I've had my 15-22 for about 2 months now and have shot it 3-4 times and had tons of jams, misfires, and stovepipes. Just about every 3rd or 4th round would have some kind of issue. Then I found this forum and learned that these issues are fairly common with this gun. I did 3 things that I learned about in this forum:

1. Cleaned it thoroughly and lubricated it with M-Pro 7 (especially the bolt rails).
2. Adjusted the ejector as suggested by a couple of the videos I found on here.
3. Used CCI Mini-Mag ammo

I shot 200 rounds through it yesterday and only had 1 misfire!!!

Needless to say, I'm completely thrilled and absolutely in love with his rifle.

I hope this helps other people with these issues.

Add the VQ extractor to the mix for even better reliability. I also try to use the 40g Minimag, 40g AR Tactical, or 40g Blazer ammo as much as possible. Also use dry Teflon lube after cleaning. Have not had a misfire in several months and a few thousand rounds...

The priming compound is spun into the rim on .22 rimfire ammo, far as I recall. Often, the compound misses a small portion of the rim. You'll get a proper striker or firing pin dent in the rim but no discharge. We learned long ago that if you rotate the shell, it would then fire.

I mention this because it is not the fault of the gun. At the range I use, I pick up many discarded .22 rimfire rounds from the grass, each with one dent. I put them in my .22 revolver and most will fire.

I will second the VQ extractor comment. Installing their extractor cleared up most of the issues I was having with my 15-22.

Mike

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NRA Certified Pistol Inst.

I third the Volquartsen extractor. Mine functions flawlessly with it. Actually, after I got my 15-22 back from Smith & Wesson, I have been able to use ANY .22LR ammo without a single problem. I've been using Federal AutoMatch at the range (unsuppressed), and Aguila Subsonic at home (suppressed), but I shoot **** ammo (Rem Golden Bullet) through my M&P .22 compact pistol at the range. Last week, just for giggles, I ran a few mags of Golden Bullet through my 15-22 just to see if it would malfunction. Nothing bad happened, but that ammo stinks! I mean....it literally smells bad! I'm used to the Eley primer smell, and I don't know what Remington uses in their Golden Bullet, but it smells bad. lol

I guess I was lucky for once, I've had my 15 22 almost two years and have put thousands of rounds through it. I shoot more Federal AutoMatch than anything because that's what I can find but I have shot some of everything from CCI to Thunderbolt and can count the jams I've had on my fingers. I put an after market trigger in it and had it set a little to light and after about 200 Thunderbolts it would fire on reset. I readjusted the trigger and will not be buying any more Thunderbolts.

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Old Age Ain't For Sissies

I'll fourth the VQ extractor.

The rifle should have come with it.

I use mostly the Federal auto match too, but I still have plenty of the junk golden bullets too and the Volquartsen extractor has been flawless over more than 1000 rounds.

Prior to it, I was having malfunctions every few rounds and in a grand new rifle.

Thanks for the suggestions on the VQ extractor guys. That was next on my list if the above changes didn't work, but they're fairly cheap so I plan to do that soon too.

I'm intrigued by the new Cascade High Velocity ammo at Cabela's:

Cascade High Velocity .22 LR Rimfire Ammunition : Cabela's


Price is great for 500 rounds ($59.99). Has anyone tried it? My gun does not like subsonic ammo but this is 1250 fps.

During the severe "shortage" I tried a brick of the 40 grn copper washed stuff. Might have just been the lot I was using but it was inconsistent and only rimfire ammo I ever had that the rim was pinched enough that a hole formed allowing gas to escape. (pierced primer?) It weird, never seen that before and I shoot a truck load of 22lr every year.

Never tried it again since other ammo is more available.

I've noticed on mine that if the ammo loaded in the mag. isn't loaded properly (needs to be staggered) it will jam. VERY finicky magazines!!

One round in, pull the button down a little....next round apply a little pressure to the opposite side, repeat with opposite pressure to the other side...they naturally stagger themselves doing it this way. I can honestly say i do not even think about it, it is just second nature. Have never had an issue with my magazines other than wearing out the feed lips on my 10 round mag, from rampant over usage.

