SW22 Victory Failure to Feed

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flat_topp

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After 1250 rounds thru my SW22 Victory I started getting failures to feed. I traced the problem to dirty/gritty magazines that prevented the follower from smoothly moving up the mag body. I have 6 magazines for the pistol from which I usually grab 3 or 4 randomly when I go to the range. I disassembled and cleaned all 6 mags and tested them at the range today. I had no FTFs in 180 rounds that I shot today.

My conclusion from this is that I should plan to clean these mags after 200 rounds per mag, based on my typical usage. YMMV.

How often do you need to clean your magazines?
 
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I think that would depend on what ammo you're using. I'd check the mags periodically to see how dirty they are. Thunderbolts are some really dirty ammo is that if what you are using. 22 ammo isn't the cleanest shooting ammo no matter what brand you are shooting.
 
I’ve never shot any Remington ammo thru the pistol. Only …
CCI (59%)
Federal (27%)
Aguila (14%)
 
It sounds like it's more the individual mags rather than the ammo. Find out which ones are giving you the trouble and go from there. I've never had to clean my mags after that few rounds. YMMV. Keep us posting please.
 
I know from experience if a seller says a 39/59 is NIB and unfired, take the base plate and spring and follower out and look thru the mag body. They
look like the chimney in my wood stove. Clean the mag.
 
fiasconva said:
I've never had to clean my mags after that few rounds.
Click to expand...

Me neither, that's why I started this thread. 200 rounds per mag seems like a low round count to need cleaning. Especially since I never intentionally drop them on the ground, but place them on the shooting bench when they're empty.

I had 3 of my 6 mags with me on the range trip that suffered the FTFs, and I had the problem with all 3 mags. When I got back home and disassembled the mags, all 6 had similar dirt/grit inside the mag body. Maybe not as bad as gmborkovic's chimney, but definitely enough to feel the grit when I moved the followers up and down the mag body. Like I said, after cleaning, all 6 mags work like a charm.
 
A lot depends on the environment you shoot in. If you let the empty magazine drop in the dirt, it will need to be cleaned much more often. Like previously said, the rest depends on the ammo you use. HV ammo with plated bullets are not lubricated as heavily as bare lead bullets so don’t gunk up the magazines as fast.
Personally, I do the majority of my shooting in an indoor range using Aguila with plated bullets so my mags don’t need cleaning as often.
 
I took my SW22 victory to the range again this week and experienced failures to feed with all 4 magazines that were relatively clean when I started, but ended up dirty after only 80 rounds fired. I think I’ve traced the problem to the Aguila Superextra copper-plated ammo I was shooting. This particular lot seems to have an excessively thick layer of wax on the bullets, which gums up the magazine works in short order. I plan to avoid using that lot of Aguila in my pistol from now on.
 
I’ve been using my M41 in 2gun zsa shoots and never drop the empties. I put them in a pouch or pocket when I do a mag change. Costs me some time but I’m shooting for the fun.
 
I have been shooting .22 target pistols for over 40 years, and keeping magazines clean helps insure feeding. My current target .22 is an IVH35M Russian, and it is known for it's ability to eat anything without a problem. I usually clean all my mags just before bullseye winter season, and normally don't clean them until after it's over. If I recall right I have only had 2 alibi's over the last 10 years with this gun, and those were dud rounds. My go to ammo is Aguila match.
 
I was having some failure to feed issues. I use CCI Standard ammo. I ordered some Tandemkross magazine greensprings and put them in my magazines. Problem solved.
 
This kind of surprises me because I always felt the Victory was one of the cleanest to shoot of all my semi-auto .22 caliber pistols I have owned. Also the magazines are one of the easiest to load that I have. However, I will admit that I probably don't shoot nearly the volume of ammo that most shooters on this forum do. I'm also quite strange because I will buy a semi-auto pistol that comes with 2 magazines and I will pull one out to use and may never shoot with the other magazine.
 
I take back my post that the Tandemkross green magazine springs solved the proplem. After I installed the springs, I had taken it to the range and fired about 200 rounds, and everything was good. When I had installed the new mag springs, I did clean the mags, so that's not an issue. So, tonight was match night at the range. 50 Ft. slow, timed, rapid. i shot 20 rounds practice, 10 slow, 10 timed, then on the second round of rapid I got a failure to feed. When that happens, a little bit of lead is scraped off the top bullet that failed to feed. It's like something is hanging up the bullet.
I pulled out magazines for my Volquartsen Scorpion and my Ruger Mark III, and observed the differences compared to the Victory magazines. I concluded that the round is getting hung up in the magazine as the bolt is trying to push it forward. At least, that's my working theory. When I got home after the range, I took a needle nose pliars and widened slightly the lips on the top of the magazine. Next time I go to the range I'll test it out and report back.
 
Last edited:
Magazine springs, recoil springs, and mainsprings have a huge affect on the timing of a 22lr.

As recoil springs and mainsprings weaken, slide velocity goes up. That is bad. Since the slide has to push the hammer down, mainspring strength is surprisingly important, considering how little attention they receive. Of course recoil springs are also important.

My M46 pistol, built 1968,

r6qrx7C.jpeg


started off being a jam a matic till I firstly replaced the recoil spring. It had taken a set

LV7Wg0a.jpeg


Both my M46 and M41 became less and less reliable the more rounds down range. I tossed the original M41 mainspring, but kept the Numrich replacement. S&W was out of OEM mainsprings, Numrich claimed factory mainsprings, but based on an examination, what I received, it was obvious someone was clipping springs with a wire cutter. Those Numrich springs were poor quality, inconsistent length, and lost tension quickly.

I was able to purchase from an ebay vendor (S&W was again out!) new OEM mainsprings.

jOZ0d2I.jpeg


I can tell from the force it takes to cock the hammer, the new OEM mainsprings are stronger than the Numrich, or the old 1988 M41 mainspring. With new OEM mainsprings, both the M46 and M41 are much more reliable in feed and extraction. Rimfire ammunition still has its own problems:

At this range, if you have an alibi, a Range Safety Officer comes over, verifies the malfunction, and takes the alibi round to the Match Director. Who then tosses it in this piece of bottle

wQjGjIR.jpeg


as you can see, 22lr cartridges are over represented.

9yB5NSd.jpeg


Everybody who shoots a 22lr pistol in 2700 Bullseye Competition has experienced many alibi's with 22lr rounds. Maybe some can be traced to the gun, I believe the vast majority are due to insensitive priming compound, and poor distribution of priming compound in the rim. Having weak ignition, due to weak mainsprings, will not improve the combustion of primer cake in any way.
 
I took my Victory to the range, after having widened the ends of my magazines, thinking that the rounds were getting stuck in the magazine, and therefore not feeding. Good thing I took my needle nose pliers with me. What I found was the opposite was true. Widening things made the problem worse. I found that making the lips on the top of the magazine tighter, the bullet was more securely in place ready to be fed into the chamber. I got it so that when I would load the magazines, I could hear a little snap as I fed each round in. After my initial trial and error with this, I fired off about 100 rounds with no feeding issues. No rounds that never left the magazines. No rounds with bent bullets because they wouldn't feed properly. Next is to solve my failure to fire problem. It's not the safety. I stuff a piece of brass in the gap above the safety to prevent it from going into safe. It's not my ammo. I cleaned my gun thoughroughly tonight, getting the face of the bolt totally clean. I'm thinking that a buildup of crud in the crevices was not allowing the bolt to fully contact the bullet. Maybe I should start a new thread on this if the issue persists.
 
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