K-22 sticking brass - do I need a reamer?

J

John Hill

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I have a beautiful K-22 17-5. Ammo slides easily into the cylinder like dropping a marble in a well but Aguila Super Extra SV sticks the brass on extraction. Before firing, the extractor works smoothly with no problems. After firing, I have to tap the extractor rod sharply with a wood dowel. Could it be that the Aguila has some coating on the brass that causes the sticking on extracting spent brass or does this call for a finish reamer?
I have a bunch of this ammo.
Can you think of some other problem?
John
 
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A good way to super clean the cylinder is to wrap a regular brush with some hardware wool. Kinda' like "Chore Boy" and add some bore paste (polish)! used with a small drill motor it can clean the stuff out that is left over from years of shooting dirty ammo. .22 ammo is notoriously dirty!

Smiles,
 
People in our bullseye league have trouble with Aguila sticking and dragging on extraction in semi-autos, especially model 41s. My theory is that the cases are made out of the thinnest brass possible to save as much as they can in production costs. I believe other .22 ammo companies are doing the same thing. When I started shooting in matches back in the 70's there were never alibies called for extraction failures no matter what make of gun or ammo was being used. These days shooters are constantly calling alibies in our matches.
In looking for the most accurate ammo for my .22 revolver several brands would stick just as you describe. Unfortunately, the only ammo that never gives any problems for me is Eley. This has been my experience, your mileage may vary.
Mike
 
I fired 6 rounds of CCI SV through a cleaned revolver with no extraction problem then fired 6 rounds of Aguila Super Extra SV and had moderate sticking on extraction. I could extract by pushing without striking the extractor rod.
The I fired 6 more rounds of the Aguila and the sticking was worse. Then I fired 6 rounds of CCI SV and they had no problem.
It seems like I'll have to use up the Aguila in one of my rifles.
John
 
mmande said:
People in our bullseye league have trouble with Aguila sticking and dragging on extraction in semi-autos, especially model 41s. My theory is that the cases are made out of the thinnest brass possible to save as much as they can in production costs. I believe other .22 ammo companies are doing the same thing. When I started shooting in matches back in the 70's there were never alibies called for extraction failures no matter what make of gun or ammo was being used. These days shooters are constantly calling alibies in our matches.
In looking for the most accurate ammo for my .22 revolver several brands would stick just as you describe. Unfortunately, the only ammo that never gives any problems for me is Eley. This has been my experience, your mileage may vary.
Mike
Click to expand...
I also shoot my 41. I'll keep the Aguila out of it as well.
Thanks
John
 
mmande said:
People in our bullseye league have trouble with Aguila sticking and dragging on extraction in semi-autos, especially model 41s. My theory is that the cases are made out of the thinnest brass possible to save as much as they can in production costs. I believe other .22 ammo companies are doing the same thing. When I started shooting in matches back in the 70's there were never alibies called for extraction failures no matter what make of gun or ammo was being used. These days shooters are constantly calling alibies in our matches.
In looking for the most accurate ammo for my .22 revolver several brands would stick just as you describe. Unfortunately, the only ammo that never gives any problems for me is Eley. This has been my experience, your mileage may vary.
Mike
Click to expand...
Mike,
I weighed the 12 spent CCI SV brass and they weighed 7.5 grams and the Aguila weighed 7.6 grams for 12. I repeated both measurements twice with same results. Actually the Aguila is ever so slightly heaver.
John
 
You are a smart guy for an Army guy ;). On a serious note, I never would’ve thought to weigh the empty cases ... good use of science!! And, back on topic, I have an older Ruger SP101 .22 that used to have the same problem. There is a kind retired gunsmith both here and over on Ruger Forum who was kind enough to thoroughly polish the chambers on the Ruger for me.
 
Same problem here with Aquila 22s. I sprayed some with WD 40 and let them air dry. Worked a lot better. I think it is related to their coating.
 
