M&P15-22 kaboom

[autobotaz]

Guys I was at the range Saturday shooting my M&P15-22 and had what appears to be a double charged 22 round. I was using some Federal Auto Match and had no problems until I got to my 5th mag. Pop, pop, pop, bam!! It was a really loud report and smoke poured out from the action and the gap in the upper and lower. Pulled it apart and saw no immediate damage but my mags would not stay locked in. Got it home and found a picece of brass lodged in the mag catch which kept it from seating fully. Called S&W and they want to look at the rifle. I also called Federal and they want me to send my stock of Auto Match to them for testing and said they will send me some new ammo. Both S&W and Federal are sending call tags to ship everything back. Stand up customer service so far. In case others have the same ammo my lot# is 1GZ647 and was all bought at Walmart in Goodyear,AZ within a day or two due to their purchasing limits. Will post updates.

 

[flat top]

...please keep us posted! I have some of the same ammo, and have shot it once in my model 18 with no problems...but!!!

 

[TxShooter2k9]

wow, crazy stuff, im glad there both taking care of you. Shouldnt take to long to get your 15-22 back.

 

[27 Beck]

Sounds like you may have had an out of battery experience. (bolt not all the way closed when gun is discharged) That is a fairly common occurence shooting .22s in any manufacturers semi-auto .22.

Anything broken on your 15-22? When I had an OOB the extractor went missing. S&W fixed it for me.

Some of my Federal AM .22s actually sound weak. I have had several that sounded weak, and have stopped and checked the barrel to make sure the bullet cleared. Maybe you got some of my AM powder in one of your rounds.

 

[allglock]

Sounds like you may have had an out of battery experience. (bolt not all the way closed when gun is discharged) That is a fairly common occurence shooting .22s in any manufacturers semi-auto .22.

Anything broken on your 15-22? When I had an OOB the extractor went missing. S&W fixed it for me.

Some of my Federal AM .22s actually sound weak. I have had several that sounded weak, and have stopped and checked the barrel to make sure the bullet cleared. Maybe you got some of my AM powder in one of your rounds.

+1 on the out of battery firing. How many rounds through it?

 

[autobotaz]

Nothing broken or damaged that I can see. I cleaned it thoroughly and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. I have shot 1200+ rds through the rifle with zero problems so far.

I doubt an out of battery firing incident as I was slow firing groups and the round did not go off until I pulled the trigger so it wasn't any kind of slam fire . Now is it possible that the bolt was not fully closed? Maybe

 

[slvrblt00]

I had the same thing happen twice on my first trip to the range with winchester expert hv rounds. Nothing lodged after and everything seemed fine but haven't been into guns long so I called the gun shop i got it from and he said no big deal just bad round. Since then i've fired prob another 900 rounds without it happening again, but haven't used the rest of the winchester box yet. Should I call smith and wesson? Winchester? I paid alot of money for a fancy .22 so I want to make sure its fine. thanks The winchester expert hv ammo i've got the bullet is loose in the casing. My federal bulk (walmart) and some other winchester cheapy (walmart) have not had this problem.

 

[TxShooter2k9]

I wouldnt worry to much about it, seems like its doing fine. They have a Lifetime warranty from what ive read, so if something happens in the long or short run, your covered.

 

[snakekiller]

s&w federal match ammo

Me and my son was out shooting my fathers new s&w22 with federal match ammo we got from walmart, i would say the gun has around 150 rounds through it. We had shot a few of the rounds in the mag and we heard a light pop and the bullet flew out of the barrel and landed about 30 ft on the ground. I don't think it was the gun i think it was just a dud round. Never had that to happen before. We love the gun we have two of them. Also rem. gold will not shoot in either one. Regular federal 550 bulk and cci does fine , also the match except for the one dud. There may be a manf problem somewhere.

 

[27 Beck]

Me and my son was out shooting my fathers new s&w22 with federal match ammo we got from walmart, i would say the gun has around 150 rounds through it. We had shot a few of the rounds in the mag and we heard a light pop and the bullet flew out of the barrel and landed about 30 ft on the ground. I don't think it was the gun i think it was just a dud round. Never had that to happen before. We love the gun we have two of them. Also rem. gold will not shoot in either one. Regular federal 550 bulk and cci does fine , also the match except for the one dud. There may be a manf problem somewhere.

In my other posts I have mentioned light sounding reports from shooting Federal Auto Match ammo. I stopped and checked to make sure the round cleared the barrel a couple of times. Maybe Federal is taking Sub Sonic to a new level

 

[autobotaz]

Well the little smithy is headed back to S&W so now it is just a waiting game. Also had 7 boxes of AutoMatch headed back to Federal and awaiting replacement ammo. Good thing was not a dime spent on my part for shipping.

 

[TxShooter2k9]

wel, hopefully you get it back in 3-4 weeks or less. Good luck.

 

[autobotaz]

Well I got her back a couple days ago. The paper work said it was upgraded to current spec. The bolt appears to be new as mine had some distinctive marks on it. The barrel appears to be the same one. Hopefully will make it to the range in the next few days. Top marks to S&W for the great service.

 

[27 Beck]

Well I got her back a couple days ago. The paper work said it was upgraded to current spec. The bolt appears to be new as mine had some distinctive marks on it. The barrel appears to be the same one. Hopefully will make it to the range in the next few days. Top marks to S&W for the great service.

Glad you got your 15-22 back. Did S&W give you any extra mags?

 

[TxShooter2k9]

Glad to hear you got it back, good luck with it.

 

[Lynn]

I am also happy for you autobotaz.

In all of the out of battery and manufacturer error overloaded ammo, incidents I have read about, not one mention of damaged polymer. That says something about how tough that stuff is.

 

[steveno]

I have had some problems with Federal Automatch lot # 1BW425. some rounds have fired with the bullet making it out of the barrel but not cycling the bolt in a Ruger Government Target pistol. I'm not sure if the bullets would have made it out of the barrel of a rifle. there have been a couple that possibly fired out of battery considering the fire out of the ejection port but I found the cases and they were not ruptured. I have shot a lot of this ammo so I with good results so these problems were kind of surprising.

 

[27 Beck]

I have had some problems with lot # 1BW425. .

Assume you are talking AutoMatch here. Yes, I also looked a couple of times at light sounding discharges to make sure the bullet cleared the barrel.

 

[steveno]

Federal Automatch

 

[autobotaz]

Went to the range today so I figured I would post a report. The little Smithy shot great. Had a few stove pipes on feeding not ejecting but I think I can attribute that to some hastily loaded mags and that my friend had the mag resting on the shooting table when it stove piped (FTF) on him twice. I shot a full mag of CCI mini mags rapid fire after the last stove pipe and had no problems.

Other than not loading the mag properly I would be interested if anyone has a theory on what else would cause a FTF stove pipe in this weapon.

And yes I did get two additional mags from S&W when the rifle came back.