Misfires in Double Action with K22?

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Clyde from Carolina

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Hello All,

I took my '53 K22 out for some exercise yesterday and had some recurrent misfires in double action. This was about the first time I had tried out the double action, so I was a little surprised.

It averaged about one misfire per cylinder. The ammo was inexpensive Aguila subsonic, and I kicked myself because I didn't have any other .22 in my shooting bag.

In single action ignition was 100%.

Anybody have any issues like this? I guess I will try some other brands of ammo fired Double Action before worrying too much.

I guess the mainspring might have been modified or be a tad light?
 
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I'm sure you are sure that the strain screw is down tight, right?
Next, I would take off the grips and see if that mainspring had been monkeyed with or the strain screw had been filed off.
Lastly are you sure the gun is sparkling clean inside and out?
 
DA Misfire in .22 handguns are common. Two reasons for this:
-- The naature of rimfire ammo. Getting the primer compound evenly distributed around the rim is tricky business, something that seems odd for a round of which billions are turned out each year but nonetheless true. Cheap .22 ammo is cheap because they don't take as much care in its manufacture, so $1 a box stuff will almost always be more prone to misfire than $4 a box stuff. Then, too, the thickness of the rims can vary substantially, even within a single box of ammo. This brings us to...
-- The nature of a DA revolver. The DA hammer fall is not as long, and does not carry as much momentum, as the SA hammer fall. If the rim of a particular cartridge is a bit thick, the blow imparted by the hammer may not be enough to set things in motion. This is especially a problem with very small, lightweight guns, like the alloy-framed S&Ws. Think of a hammer striking an object resting on an anvil -- if the anvil is heavy steel, the hammer blow will have greater effect than if the anvil is made of lightweight aluminum -- more of the force of the blow is transmitted to the object struck. This is why all small DA .22 revolvers have a very heavy hammer spring -- it is an attempt to insure a solid blow every time. Because of this factor, the advice to be sure the spring is up to factory specs (no matter how unpleasant the result on the trigger pull) is good advice.
 
Thank, gentlemen.

I checked the strains crew and it is snug, and the mainspring looks okay and the gun is clean. Hmm, guess I'll try some different ammo and go from there.
 
I have the same problem. Have you checked for endshake. If there is some extra play, the hammer may not strike as firmly as it should. I have found the Federal number 5022 to be more consistent than some other .22 brands.
 
Clyde;
Here in Mexico, there is no "free market". Its a "protected market". There is only ONE phone company. There is only ONE oil company. There is only ONE ammunition company of note, although a second one (CI) is trying to get off the ground, and a third appears to be in the making. We can hope.
Aguila (Tecnos Ind.) is owned by a rich *** who is quite hated in the Mexican Shooting World. The *** actually lives in Texas, because he's afraid of being kidnapped. The Aguila ammuntion company hasn't invested in new machinery since the Korean War. Some of their stuff is okay, but a lot of crap gets out too.
Now, their BEST quality stuff, they export. The "Factory Seconds" are sold here. I mean, the stuff here really is CRAP. All OUR guns misfire with it. Try some other ammo. I will be surprised if it doesn't work much better.
If I have to say something good about Aguila to make this a 'fair and balanced' report, I will say this; their brass is pretty darned good in .38 Special and .380 Auto. Holds up to lots of reloading, and the .38 brass accepts nicely the TK-Custom moonclips for .38 special K-frames. (My K-38 is TK moonclipped.)
If OTHER brand ammo misfires -- it's the gun. If OTHER brand ammo works -- it's AGUILA. I'll be watching this one with interest to see which it is.
 
I run the cheapest .22 ammo I can find, And if you gun is clean, It should fire the rounds well.
I lean torward the strain screw is weak.
Take an old .22 casing cut most of the case off the primer and and slip in the end of the strain screw, ( cafeful not to lose the spring off the hammer end ) Retighten the screw.... The 1-2mm of the case head will most likely cure your issues.
Peter
 
Clyde from Carolina, Tim Carrick in Lexington, NC fixed a K22 for me last month that was snapping in DA. His phone #1-336-859-5273. Pisgah is correct about about air weight .22's being prone to snap in DA. My wife bought a M43 in the 70's but had never shot it much and no DA until last month and it would snap at least once every cyl. Tim had to put in a spring heavier than factory to make it work. If you are in Car. I thought he might be close, and he is a good gunsmith and not a blacksmith. Larry
 
Originally posted by pred:

Take an old .22 casing cut most of the case off the primer and and slip in the end of the strain screw, (
Click to expand...

Just shimming the end does work. I've never used a 22 case, but I've used a fired primer cup. You get more thickness because its been dinged by an earlier firing pin strike. That tends to give you more thickness. I prefer that over replacing the spring because its reverseable, and because it doesn't seem to result in a heavier trigger pull.

In guns I've bought, I've found variations on the theme. One had some thin sheet copper wrapped around the lower spring itself. A couple of times. It seemed to work to offset the shade tree gunsmith's heavy handed filing.
 
Thanks so much guys. I will definitely keep y'all posted and let you know what the resolution is on this. The gun is such a sweet shooter in SA, I'm not sweating anything too much.

A buddy who is a much better shot than me got me to try some upside down "pinky" trick shooting with it and you could cover the group at fifteen yards shooting the piece upside down with your hand easily, with my pinky as the trigger finger. That's good shooting for me, and the gun is a darned good shooter.
icon_smile.gif
 
How deep is the firing pin impression on the cartridge cases? I have an early K-22 also (s/n K15xxx). It stated misfiring in DA. The firing pin impressions were very shallow. I installed a new firing pin and the problem was solved.
 
Check to see if the strain screw has been filed/shortened. I have a model 10 that has been misfiring, and I think I might have found the culprit in a shortened strain screw. -Donald
 
Sorry, I posted before I fully digested the previous posts. Try what what pred and rburg suggest. -Donald
 
Okay, update time.

I went to the range today and tried out some Federal Lightning and Winchester Super X 22s for comparison.

Shooting double action, I got zero misfires in fifty rounds with the Federal. I was getting hopeful but then in fifty rounds of double action shooting I had three misfires with the Winchester.

I tried a few more cylinder fulls of the Aguila and had two misfires in 18 rounds.

I guess my next move may be to try the shimming of the strain screw to see if that moves me closer to 100% ignition with good ammo, and if that doesn't work consider the gunsmith route.

Thanks again for all advice, opinions, etc.
 
Did you try running the misfired rounds back through the gun in single action to see if they fire? It's not all that uncommon for there to be duds in 22s. I have had my share in Winchester and even some in federal. I restruck all of them several times. Surprisingly, I don't think I have ever had a problem with any of my Aguila powderless in any of my pistols.

Bill
 
I have had prolems with misfires with those cheap copper clad rounds from Remington, I think it is. They call them Golden Bullets.

I've got an S&W 63 that I normally fire in DA, an S&W 22A-1, and a Remington 597 semi-auto rifle. The 22A seems to be the worst, and the 63 the best, but they all misfire with that stuff.

Visited my local pusher lately, and the only 22 LR was some CCI Green Tag match ammo. It was still there because it was expensive.

Guess what? You guessed it, no misfires. Zero, nada, none.

I tried a box of Lapua match ammo a while ago. No misfires there either.

So I agree with the guy who said that some misfires are inevetable with the cheap stuff.

I have had troubles with the other cheap stuff as well.

My sympathies, Calmex.
 
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