"I weighed the 12 spent CCI SV brass and they weighed 7.5 grams and the Aguila weighed 7.6 grams for 12. I repeated both measurements twice with same results. Actually the Aguila is ever so slightly heaver.
John"

That is very interesting! I guess my theory has now been debunked. I'm now going to jump on the "coating" bandwagon.
This is fun;
Mike
 
mmande said:
"I weighed the 12 spent CCI SV brass and they weighed 7.5 grams and the Aguila weighed 7.6 grams for 12. I repeated both measurements twice with same results. Actually the Aguila is ever so slightly heaver.
John"

That is very interesting! I guess my theory has now been debunked. I'm now going to jump on the "coating" bandwagon.
This is fun;
Mike
Click to expand...
Possibly the lube?
I had a brick of PMC Zapper 22LR and that stuff stuck in every revolver I tried it in.
It seemed to work OK in semi-autos. Maybe due to larger chambers or to the fact that extraction basically happens immediately?
Anyway, the only thing that seemed different about it was that it felt like it had a thicker, waxy lube on it.
 
mmande said:
People in our bullseye league have trouble with Aguila sticking and dragging on extraction in semi-autos, especially model 41s. My theory is that the cases are made out of the thinnest brass possible to save as much as they can in production costs. I believe other .22 ammo companies are doing the same thing. When I started shooting in matches back in the 70's there were never alibies called for extraction failures no matter what make of gun or ammo was being used. These days shooters are constantly calling alibies in our matches.
In looking for the most accurate ammo for my .22 revolver several brands would stick just as you describe. Unfortunately, the only ammo that never gives any problems for me is Eley. This has been my experience, your mileage may vary.
Mike
Click to expand...

To add to your very good post, I have noticed its getting common to see bent .22 cases jamming in Semi handguns.They hold the slide back out of battery.

My wife shoots a lot of bullseye and about 3 years ago she asked me why was her gun jamming so much. It is a clean and well cared for Victory. She also has a SR22 and MP compact. that jams on occasion like that. Other shooters at her clubs are having the same problem. I told them my opinion is they have cheapened the cases so much that they bend just enough to cause said jam. (Seems like they have changed the formula of the brass mix and possibly the thickness)

Now I used to shoot a lot and never saw the bending of .22s like I do now. By chance in a old box I found a few hundred rounds of 40 YO Remington target rifle ammo and try as I could I could not get bending jams out of her guns.

Any thoughts are very welcome!:cool:
 
I'm always amazed that even though S&W .22 rimfire revolvers have been notorious for having tight chambers and the associated hard extraction problems, seemingly for decades, the company has never taken any action that I know of to resolve the obvious problem.

Finish reaming with the proper sized reamer seems to be the popular DIY solution.

I would guess since yours seems to work ok with other ammunition brands, it may be just this particular Aguila ammo that is causing the issue.
 
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This subject has been discussed thousands of times but I’ve yet to hear one person explain how his cylinder shrunk.
 
The cases would not have to weigh less. All 22 lr cases are thin compared to bigger caliber. All that is needed to make the case expand too much, and stick is more pressure, or a slightly different geometry round. 22 lr is notoriously dirty, so in combination with a close tolerance chamber in a target gun, and more expansion to the case... and there you have it.

Aguila .22 Super Extra is a fairly high velocity for a 22, compared to SV. You need more pressure to propel a 40 grain round to 1,255 fps than the typical SV round. More pressure -> more case expansion -> more likely to stick in a dirty chamber.

And btw, I have some, from Cabelas. They stick a little in my Model 17 and 18, not as much as the OP reported though. They also occasionally fail to extract in my Model 41, but that gun is notoriously finicky.
 
If you can afford the reamer, and if you are half-way mechanically inclined - get the reamer. You will be glad you did. Everything else is a band-aid.
 
Last edited:
John Hill said:
I have contacted Aguila and left a message for them to call me. If they do, I'll report what they have to say.
John
Click to expand...

Yes. Over the years my experience has been that Aguila is the worst. But still. Reaming will solve the problem once and for all.
 
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