Failure To Eject resolve!!!!!!!!

My youngest 45 year old brother had purchased a new M&P 15-22 (DTMxxxx). I had shot it a couple of times and finally decided to purchased one for myself. I picked up my 15-22 (DTZxxx), last Friday. It has been an absolute thrill to shoot. It has cycled some 700 rounds, this past week. It has shot everything, which I have feed it.

My brother's 15-22 did have FTE issues, which has driven him crazy. Upon finding this forum, I told him that many had the same issue, as he did, and to send it back to S&W for a fix and updated springs. He is one stubborn guy and refused to send it back and has not taken it out for the past month. I had previously looked at the ejector and it looked fine in relationship to the bolt.

This morning I invited him to come with me to the range. He agreed, but asked that I bring my 15-22. I'm thinking . . . Why not! . . . It's cheaper to shoot. Likewise, I asked him to bring his 15-22 with him, as well. He did not want to, but agreed.

At the range, we both started out shooting our .45 acp and 9mm handguns. After some 30 minutes, he asked to see and shoot my 15-22. After shooting about 30 rounds, he said that his 15-22 was a piece of sh!t. I asked him if I could take a look at his 15-22. I released the lower from the upper and took out the bolt assembly. It looked clean and I asked if I could take it over to the lounge area. I grabbed my range bag and the bolt assembly and went to the lounge.

I stripped the bolt down. I removed the recoil rod, the recoil spring, and the rail unit. It was cleaned and oiled. However, I decided to clean it and remove the existing oil. I think he uses Breakfree CLP. I wiped down all of the components with M-Pro 7 gun cleaner and applied M-Pro 7 gun oil LPX to all of the sliding parts of the bolt and rail assembly. The LPX is a new M-Pro 7 product. Prior to that I was using their M-Pro 7 CLP.

I returned to the firing line and asked my brother if I could shoot his rifle. LOL . . . He stopped to watch and mentioned again that it was a piece of crap and that it would not shoot like mine does. I loaded 10 rounds of CCI Mini Mag and his 15-22 cycled all 10 rounds to perfection. I then tried 10 rounds of Aquila, 10 of CCI Blazer, and 10 rounds of Winchester X. All shot and cycled without any issues.

LMAO . . . My brother asked me what I had done. I told him that I had used the M-Pro 7 gun oil LPX on the bolt and rails. I returned his rifle to him and started to shoot the various 22lr. ammo, which I had brought to the range. After he had shot some 150 flawless rounds, he was next to tears . . . happy tears. He gave me a big hug. LOL . . . I would have settled for a hand shake. He is a big guy and nearly squeezed the life out of me.

I had to leave. I left him some extra ammo and took off. The grin on his face was priceless.

I hope this account is helpful and productive for others, whom may have FTE issues. It's not a guaranteed fix, but it worked in this case.

M-Pro 7 Gun Oil LPX- Gun Cleaning Products

I have been using M-Pro 7 products for the longest time for all of my guns. It is an excellent line of products.

It very well could have been the Mpro-7, hard to tell. My bet might be on the disassembly and reassembly that fixed the trouble. Can't say what exactly done it but there very well may have been something not correct on that bolt and by doing what you did, it inadvertently fixed it.

For me the fix for the FTE problem was the alignment of the ejector. I was having problems (maybe once per 25 round magazine) with a spent casing not ejecting and the bolt closing on it. I had made the adjustment as explained on this forum to move the ejector in closer to the bolt in what I will call the side to side direction. This did not seem to resolve my problems.

After closer examination, I decided to adjust the ejector in the upward direction so that it is just slightly below the bolt. At the range this past weekend I was very happy with the results. No more FTE (knock wood)! What I noticed also was that the spent casings now fly out of the receiver in an upward direction. Previously they seemed to be just falling out to the side.

With the JP spring kit and now the fix to the ejection problem (I hope) I an pleased with the rifle. My only comment is that I don't believe this set up is the most robust design S&W could have come up with. As mentioned before on this forum it is not a good idea to use a solid cleaning rod on this gun. If you can run a cleaning rod down the barrel from the receive end and not be scraping the ejected it is not adjusted properly.

straight-shooter said:

It very well could have been the Mpro-7, hard to tell. My bet might be on the disassembly and reassembly that fixed the trouble. Can't say what exactly done it but there very well may have been something not correct on that bolt and by doing what you did, it inadvertently fixed it.