The mags are a minor PITA in that you do have to pay attention to the rds being staggered.

As to reliable function the big issues seem to be ejector adjustment and the chamber being clean.

Ejector rod adjustment is pretty easy to check.
Height: The ejector should almost touch the underside of the bolt.
Lateral: The tip of the hook should almost touch the side of the center rib on the underside of the bolt.

If you think it might be touching that's probably about right on both adjustments.

The other thing is getting the chamber clean. It's harder than you think. 22LRs leave a nice hard layer of carbon in the chamber. It's easy to think you're removing it when all you're doing is polish the surface of the carbon layer.

FWIW I clean the chamber like I do my 22LR revolver chambers. I use a .243 bore brush on a section of cleaning rod spun by a drill motor. Use brushes like Brownells' "special line" brushes that have a brass (instead of steel) center wire. Use a little discretion going into the chamber and not getting into the rifling.

Try this on a chamber you think you just cleaned. I'll bet you'll be surprised how much crud you get out...

Just my 2 cents...

The .243 bore brush does works very well, i read about using it

in an earlier thread by Tomcatt

keith

Does Magpul buttstocks and grips fits in the 15-22? I am not asking if they "fit OK". I want to know if you can have a snug "Daniel Defense" kind of fit between the parts and the rifle itself (ZERO daylight, zero movement, no need to put Velcro on the inside, etc. etc.). If so, please specify which line of Magpul (GenII, MIAD, whatever is your experience). I just got my 15-22, I have not fired a single round but I am excited about the modifications I have in mind, but I defer to experienced owners in this forum for advice. If Magpul is a bad choice please tell me your experience regarding pistol grip and buttstock modifications. Thank you guys in advance and happy Halloween!!

I have the Magpul MOE stock on mine and it does need velcro to stop the wobble, which isn't major but is noticable. Regarding the grip...i have a Hogue with storage and it fits perfectly.

WARNING thread hijacked

Keith

Thread Hijacking and Zombie threads seem to be popular at this time of year.

What's the best color to paint the lettering on the receiver? Should it match my hearing protection or be a complimentary color?

If you come down to my newly formed shooting club named....Peach Stone..you can learn which colour goes best, but please leave your hearing protection at home. You can do the paint course, while we tune your 15-22 to go full auto, we call it having really fast split times.

Ordered a Volquartsen extractor and installed it tonight. Much easier that it looks on YouTube. I need to do a close up video with decent lighting because the ones out there now are terrible! Can't wait to give it a try on Sunday. I'll report back then.

The Magpul CTR Mil Spec Stock Will Fit & Work Wobble Free The CTR has a additional Lever that when activated stops any wobble,Can't comment on The Grip however never tried 1

I just got a new 15-22 recently and it appeared bone-dry unlike my 15 Sport II which was comparatively soaking wet with lube. Could I imagine getting into some FTF/E scenarios without some kind of lube? Probably.

Looking forward to your range report.

NO! The 15-22 looks like an AR-15 but the way it works is different.

Yes, AR-15s like to be run wet, but the 15-22 you run dry. The 15-22s' bolt is very different from the AR-15s BCG.

I have the CTR on a 300BO. The extra latch does stop the rattle but not the wobble. It took a strip or two of painters tape to remove the wobble, just like the no latch MOE.

Back to original info for this thread...

I bought a 15-22 Sport in July because of recommendations from several friends ( and the fact that I have already owned 10+ 10/22s over the years) to use in casual competition.

First trip to the range was a disaster. 8-10 FTE and FTF per magazine. Hoped it would get better over time, but 400 painful rounds later I was completely disgusted.

Went through all the threads here, watched a bunch of videos, and decided it was time to act.

Figured out the magazine loading tricks. That helped but still had a lot of FTE/FTF. Since the VQ extractor had made a HUGE improvement on my Ruger 22/45, I ordered one for the 15/22.

