M&P 22 Jams Federal Bulk Ammo

[tothemax]

I finally got my hands on a like new M&P 22. It was presented as having been fired less than 200 rounds.

The gun appears to be in good condition and looks like new. I took it to the range for the first time & it would consistently fail to extract the Federal bulk ammo 40 grain. This is the common practice ammo which says "Federal Target performance grade" and comes in a 325 rounds packs.

I have a lot of this ammo and was hoping to use it up with this 22. At first I thought something was majorly wrong with the gun. Gave it a very good cleaning and still it failed to extract every round. Every round jammed. I changed ammo to to the CCI Mini-Mags 36 grain. WOW!! what a difference!! no jams , no failure to extract!! gun works and shoots GREAT!! I went through the entire box of 300 CCI Mini-Mags without a single misfire, or failure.

Is this common or normal for this 22? I thought some of the reviews I read on the M&P 22 before buying it stated it would eat any kind of ammo without ever jamming.

Any advice? Just stick with the CCI mini-mags and forget about the other ammo? Send it back to M&P?

Any and all advice welcome.. Thank you

P

 

[F75gunslinger]

I would say keep using the stuff that works..and once in awhile try the other stuff. I have a Walther P-22 that is VERY picky when it comes to ammo. Over time it has gotten better as the slide has worn in a bit.

 

[adam6979]

Mine does not seem to like the Federal either. After suggestions of other members I will be trying the CCI minimags next time I order as well.

 

[tothemax]

Tnx Guys, Am glad to hear that others are having similar issues. your responses are much appreciated.

 

[g27racing]

I have a Ruger MK1, an M&P22 and the M&P 15-22 and none of them cycle properly with Federal.

 

[Trons]

My M&P .22FS tends to have difficulties with Federal as well. It's gotten a little better as more rounds have gone through it (well over 2000 now), but I tend to save the Federal for our bolt action rifle that we use. For bulk stuff, my .22 loves the Remington Thunderbolts (cheaper then CCI).

 

[Louchia]

I also have a FS M&P22 which does not do well with Fed bulk. Generally it is very reliable with most any CPRN If I had to recommend, it would be any CCI, Blazer incl., also Rem Golden. All of those run flawless in mine. I stay away from Thunderbolt because it leads the barrel more that any other ammo.

 

[Ranger17]

what is weird on the Fed ammo (for what i've noticed anyway) is some boxes of the 525ct hp I have ran near perfectly thru my Buckmark, and i have a couple boxes of same ammo that actually came in the same 5 box can where it's common to have issues (usually ftf) with maybe 3-4 out of 100. And most of those ftf do fire the second time i try. Maybe just a bad batch(?) every now and then...... i do prefer mini mags but the fed just seemed to be more available when I was looking....

 

[NJM15]

I finally got my hands on a like new M&P 22. It was presented as having been fired less than 200 rounds.

The gun appears to be in good condition and looks like new. I took it to the range for the first time & it would consistently fail to extract the Federal bulk ammo 40 grain. This is the common practice ammo which says "Federal Target performance grade" and comes in a 325 rounds packs.

I have a lot of this ammo and was hoping to use it up with this 22. At first I thought something was majorly wrong with the gun. Gave it a very good cleaning and still it failed to extract every round. Every round jammed. I changed ammo to to the CCI Mini-Mags 36 grain. WOW!! what a difference!! no jams , no failure to extract!! gun works and shoots GREAT!! I went through the entire box of 300 CCI Mini-Mags without a single misfire, or failure.

Is this common or normal for this 22? I thought some of the reviews I read on the M&P 22 before buying it stated it would eat any kind of ammo without ever jamming.

Any advice? Just stick with the CCI mini-mags and forget about the other ammo? Send it back to M&P?

Any and all advice welcome.. Thank you

P

I have a Sig 226 MK 25 with a .22 conversion, had tried all the .22's I could get my hands on settled on two, Mini's and Federal auto match target 40 gr Stingers ok too but hard to find.
The bulk Federals don't work , I have many that didn't work but they go in my Henry

 

[Shooting Padre]

Mine runs just about anything now, but when it was new, picky picky picky. It took some time, about 2K rounds before it manned up. Now I really love shooting it. Now, No Ammo!! My luck.