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I agree with you on this, 99% chance lube had nothing to do with FTE's.
If thats the case it should return and FTE more once it starts getting dirty again.

My bet might be on the disassembly and reassembly that fixed the trouble.

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This is what did it imo also.

But hey funnier things have happened. And as long as the gun shoots perfectly now who gives a crap what fixed it!

Did i mention i use Mobile 1 full synthetic heavy weight car oil when i need a heavy lube that wont evaporate?
Then i use White Lithium grease from Home Depot. But CLP gets used the most since it does everything well except stay in place and not evaporate.

IMO this gun only needs a lite non evaporating grease or lube on the bolt rails. Of course after a full wiping down with CLP and the bore coated even tho it will evaporate also which is good in a bore for short term storage.
Long term i use the Mobile 1.

My thoughts after this FTE issue with my brother are . . . Ruling out an ejector problem . . . Liken to my 2 Advantage Arms 22lr. conversion kit for my Glock 23 and Glock 27, the slide needs a lot of lube to force the slide back for the spent case to reach the ejector.

Having said the above, I feel that the FTE issue with the 15-22, having ruled out any ejector problems, is a combination of weak ammo and/or the bolt/extractor not returning the spent case back to the ejector. Now, the fix then would be to either use better ammo and/or use a high quality lubricant on the bolt and rail assembly.

The recoil spring might be too heavy. There are many different variables, which may cause FTEs in some 15-22s and not in others. Just thinking out loud.

Edit: After every range session, I always detail strip the bolt/rail assembly with the exception of the extractor. The first time I removed the extractor, the extractor, pin, and spring flew across my work bench . . . LOL

There is a good amount of gunk, for a lack of a better term, in the 2 bolt channels where the rails slide back and forth. It only takes a few seconds to remove the recoil rod, recoil spring, and the rail unit for a proper cleaning.

There is a good amount of gunk, for a lack of a better term, in the 2 bolt channels where the rails slide back and forth. It only takes a few seconds to remove the recoil rod, recoil spring, and the rail unit for a proper cleaning.

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I find that the most important item to clean on this gun even before the bore. Many people who do the accuracy type shooting will only clean their bores 1 time a year.
But if you don't take the bolt apart and clean those channels perfectly i can definitely see it causing ejection issues, Especially with weaker ammo.

It actually gets so dirty in that area i normally would use grease on any rail like that, But ive since switched to the heavy oil instead.

What ammo has he been using if you know?
If issues continue, Check the recoil spring rod at the end where it slides back into the rail guide for burrs.
That end is cut so it slides down into the plastic guide and if a burr or sharp edges were cutting into the plastic that can make it drag and low the bolt causing a FTE.

Im just brainstorming also.

Also if he did the 15 minute trigger job or replaced his springs with the JP set it would lower the hammers spring pressure and the amount of force required to move the bolt rearward.

Another testimony to how a little T.L.C. goes a long way.
I picked up a Tetra begginners kit for lubrication and I plan on spending some quality time with mine when I pick him up on the 5th.
Thank you for shareing this FTE issue, it's little things like this that take the "shiney" off of a new item really fast.
Regards

I've used CLP since Day One without issues. Not Breakfree (brand) though.

-- Chuck

im at over 17,000 rounds and there has yet to be anything down my barrel.. other than bullets

BELT_FED said:

im at over 17,000 rounds and there has yet to be anything down my barrel.. other than bullets

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Not uncommon at all actually.
Can i do it and not mentally loose my mind? Not yet....

As you know i have been on an accuracy kick lately and bought a CZ 452 Ultra Lux with 28" barrel. Every time i clean my barrel it takes at least 100 rounds for my accuracy to come back. Clean bores shoot like like crap.

Why i may stop cleaning it except for once a year during the winter in Ohio after ive been finding my bore is so well lapped that it wont even hold onto dirt.
After 300 rounds I can scrub it with a brush and Hoppes 9 and the patch comes out cleaner than what my clean barrel in my 15-22 does after im done cleaning.

That doesn't mean the 15-22 has a bad bore, Its just not as accurate and not supposed to be.

IMO lube is lube as long as you use the appropriate type for the job.