Is it the ammo, or something I did???

[seb5thman]

Took my newly purchased S&W M&P 15-22 out for the first time yesterday. I fired 200 rounds of CCI Standard Velocity 40gr and had a failure to fire with each magazine (25-round).

I then fired about 300 rounds of Remington Thunderbolt. The first magazine had a failure to fire, but none after that.

It seemed the more rounds I put thru it the fewer failure to fire there were. I cleaned and lubed the weapon prior to shooting for the first time and did everything in the instructions.

The rim's on each of the failures were dented and looked similiar to those spent cartridges that did fire.

Is this an ammo problem or a firing problem???

Thanks, from a newbie !!!

 

[bigdawgbeav]

Congrats on the new purchase... I'll be next!

I am inclined to believe this is faulty ammo. It's .22LR, it's expected. If there were FTFs or FTEs I might be a little concerned. A few rounds not firing might just mean bad primer.

I've had this with pistols where the rim is dented just like others. I've rotated the round to strike a different spot and it's worked fine.

Try different rounds, see what works best for you.

 

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Another vote for faulty ammo. If the dent is the same and it didn't go off, then it's probably not the gun's fault.

 

[chuck s]

Rim fire cartridges can have gaps in the primer inside the rim area. Don't sweat a couple of bad cartridges.

-- Chuck

 

[mud king]

CCI should work just fine. I think the owners manual said it really likes the high velocity or mini mags. I think it also said it didn't like Thunderbolts. Not sure on that though. I've read reports from others who have used these brands of ammo and it worked just fine for them. I shoot Federal Champion Bulk 550 ammo from WalMart. Works the best for me.

 

[Aceman58]

Been shooting since 1974, I found that a new weapon needs to be shot pretty hard without really oiling it, just a basic cleaning and wipe down. Reason & Logic: The weapon needs to break in with the moving parts, once they break in (estimate rounds to be around 1500 to 2500 rds), then clean and oil well. I think it allows the weapon and all of it's moving parts to seat. I find this make the weapon very reliable over the course of it's performance, again just my opinion. I have a 45 cal that I purchased new and shot 100 rds, then put Tetra-Lube, it seems to have more issues than my Para-Ordiance.. Just funny like that..
Keepem in the X ring guys/gals..

 

[Cajun_22]

I vote for faulty ammo, I tried going cheap when I first got my 15-22 and had about 3-4% FtF. Since I have switched to mini mags, I have only 2 FtFs in close to 1000 rounds

 

[team sidewinder]

Just typical rimfire ammo. Even the best rimfire ammo will have a few misfires form time to time.

 

[soupy]

I also attribute this to some break-in hiccups as well. When I got my 15-22 back from S&W service, they replaced the recoil spring on the bolt assembly. Although I got better ejections of spent casings, I still got a few FTE's even though the rifle was just serviced. However after 150 rounds or so I have yet to have one failure in over 500 rounds since then using the same two bricks of Federal Bulk packs.

 

[seb5thman]

I agree.......the more it gets broken in the better it is going to perform. It seemed the more rounds I put thru it the better it performed.

 

[gotfish]

Just a thought, but did you also get a little oil in the magazine? I just picked up a new one and it got stuck a couple times at the range last week. A couple drops of CLP or WD40 and it will be fine the next time I'm out.