.22 LR revolver extraction. Experts' advice sought

[danski]

I was discussing with a shop owner the sometimes
difficulty of extracting .22 LR shells from a revolver. It has been so for quite a few years.

But both he and I remember this was not the case, even as chambers "gunked up," until about the 1970s or perhaps 1980.

He suspects the older productions used a thicker brass (meaning more costly in today's terms) and expansion was nonexistent to nil upon firing. But
all the newer ammo has thinner brass and expands
pretty consistently, causing the sticking.

What say the experts?

 

[danski]

I was discussing with a shop owner the sometimes
difficulty of extracting .22 LR shells from a revolver. It has been so for quite a few years.

But both he and I remember this was not the case, even as chambers "gunked up," until about the 1970s or perhaps 1980.

He suspects the older productions used a thicker brass (meaning more costly in today's terms) and expansion was nonexistent to nil upon firing. But
all the newer ammo has thinner brass and expands
pretty consistently, causing the sticking.

What say the experts?

 

[Wheelgunner840]

I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but polishing the chambers will usually do the trick if they are not really sticking strongly.

I had a big extraction problem,and had the entire cylinder replaced. The empties now all but fall out. I don't think the problem is thin brass, as much as tight chambers with perhaps some tiny machine marks in them for the brass to get caught up on.

WG840

 

[danski]

Wheelgunner,

I would agree except that in my experience, using an old cache of Remington .22s, the brass came out easily but the newer stuff did not on a K-22, each time starting with clean chambers for the old stuff and newer stuff.

 

[Jerry in SC]

I'm no expert

a lot of the current .22 LR ammo is junk: inconsistent powder charges, pure lead bullets with no alloy, some don't have primer spun consistently causing misfires.

There are exceptions: W-W Subsonic Hollow Points (Made in Australia) and W-W Power Points. I've not had an extraction problem nor a F-T-F with either of them. I don't have a particularly high round count with the Subsonics (1,000) thus far, but I've shot somewhere around 10,000 Power Points in various handguns.

 

[Milton]

I recently bought a '54 dated K-22 and no matter what I shot in it extraction was so bad I had to push the extractor rod against some surface to begin extraction.This got to be a pain real fast so I cleaned out the cylinder with Kroil and then mounted a brand new, nylon .22 brush on a drill and turned the brush at a sane speed.After doing this for a few times the problem is now gone!