22A Help . .

[Mr. October]

So I thought I had all the bugs worked out of my 22A. Whomever had it before must have shot it a ton. I've put in a new extractor and spring, a new recoil spring, a new main spring, and a factory-new recoil spacer. I had the gun to the range the other day and went through a couple hundred rounds without a hitch. Prior to changing the recoil spring I wouldn't get through more than a magazine or two without a light strike. And prior to changing the extractor and spring, the light strikes would push the unfired round past the extractor claw forcing me to press on the extractor while pulling the slide. I thought/hoped all these issues were behind me.

Today I took the gun to a PA Steel League (think Steel Challenge) shoot. It was the first time I've had confidence in the reliability of the gun to take it anywhere other than the range. The gun shoots freakin' GREAT! I was so happy with results after the first 3 stages and went to stage 4 ready to go. I made it through the first 4 strings without a problem. But it turns out my confidence was misplaced. Almost finished the last string and I had a sequence of light strikes, knocked past the extractor. I wound up exceeding the 30 second par time. I didn't care about that part. Gotta throw one away anyway but it really bummed me out that the gun is still problematic especially given that I was really shooting it well. I switched over to my Victory for the last stage but sat and throught about what else the trouble might be.

The only things I can think are that the chamber has to be cleaned really often. I had thoroughly cleaned the gun after the range trip and today's event was only 125 rounds total and it only made it to 95 before it balked.

The only accessory I have on the gun is a finger loop I got on eBay. It weighs next to nothing and I can't believe it would affect the round going in to battery for a proper strike, but I'm going to take it off to be sure and see if it helps.

Otherwise . . anyone have any suggestions? I'm absolutely thrilled with how the gun shoots when it goes bang especially in the steel challenge format. But the FTFs are not sustainable. I don't know if I continue to mess around or get rid of the gun as a loser project.

Also, choice of ammo seems to make little difference. It has all the same issues over time no matter what I choose.

 

[Heinz]

I had a 22A. I liked the way it looked and it was accurate. However it never fired a 5-round magazine without a failure to fire or a jam. Never. I traded it on a Walther P22. Walther is not as accurate, does not feel as good in the hand but it always goes off

 

[AveragEd]

I have a Talo edition 22A-1 that has suffered through hundreds of rounds by my grandchildren without a hitch. All I use in it is CCI Standard Velocity but it does like certain pistol match loads a bit better.

Ed

 

[Mr. October]

I have a Talo edition 22A-1 that has suffered through hundreds of rounds by my grandchildren without a hitch. All I use in it is CCI Standard Velocity but it does like certain pistol match loads a bit better.

Ed

Is this, by chance, the same Average Ed from Trapshooters.com? Just curious.

That is a beautiful gun. I think mine has just been shot a bunch an may need some careful polishing. But I took the finger ring off and we'll see if that makes any difference.

 

[AveragEd]

Is this, by chance, the same Average Ed from Trapshooters.com? Just curious.

That is a beautiful gun. I think mine has just been shot a bunch an may need some careful polishing. But I took the finger ring off and we'll see if that makes any difference.

I'm afraid so. As I had to stop shooting trap competitively in 2006 due to shoulder woes, I don't frequent ts.com as often but I still serve as a contributing editor for Shotgun Sports Magazine and an occasional gun columnist for Pennsylvania Game News.

Ed

 

[glenwolde]

I'm not sure I understand how a light strike can push it past the extractor. Maybe it being beyond the extractor caused the light strike. Not the other way around.

Have you tried different ammo? I think I'd remove the slide and manually feel how the extractor engages the case rim. Might just need to bevel the lower edge of the extractor or something.

I have one of these and find it a surprisingly accurate for an economy pistol. A few times I've had misfires where the extractor was not engaged. But only half a dozen in many thousands of rounds. Mine usually likes Remington Golden Bullets, but today I tried some Aguila Std Velocity and was a bit surprised.

They are all a little high-left but as far as group size goes I think that's about as good as I can do at 15 yards (that's a 4" black center}. They are worth it if you can get it figured out.

 

[Mr. October]

I'm not sure I understand how a light strike can push it past the extractor. Maybe it being beyond the extractor caused the light strike. Not the other way around.

Have you tried different ammo? I think I'd remove the slide and manually feel how the extractor engages the case rim. Might just need to bevel the lower edge of the extractor or something.

I have one of these and find it a surprisingly accurate for an economy pistol. A few times I've had misfires where the extractor was not engaged. But only half a dozen in many thousands of rounds. Mine usually likes Remington Golden Bullets, but today I tried some Aguila Std Velocity and was a bit surprised.

They are all a little high-left but as far as group size goes I think that's about as good as I can do at 15 yards (that's a 4" black center}. They are worth it if you can get it figured out.

Mine is an absolute tack driver. I love the gun . . just not the malfunctions.

I've tried all different ammo in it. Everything from Federal Champion to CCI Minimag, Aguila, Norma TAC-22, and some really good Eley. Same issues with all ammo.

I'm not really positive on what is happening. It just seems odd to me that when I have the light strikes, the extractor doesn't extract the unfired round. My assumption was that the extractor was somewhat dependent on detonation and some setback to grab the rim after the hammer had firmly driven the round into the chamber. I thought maybe there was a weak extractor spring and ordered a factory new extractor kit. I swapped all the extractor parts and thought I had that part of the problem solved. Apparently not. I'm not even sure the round is beyond the extractor. It could be that the extractor is just not able to exert sufficient force to extract the round after the hammer gave it a smack into the chamber. I even thought perhaps the chamber is just tight from being dirty after a few rounds. But I took it apart and a round drops right in to place and falls right out if inverted.

I removed the cocking ring from the back of the bolt so we'll see if that makes a difference. If so, I guess I'll just live without it. With an optic mounted, it sure is nice to have but of course not necessary.

 

[Mr. October]

I'm afraid so. As I had to stop shooting trap competitively in 2006 due to shoulder woes, I don't frequent ts.com as often but I still serve as a contributing editor for Shotgun Sports Magazine and an occasional gun columnist for Pennsylvania Game News.

Ed

I sort of stepped down from trap at the same time but mine was due to a renewed interest in archery and then a foray into triathlon and I never really got back to it. I looked at a return to the trap fields a couple years ago but it is a pretty pricey affair post-COVID. I've been dabbling in pistol shooting and find that scratches the shooting competition itch for now. I always thought it would be the opposite, but it seems a lot cheaper than the shotgun games.

 

[AveragEd]

I sort of stepped down from trap at the same time but mine was due to a renewed interest in archery and then a foray into triathlon and I never really got back to it. I looked at a return to the trap fields a couple years ago but it is a pretty pricey affair post-COVID. I've been dabbling in pistol shooting and find that scratches the shooting competition itch for now. I always thought it would be the opposite, but it seems a lot cheaper than the shotgun games.

I agree! I honestly don't know how working stiffs or retirees like me justify the costs of clay target shooting these days. I would be cringing every time I released my trigger thinking of how much money is going out of my barrel.

For reference, a friend and I used to buy two skids of hard shot every year, one of 8s and one of 7-1/2s, and our last purchase was at $14.25 a bag. Not only were reloading components a hell of a lot cheaper they were actually available! STS and Nitro 27 shells were in the $45 per flat area; now they're over twice that, going by the Grand's shell house chart.

I returned to my rifle and handgun roots and compete in minor-league benchrest matches.

Ed

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I have really like my 22S for 20+ years with original parts. I am the original owner, so it was never abused. It has only rarely failed after 200+ marathon shots without cleaning. A little oil every so often helps too.

 

[Mr. October]

Update

I removed the cocking ring from the bolt assembly and took it to the range and ran about 300+ rounds through including Federal Automatch, really cheap Armscor stuff, and CCI Standard Velocity. I had 3 failures to fire that I am not calling light strikes. The rims were crushed! I tried a couple of them more than once. So I feel like the cocking ring weight was probably a problem and will leave it off. That didn't stop me from trying to grab it several times.

That said, on 1 of the non-fires and one of the repeat tries, it was necessary to put extra pressure on the extractor to get the unfired round out. I can live with the occasional bad ammo in rimfire. It is the nature of the beast but those occasions where extra steps are necessary to clear that round are a killer in a timed events. It doesn't happen often especially since changing the extractor and spring, but I think I'm going to take the old extractor, polish it up a bit and see if I can't hone a bit more hook into it similar to what Tandemkross does for the Victory.

It is noteworthy I had no issues with the CCI SV. I did try some CCI Quiet and, not surprisingly, the gun became a single shot there. I just thought I'd see.

So I think I'll stick to top ammo for matches even for things that don't really require high accuracy like steel challenge. And I'll see if I can perhaps make the extractor a little better. Otherwise I'm feeling a lot better about my recent most favorite gun than I had been.

I like shooting is so much because I wasn't even trying to be accurate today rather I just wanted to send a lot of ammo down range to see what sort of problems I might have. Still . . the 4 corners were at 10 yards and the middle at 15.

 

[glenwolde]

If standard velocity works fine and high velocity gets sticky I think it's the chamber. There could be a small defect. The higher pressure round expands more into the defect.

I had a High Standard HD Military that did that. I couldn't even see it. The gunsmith had some kind of iron (or reamer?) he used to straighten it out. Wasn't a tough fix. He explained that some guns are made of softer metal, especially .22's, and the constant pounding from the slide return peens the breech face.

 

[Slack-Jawed-Yokel]

My 22A had multiple problems from the time it left the factory in 1997. Feed ramp had a sharp lip on it that shaved projectiles and peeled case mouth back.

Some polishing on the feed ramp helped a ton.

Later on I noticed the barrel retaining stud was loose and the gun was sent back to S&W for a new barrel.

 

[wproct]

It's been interesting to read the comments of former trap shooters. I was a trap shooter for probably about 30 years. I lived for Saturday mornings because that was the day the gun club was open for practice shooting. I was only registered with the ATA for 2 years, I never really enjoyed competitive shooting, just enjoyed the comradery of casual trap shooting. I always looked forward to retirement when I could shoot more. However, I got into motorcycles and I had moved to the country where I could shoot my rifles and handguns anytime I wanted, and trapshooting started getting too expensive for me.