Then I adjusted the ejector as recommended in the YouTube vids.

Extractor came in Friday and I installed it that evening. Today I went to the range.

NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENCE!!! I started off with 4 mags of CCI MiniMags. No problems. 50 rounds of American Eagle HVHP. No problems! 50 rounds of CCI Blazer (which I had not had any luck with at ALL in the 22/45). And again, no problems! 100 rounds of Federal AutoMatch, no problems! 50 rounds of Federal Match. Again, no problems! And finished with 100 rounds of CCI AR Tactical. Zero problems all day!

Thank you to all of you for the info you share here! It really can make a difference!


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Cleaning and lubricating are one thing. But if I buy a $400 gun, a Smith & Wesson no less, and need to use special ammo, replace the extractor and fiddle fuss around pushing ammo in the mag to get it to load properly, then that's a gun that does not live up to my standards.

I bought my 15-22 to replace a Mossberg tactical, that was so inaccurate I needed a 2 foot wide bullseye. My 15-22 eats any ammo I have (mostly Fed or Win bulk, even the ****** Rem). I can't recall a jam after shooting several thousand rounds.

Call me a satisfied customer. If I had some of the issues reported here my S&W would be on the junk heap along with the Moss.

Write on the blackboard 100 times:

"I read it on an internet forum, it must be true."

I guess My Son and I are two of the lucky ones. We bought our M&P 15-22`s right after they first came out and we have never had any problems with either one of them. Ours have gobbled up any type of ammo high speed or standard velocity we have tried in them. We bought our M&P 15-22`s to use in our Gun Clubs 22 Action Shoots and they work just great doing that . But we have also been very impressed with the superb accuracy of both of our rifles. That we both hunt with them now. We were told that both of our rifles when we bought them had Match Grade Target Barrels on them. And the way they both shoot, I believe that. Thanks again for letting me join your forum.
ken

I'm very happy to report that I went through 200 rounds yesterday without a single issue! It was working 100% better after tweaking the ejector, using good CCI ammo, carefully loading the mags, and lubricating the rails, but I was still getting 1-2 FTEs per 100 rounds. After installing the Volquartsen extractor, all the issues seem be be gone. I agree that the gun should work this well from the factory, and it sounds like it does for many folks, but mine was almost unusable the first time I shot it. I'm much happier now and cannot wait to get out there again.

Mine was much the same as yours. But ammo doesn't seem to be a problem now. Mine is eating pretty much anything.
I agree that these weapons should work perfectly from the start. But my experience is that many brands (especially the less expensive ones) need some 'final quality control' to get everything right. At least the fixes in this case were either simple or cheap.
I'm a happy camper with mine now.


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I put another 200 rounds through my stock 15-22 this afternoon. 100 Rem Thunderbolts and 100 CCI AR Tactical. No problems what so ever.

Hello guys new to the group here , i just recently bought my 15-22 and havnt had a chance to shoot it yet so im not sure if i will have the same issues as you guys. Where can i buy this vq extractor just in case i do end up needing it?

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You can get it directly from Volquartsen here: Exact Edge Extractor for S&W M&P 15-22 | Volquartsen Firearms


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Hey There Juan,

Just remember the 3 basic rule of the 15-22...

DO NOT overlube the bolt...a few drops on the guide rails is about all it needs. It does not need to be run wet!

Remember to stagger the rounds in the magazine, correct loading of the mags is essential to the gun running properly.

Any work done on the rifle should be done with the correct barrel tool and vice grips...do not put the rifle in an AR style gun butler...the barrel must be clamped or the barrel can twist in the upper, say for instance removing the Flash hider or handguard.

Remember and follow these and the rifle should run fine!

I hope you do not need to get the VQ because your rifle does not run properly, get it in case you ever need a spare, as parts from S&W can be a bit of a mission.

Above all have good safe fun, I hope you enjoy your 15-22 as much as i do mine.

Lots of good info and peeps on here to ask relating to any issues or advice on the 15-22, you are in the right place.

