M&P 15-22 "Ups and Downs" w/Federals

[emjayw]

Hello, I've owned my 15-22 for several months now and have put around 1500 rounds through it. It very much likes the Federal 550 bulk-packed stuff from Wal-Mart along with some old Winchester hollow points I had laying around. I bought a box of CCI Mini-Mag HP's today and had 2 failures to load from the magazine...go figure. The CCI's gave me the best groups so far. WARNING: Be very, very wary of the Federal 325 pack from Wal-Mart maked "Auto Match". This junk was so bad that one in every 7 rounds was a "popper" which wouldn't cycle the action, meaning I had to manually clear it each time. After making myself shoot up this stuff... I went back to the 550 pack and had no further troubles. I'm very happy with my 15-22, now that I've found ammo that consistently works for me...it's very happy too. Having fun in Texas, Mike

 

[markw76]

Welcome to the board.

Not saying you're likely to overlook this, but double checking the rounds after loading a mag is always recommended. If they aren't in the proper left-right-left arrangement they will misfeed.

I've had good luck with both minimags and blazers, they work fine as the Federal bulkpack HPs for me. Remmy Goldens don't work well in anything I own....

 

[chuck s]

Good.......................................................................................................Bad

-- Chuck

 

[markw76]

That's good! Should make a stickie of that.

 

[emjayw]

I can assure you...I'm not a 15-22 newb. The CCI mags were loaded and checked just like all of the Federal mags...for some unknown reason 2 different rounds of CCI failed to exit the mag fully. One of them was so badly jammed under the front lips that I had to force it out before I could return to the line. It was a mystery to me. I did discover that holding the magazine against one's stomach while loading doesn't work all the time, the magazine loads best when it is held upright as against a table or bench. Just my .02. Mike in TX PS: Love shooting this little rifle...but would like a ten-rounder for target benchwork.

 

[markw76]

I can assure you...I'm not a 15-22 newb.

I thought everyone was a 15-22 noob!

The two misfeeds I've had were characterized by the bullet pointing vertically upward with the head end jammed forward between the feed lips. Those feed lips are rigid! Took a lot of finger muscle to pry the rounds free.

 

[Lynn]

I thought everyone was a 15-22 noob!

The two misfeeds I've had were characterized by the bullet pointing vertically upward with the head end jammed forward between the feed lips. Those feed lips are rigid! Took a lot of finger muscle to pry the rounds free.

That happened to me too. You're right about those magazines. Those babies 'are' tough. It took me a lot of time, wiggling that round ever so slightly, to finally get it to loosen up a tad.

 

[markw76]

That happened to me too. You're right about those magazines. Those babies 'are' tough. It took me a lot of time, wiggling that round ever so slightly, to finally get it to loosen up a tad.

I did the kidd gloves treatment the first time. The second time it happened though I just took a good two-fingered grip on what stuck upwards and reefed on it, pulling sideways on the round and forward off the feed lips. Took a few back-and-forths before it came free.

I was either going to show that mag who was boss or break it trying. It was too tough to break so I guess I won!

 

[Lynn]

Great post Mark. If that ever happens again I wont worry about breaking them now.

 

[score69]

Hi folks,

I've had several misfeed issues with the rounds getting stuck in the magazine lips as well. Is there an easier way to get them out when this happens? Maybe disassembling the magazine and pushing the round out the bottom?

As was mentioned, the magazines are tough and I'm not worried about damaging it, I'm more concerned about the round possibly going off if I pry at it too hard. Am I worrying too much, or is this a possibility? I wouldn't be as concerned if something like this happened with a centerfire cartridge, but with a rimfire, I get kind of nervous trying to remove them since it takes quite a bit of force to get them worked loose. Would it be safer to work the bullet out first and dump the powder? That way it's just a primer ignition if it goes off. Maybe I'm too concerned with it and it's not that big of a deal.

My 15-22 is taking a Fed-Ex ride right now anyway, but I can't wait to get it back. I just returned it to Academy a week ago to have them ship it back, so I don't even have a tracking number. I guess I'll just call S&W sometime next week to make sure it arrived and see what the status is.

Thanks

 

[skip62]

here's how I do it.

Clearing the jam from an AR15-22

I had a lot of practice at today. Not very happy this gun does this so often. I can't recreate the problem on demand. I tried several ways to load the mags, all the same result, at least 1 jam per mag. I make sure they are all staggered, still does it. Quite frankly, the mag shouldn't require being that careful when loading it. I'm not convinced that's the problem. I know a couple of times I loaded the mags wrong on purpose, and it ran right through that part and jammed later. It may be going back to S&W.

 

[skip62]

well, after doing a lot more reading here, I have some promising news. I adjusted the ejector and went out and shot 100 rounds, much better results, only 1 jam. I've never had an FTE, but I had erratic ejection. After tweaking the ejector, it was very consistent. The one jam I did have was after shooting 40 rounds as fast as I could pull the trigger. During this string I noticed that the rounds started sounding weaker, weaker. Not sure what's tightening up during rapid fire, but I think it caused the jam. More testing to be done.

 

[27 Beck]

Hi folks,

I've had several misfeed issues with the rounds getting stuck in the magazine lips as well. Is there an easier way to get them out when this happens? Maybe disassembling the magazine and pushing the round out the bottom?

As was mentioned, the magazines are tough and I'm not worried about damaging it, I'm more concerned about the round possibly going off if I pry at it too hard. Am I worrying too much, or is this a possibility? I wouldn't be as concerned if something like this happened with a centerfire cartridge, but with a rimfire, I get kind of nervous trying to remove them since it takes quite a bit of force to get them worked loose. Would it be safer to work the bullet out first and dump the powder? That way it's just a primer ignition if it goes off. Maybe I'm too concerned with it and it's not that big of a deal.

My 15-22 is taking a Fed-Ex ride right now anyway, but I can't wait to get it back. I just returned it to Academy a week ago to have them ship it back, so I don't even have a tracking number. I guess I'll just call S&W sometime next week to make sure it arrived and see what the status is.

Thanks

I just use a pair of pliars to get the cartridge out of the magazine when it gets stuck in the magazine.

 

[Lynn]

here's how I do it.

Clearing the jam from an AR15-22

Now that's helpful. Great vid. Thanks.

If it ever happens to me again ....

 

[skip62]

sad that something like that has to posted, but your welcome.

 

[Lynn]

sad that something like that has to posted, but your welcome.

Sad? Not really. That's normal. Every autoloader 22, has mals of some kind happen, from time to time.

 

[SteveK44]

Great post:

This is a great post with plenty of information on magazine jams. I plunked down my $449 a couple weeks back and am itching to run a couple hundred rounds through it. Thanks to this post I feel I'll be prepared for any magazine glitches.

SteveK44: