not from heat treating either.

Yeah, if you had to polish it down to make it work, then I guess you'd have to but I would rather not remove that coating unless I had to. But to each his own. The only problems I ever had with mine was being too tight side to side, so I spread it out a few thousand, and too much lube. like you said, the less the better. just enough to barely wet the metal 1 or 2 drops at most.

While I understand the coated-for-a-reason argument I went ahead and got some 1000 grit paper and went over the rails for a bit and also bent them out just a fraction of a mm. The bolt now glides in there without any of the grittiness that it had. Smooth as silk and it is a small but noticeable difference when charging normally. I'm planning on a quick range trip tomorrow to see if that and the ejector adjustment helped out.

Edit: I also tend to keep my equipment pretty well maintained. I clean everything after every range trip and usually the same day so while it may corrode faster without the coating, I'll be able to keep a close eye on it before it becomes a problem.

I polished the bolt carrier rails about three weeks after buying my 15-22 over three years ago. To date, there hasn't been the first speck of corrosion or anything else on the carrier in over 15,000 rounds. The so-called coating is nonsense. I hope in the polishing you did, that you knocked the hard edges off the rails, as well.

The 15-22s I bought for my two grandsons have had their carrier rails polished, as well, with zero indication of corrosion, rust or any other boogy-man problems.

never had to do a thing to the rails as they are pretty much silky smooth and perfect. My rifle was built last April so maybe they improved the process.

Polishing the rails made a huuuuge difference in the early models. Some of the new ones are just as bad. A hard Arkansas stone or some 600 to 1000 grit wet/dry paper on glass will do the trick.
Polish in the direction of bolt travel on the top, bottom and inside of the rails, then re-blue the steel.

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I gave up. Went to the range again today after polishing the rails and moving the ejector as far as possible without hitting the bolt and still had about 6 FTE in the first 50 rounds.

Boxed up and at the FedEx store now.