As for staggering rounds in the magazine... Yes, it's imperative that you do that. And one of the easiest ways (and quickest way to load) is to get a McFadden Lightnin' Grip loader with the 15-22 adapter. They load lickety split and always go in correctly.

Lightnin' Grip Loader

(#1)MP15-22 Adapter Only



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As a young kid I spent many years loading Bren gun magazines with .303 rounds which were also "Rimmed" so I found it was never an issue loading the 15-22 mags with .22 Rim fire rounds.
I guess if you are predominantly used to loading a "Rimless" round in double or single stack mags such as 5.56 or 308 etc then the little rims of a 22 overlapping the wrong way could well be something that is overlooked initially when stuffing the mags full of rounds to have a ton of fun blasting those targets and critters.

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Utrinque Paratus

Had a couple hours to spare today so popped to Range and worked through 10 X 25rd mags of AR Tactical and 1 handloaded Blackdog 50rd drum, stock mags loaded with Mafadden and Blackdog by hand. Have never needed to tweak my ejector or extractor and so far to date have not had a problem.

Rifle worked a treat and just had a blast with some friends.

Awesome way to kill a couple of hours.

Rob

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Utrinque Paratus

Is that what you guys are refering to in the pic? They are not stacked correctly on top of each other?

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Juan,

That looks alright to me.



Rob

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Utrinque Paratus

Look through the window in the back of the mag to ensure that the round stagger, one off to the left one off to the right etc etc, it should look like a double-stacked mag. The easiest way to do it is to use the load assist to assist in the downward pressure of putting one round on top of another, while placing the next round in apply pressure to one side then the opposite side on the next round. Your mag looks alright to me.

Yes, and you can also see it in the window at the top back of the magazine.


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I had the same problem. I put the Volquartsen extractor in and problem solved. Shoots any thing I have put thru it. Don't understand why the extractor isn't better from the factory on an otherwise great rifle.

Everything is looking good with my 15-22 so far hopefully i dont have to replace any parts to it for the moment. Im hoping to go to the range this weekend and give it a try. Thank you everybody for your help! Im glad im a part of this group. I will be seeing you around.

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I bought a 15-22 Sport at Academy 2 weeks ago and took it to the range straight from the store without any cleaning or lubrication.

I shot 190 rounds without any issues.
50 40gr CCI mini mags
40 Am Eagle 40gr plated
100 M-22

Last week I shot 200 Remington Golden Bullets from a 1400 rd bucket and still no issues.I'm waiting to see how many before 1st issue and a cleaning and lube is needed.

Attached Images

15-22.jpg (245.1 KB, 45 views)

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NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUN

A few months ago I got my 15-22 and had ZERO problems with the first couple hundred rounds. Then I slowly started to get an occasional stovepipe. Little by little I started getting more FTE. By the 600 round mark it go to where I would get 5 jams per magazine. That took all the fun out of the rifle. i tried a variety of ammo, but why would it suddenly get picky after running Federal Automatch quite well? Even CCi was having issues. So I wasn't buying the finicky ammo theory.

So...I followed the advice on these forums and adjusted the ejector. Mine was a bit wide of center and low from the bolt. I suspect that it got bent when I snagged it with the bore snake while cleaning (ironically, some one once told me that most gun damage occurs during cleaning). Anyways, I adjusted the ejector and went to the range and shot 150 rounds with ZERO malfunctions.

I also found a volquarsten extractor and went ahead and ordered it. It was easy to install. Went out and shot 300 rounds, still ZERO malfunctions.

So, did I "need' the volquarsten extractor? No, but it wasn't very expensive and I figured why not. The main thing that helped immediately was adjusting the ejector post.

As for the ammo... I've since (post fix) run blazer, american eagle, cci, cci AR, winchester white box, federal automatch... ZERO issues, NO malfuntions. I feed it, the 15-22 eats it.

The FUN is back and I enjoy using my 15-22.

Yup. Gotta be careful with the bore snake. I've snagged mine a couple of times but have not yet caused it to misadjust.

Shoot On!!!


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