 

[mustangman]

I have a little over 1000 rounds through mine and have run into problems with 2 types of ammo. One is the Winchester White Box 333 bulk and the other is the Federal Champion Target in the blue box. I have run CCI standard vel, Thunderbolts, Aguila, Norma Tac-22, and assorted "coffee can" ammo with no problems.

 

[avigar]

The ones I've had problems mostly with are the Federal Lightning bulk packs. These are the 40 grain non-copper plated solids. Otherwise, my .22 FS works well with the Federal HP plated bulk packs and CCI MiniMags. I need to shoot more ammo through it to loosen things up a bit.

 

[hoc9sw]

When you say "325 pack" I associate the Federal AutoMatch. I would have expected that to work well. It runs for me while several other Federal / American Eagle varieties will not. (I have the .22 compact).

Check to be sure that the extractor is clean and moves as it should. A small bit of buildup on the bolt behind it could cause issues of not gripping the casing properly.

But having problems with specific ammo is not unusual, I'm afraid.

 

[DocSunShine]

My new .22 Compact ran flawless with CCI standard velocity but same day at the range, another .22 Compact wouldn't run with CCI. Next range visit used a friend's federal which wasn't running great in his ruger. I had a couple failures to feed but ran pretty decent overall, my friend couldn't get through a mag without at least 1 failure to feed or failure to eject in my .22 Compact.

My observations are federal .22 is weak, couple this with operator error (limp wristing) it can make it virtually unusable. Same ammo with proper grip will run, but perhaps not 100% (good enough to plink with). Once my can is out of NFA jail in a few weeks (Surefire Ryder 22a), I suspect federal will run 100% with the can on because of the increased blowback.

 

[eastriver]

DocSunShine - Newbie question. We can not use "cans" here in Canada, and so I'm unfamiliar with them. Noted your comments on the SurefireRyder 22A. looked at the info from their site and am wondering how cans reduce muzzle blast, and if I understand your comment, also increase blowback. Would that mean that one could use sub-sonic ammo where normally a firearm don't like the subsonic stuff?

 

[deltacottonboy12]

Same here on low end 22 ammo. They do not cycle well. The cci mini mag works flawlessly. I will spend to extra coin to enjoy the gun. Love the gun as well.

 

[Big Jeff]

I got some experience with this. I have about 3000 rounds through my M&P 22. I have documented which ammo works well and what doesn't.

Since .22 ammo was a bit scarce for a while I went through a bunch of different types of ammo. So here is my list.

Federal Premium Gold Medal HV Match. Lots of FTF's. I didn't like this ammo at all.

Scorpion... .22lr HV. This ammo was a bit scary. Had a couple case separations and one very scary squib load. Lucky I had my saftey glasses on for those case separations. I wouldn't recommend it.

American Eagle 38 grain copper plate hp hv (ae22). Worked great.

American Eagle 40 Grain Solid HP HV (e5022). Worked great.

CCI Mini Mag 22 Lr Choot em! Copper plated hollow point 36 grain. These are a fantastic round.

Winchester Western 36 Grain plated hollow point bulk. Worked decent. I got many FTE and FTF with these. Cheap round good for target and great for practicing your FTE and FTF drills. lol Since 22 ammo is in better supply near me, I probably would steer away from these.

Aguila - 40 Grain Super Extra worked as well as cci mini's. These were some nice rounds. THey have a hollow point version too. I would imagine they would work just as well. Was a very nice round.

Federal .22 lr 40 grain auto match - bulk. did not work well at all

Remington Thunderbolt 22 Ammo. TB22A. I was actually surprised, these worked great, but they were a bit dirty.

CCI mini mag 22 lr HP 36 grain - CCI seems feed really well through the M&P. Great ammo, no issues.

Winchester Super X 40 grain - Shot awesome... as well as the CCI.

I also bought a Bucket o Bullets from Remington. 22 golden bullet. 1400 count bulk. I was surprised to say the least. These things feed great, its rare to get a FTF. They are a bit dirty but was a good deal, and great for practice.

YMMV but thats been my experience with the M&P 22 and different ammo.

-Big Jeff