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Old 10-06-2020, 02:55 PM
RedlineCarry RedlineCarry is offline
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Default M&P 22 Compact misc problems

Looking for some help and advice on a new m&p 22 compact. I have plenty of center fires mostly S&W and never had a rimfire but in today’s market I went to a 22lr to start students out with and picked this model because it is basically the same size as the Shield. A lot of these new people have never even held a gun before so it seems like a good way to work them into a larger caliber and way easier to get ammo. I have tried to read through the forums best I could.



I shot about 300 rounds through it and started having some failure to extract issues and failure to fire problems. I guessed it was the different types of ammo I was testing and breaking it in. You can hear the firing pin strike and see a dimple in the back of the casing but it looks like they may have been a little light of a strike. I have read up on trying multiple types of ammo which I did a couple of which are listed:


-Federal - Gold Medal Round Nose 22LR
-Winchester Western .22 Long Rifle 36-Grain
-Thunderbolt



I did not clean it after 300 because I figured after only 300 rounds it would be ok since I was going back out right away and have never had a problem with this method on a center fire. I went out a couple of days later and after about 100 rounds it was having one issue after another about every third round. On a couple I could rack it and get it to eject after a couple try’s. I was pretty much ready to give up on it but decided to try one last mag and the last shot the back of the casing blew out sideways like in the picture (obviously it was made safe and put back into the bag at that point). Not a comfortable feeling.



I cleaned the you know what out of it and went back again yesterday to try it again. Ran much better and some ammo ran better but the Winchester still had a few misfire problems. I have made no mods or changes on it. A few questions.

1) Are these 22’s that picky like I have been reading and need cleaned after every trip or even a few hundred rounds?


2) This has the silencer adapter on it which I will never use and was wondering if I would be better off putting a cap on it that I have read about different places but found no opinion one way or another.


3)Is it worth very carefully polishing the breach? Again, lots of info out there but couldn’t find anything related to my issues just lots of general opinions.


4)I am also having the same issue I have read about that if I fully load the mag the first round will not always eject but if I don’t fully load it there is no problems. This is with me using it so defiantly not limp wristing which someone had mentioned somewhere.


5)Should I just tough it out like I have read and shoot more rounds until it runs smoother?



6)On a side note the damn thing seemed to not be very accurate or shoot very tight groups. Got more than frustrated at myself. Switched to my 9mm shield and went back to tight groups. What the hell is that all about!


Ill be honest I feel like I should have more answers myself but I guess I have always been lucky and never ran into this many issues on the same gun. Spoke with S&W and they are sending me a new ejector, spring and pin which I will have someone with a lot of experience swap out if needed. I have some close up pictures of the ejector if you want me to upload them. I really don’t want to be shipping it back for repair with such a long turnaround time. Since there is so much experience on here I am sure you guys can teach me a lot of things.
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Old 10-07-2020, 10:47 AM
TMan51 TMan51 is offline
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Accuracy and reliability with most, (if not all) .22 autos is largely a matter of ammo.

Some of the ammo options are very gritty and can foul even the best auto's sooner than later.

All rimfires are prone to variable accuracy with different types and brands of ammo. Bulk ammo being the worst, you will often get low powered rounds, and hot rounds that damage the rim in the same box. Rim thickness is all over the place, and that has an effect on ignition in any handgun, auto or revolver, or rifle.
Some autos will not cycle with subsonic ammo, and though SAAMI has well established upper limits for pressure, lower limits are not nearly as well defined, and even some standard velocity will not cycle.

If you're getting light strikes, it may be due to thin rims. Or the firing pin needs a bit of lube.

Don't give up, but be prepared to clean your .22 auto far more often than your 9mm. Again, that will be ammo dependent most of the time.
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Old 10-07-2020, 12:47 PM
Dave Lively Dave Lively is offline
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Did you have a failure to fire on the round before the blow out?

A blown case could be the result of the gun firing out of battery or a squib leaving a bullet in the barrel. The first would be the sort of failure best solved by sending the gun back to the factory. The second would be an ammo failure.

My 22 compact is the most reliable and ammo insensitive 22 semi-auto I own. But no 22 is going to be as reliable as a centerfire handgun. If you think the blown case was most likely result of a squib try using CCI MiniMags and see if it starts to perform reliably. It it doesn't or you think it fired out of battery call S&W and send it to them to get fixed.

My 22 compact is reasonable accurate but I find it hard to shoot accurately unless I fire it very slowly and deliberately or use a rest. Which makes it less fun as a plinker but more like a centerfire pistol.
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Old 10-07-2020, 02:03 PM
ScottS ScottS is offline
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I'm a big M&P22 Compact fan. I own a number (cough, six, cough) of them, and I've found them to be the most reliable .22's I own. I use them as the "issue" pistol for NRA Basic Pistol, and for new shooters, so they see a lot of rounds. I say that only to establish that I've put in a fair amount of time behind the .22 Compact.

First, my guns go a long time between cleanings. My grandfather would be horrified, but there it is. And I shoot them suppressed a lot, so they get plenty dirty. I have found the guns pretty tolerant when it comes to getting dirty. Usually, I'll go up to about 1000 rounds before the get the ultrasonic treatment (depending on how much suppressed vs. unsupressed). I can honestly say I haven't had a gun go down due to lack of cleaning.

Second, if the adapter bothers you, I thing EWK Arms still sells the "barrel cap" to replace it. Yup. Just checked, and they do. Really good people.

Third, I didn't feel the need to polish the feed ramp, but if yours has lots of tool marks, I guess a bit of judicious polish can't hurt. Don't over do it.

Fourth, and I'm sorry to put this so bluntly, but I wouldn't piss on Thunderbolt .22LR if it was on fire. I run Federal Champion Bulk-Pak (525 Blue or 550 Maroon box) or CCI Mini-mags exclusively. I find I can eliminate many of life's problems by not shooting ****ty ammo, and my experience is Remington Thunderbolt .22LR is some ****ty ammo. Take that for what it's worth.

Finally, on accuracy, every gun is different, I suppose, and I read about some early .22 Compacts that had some leading problems, but I find the gun plenty accurate for my needs. This is a timely subject, because I just had #5 out yesterday for a quick checkout after it's long-overdue ultrasonic bath. This is 20 rds, off-hand, just outside 13 yards (odd number, but that's our range for you). Nothing formal, just checking POA/POI. It ain't a Hammerli Free Pistol, but this level of accuracy gets it done for anything I need.

Let me know if there's anything specific I can help with. As you can tell, I'm a fan of the platform.
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Old 10-07-2020, 04:57 PM
RedlineCarry RedlineCarry is offline
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-“firing pin needs a bit of lube” - definitely have not done this


-Thunderbolt .22LR - lol I get the idea and will try better grade ammos. I was just limited on what I could find locally and I was trying to test some before I bought a bunch on line since everything I read said to try out different ones.


-“failure to fire on the round before the blow out”, yes it did. squib - 99.5% sure this wasn’t it


-“fired out of battery” - this could be it - never had this happen before and just watched some videos on it. Extremely possible this was the problem. At the point this happened I was removing the mag after each malfunction and was so frustrated. I racked it but it may not have seated because it was dirty? Just a wild guess. (I should have known better than to get frustrated. that’s why they say practice, practice, practice right!) Now I know a new malfunction to watch more closely for.



-When you guys are saying bulk ammo are you referring to something like a 500 box vs a 50. Why does bulk ammo vary so much from smaller boxes?



-"barrel cap” - guess what I was asking was is there any advantage one way or the other? I noticed the ID of the current adapter is larger than the barrel ID and that’s what made me wonder.


-polish the feed ramp - I was wondering about the chamber since there are eject problems and it seems to feed great. I never really make any changes to anything I ever buy and there are so many differing opinions. My feeling has always been if it isn’t broke don’t fix it.


-20 rds, off-hand - Hell that grouping embarrasses me on what I ended up with. It was mostly shooting low so I know I need to adjust the sites slightly and just haven’t done it. Still my groupings sucked! I will not let the gun win though and figure out what I am doing wrong.


No doubt this gun is good for teaching me things I haven’t really experienced firsthand. BTW the NRA basic pistol is exactly what I wanted it for considering the current ammo situation now that the apocalypse is upon us. Had we only known about the ammo shortage we could have bought a container load in February and retired.
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Old 10-07-2020, 05:42 PM
Dave Lively Dave Lively is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RedlineCarry View Post
-When you guys are saying bulk ammo are you referring to something like a 500 box vs a 50. Why does bulk ammo vary so much from smaller boxes?
As a general rule bulk ammo = cheap ammo.

Not always, I have had good results with Federal AutoMatch which usually comes in a bulk pack and have bought 50 round boxes of cheap ammo that gave the same poor results as bulk packs. But often enough that bulk ammo is not as well regarded as the stuff that comes in 50 or 100 round boxes.
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Old 10-07-2020, 06:06 PM
ScottS ScottS is offline
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This is the stuff I shoot almost exclusively. Never had a problem with it, either in terms of feeding or accuracy. This is a recent (about 3 weeks ago or so) purchase from my LGS. Gotta stock up when able. If you ever saw the "Spongeworthy" episode of Seinfeld, it was a lot like that.

"Yeah, give me two boxes."
"Two?"
"Yeah, make it four."
"So, four then?"
"Ah, yeah. Eight. Make it eight."

Re: "barrel caps," there's no real difference, in my experience. The big advantage to the "barrel cap" is you can break down the gun without removing it. Some people get peeved at having to remove the suppressor adapter every time they have to remove the slide, especially if they never shoot suppressed.

It almost sounds like your pistol might have a bunch of packing grease or other schmootz, so maybe a good first cleaning is in order. After that, a bit of lube on the rails and you should be good to go.

Don't give up on it. They're great little guns, especially for new shooters, or even for keeping your hand in for experienced shooters. Good luck.
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Old 10-09-2020, 09:12 AM
jnichols2 jnichols2 is offline
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1. My M&P 22 likes CCI Mini Mags, that's what I give her.
2. My M&P 22 wants a bath every 200 rounds, that's what I give her.
3. Get rid of the Thunderbolt.
4. If you want better accuracy, get a Ruger MKIV or a Colt Woodsman.
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Old 10-19-2020, 09:50 AM
jamppp jamppp is offline
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As most know, .22LR is a dirty round. So whether it's my M&P 22 Compact or my Ruger 10/22's. Once they are cleaned I give them a spray down with Hornady Dry Lube, and let them dry.
This keeps things lubed, but doesn't provide that wet surface for fouling to stick to - which becomes like mud after a while.
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