.22 LR Anomaly

[STEED]

I went shooting on Saturday with my S&W Model 422. I used some old ammo and after 50 rounds switched to some Federal Ammo that was quite old as well.

The gun fired the first round from the clip, but the second round would eject the casing and the third round seemed to explode. After several attempts at clearing the gun and re-firing brass was fractured in the clip and I even noticed the one round had blow the bottom off of the casing.

Is it the gun or the ammo?

 

[Sweeney]

Is the barrel clear?

 

[STEED]

Clean as a whistle.

 

[amm5061]

My guess is the ammo if you had no trouble with the first 50 rounds.

 

[STEED]

okay. thanks

 

[amm5061]

Try running 50-100 rounds of good ammo through it to find out for sure. CCI Minimags are the standard here. Much easier to find them now that people are backing off the full retard hoarding. If it eats the minimags with no trouble then it's the old Federal crap for sure.

 

[E.Stoner]

Could the third round have double-fed with enough force to strike rim and fire the round out of battery?

 

[STEED]

Possible. I will test it out with new ammo

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks amm5061

 

[45collector]

I try to stay away from real old .22lr. It always seems to create problems.

 

[MisterHappy]

Where's the fun in that? I had some ancient random .22.......there were Black Powder rounds in the lot! Awesome!

 

[Arto]

if you send the remaining ammo back to the factory with lot #'s they can check -
I've had bad headspace on a rifle cause the back disk of the 22 case separate off....

 

[mac1911]

Old 22ammo is not a issue.... how it's been stored over the years is another story.
I have some Russian made ammo called Junoir in both steel and brass cased. It's at least 40 years old. All goes bang and I think I have had maybe 10 FTfire in 50k rounds

 

[IPSC_DRL]

Old 22ammo is not a issue.... how it's been stored over the years is another story.
I have some Russian made ammo called Junoir in both steel and brass cased. It's at least 40 years old. All goes bang and I think I have had maybe 10 FTfire in 50k rounds

I've still got a brick or two of that "Junior" stuff in an ammo can around here somewhere. I got it from Sportsman's guide to give you an idea of how many years I have had it.

 

[boscru]

never had an issue like that with my 422, although i bought it used and had a bear of a time to get it to cycle reliably. (my third and last reason i will never buy a used gun again)

it's a reasonably complicated pistol, not for non-mechanically inclined to work on (that upside-down barrel is like --(wa da fuq???)

the pistol has to be almost totally dis-assembled to take the barrel out and you need a $30.00 tool to remove the barrel nut

i would definitely start with fresh ammo (not winchester obviously) and see what it does.

I hope that works, if not you may spend more to fix it than it's worth

 

[beergut]

is the pin stuck out or debris between the bolt face and the cartridge rim?- it might have fired the bullet before it was properly seated-

I make salute cannons for a hobby in my machine shop- a big newbie error is not packing the cannon properly- if they leave an air gap at the back when packing the cannon and fire the cannon, it can blow the back of the cannon apart because the detonation will move into the rear air pocket and slam the breech-opposed to a tight pack where the detonation moves forward.

is it possible that the pin (or other debris) hit the cartridge rim, exploding it as the bolt was still moving forward? that would (could) cause the rear of the 22 cartridge to blow apart, if it wasn't secured in the back of the bolt.

 

[slap shot]

Definitely the "clip", try a magazine.

 

[timbo]

Definitely the "clip", try a magazine.

Damn! You beat me to it.

 

[Zappa]

I've still got a brick or two of that "Junior" stuff in an ammo can around here somewhere. I got it from Sportsman's guide to give you an idea of how many years I have had it.

I used to get bricks of that stuff from SG back in the days when they would ship it to Mass, haven't seen any in ages, IIRC it worked pretty good and was cheap too.

 

[mac1911]

I used to get bricks of that stuff from SG back in the days when they would ship it to Mass, haven't seen any in ages, IIRC it worked pretty good and was cheap too.

My dad said it was Dean close to shooting free.
It was something silly like 60$ for 5000 rounds.

The fault of 22lr is its not tightly crimped like other ammo.
You can actually spin the bullets in the case. So it won't hold up as well as other center fire ammo in less than ideal storage.
My 22lr system is like this. If the lube is gone or there's oxidizing on the bullet or case it's regulated to the "plinking" guns.

 

[mac1911]

never had an issue like that with my 422, although i bought it used and had a bear of a time to get it to cycle reliably. (my third and last reason i will never buy a used gun again)

it's a reasonably complicated pistol, not for non-mechanically inclined to work on (that upside-down barrel is like --(wa da fuq???)

the pistol has to be almost totally dis-assembled to take the barrel out and you need a $30.00 tool to remove the barrel nut

i would definitely start with fresh ammo (not winchester obviously) and see what it does.

I hope that works, if not you may spend more to fix it than it's worth

That thing was SW answer to the MK series from ruger.
They tried to "trick it out" a little by having the lower barrel to reduce muzzle flip. The bolt is definitely odd.

 

[Sparky123]

I went shooting on Saturday with my S&W Model 422. I used some old ammo and after 50 rounds switched to some Federal Ammo that was quite old as well.

The gun fired the first round from the clip, but the second round would eject the casing and the third round seemed to explode. After several attempts at clearing the gun and re-firing brass was fractured in the clip and I even noticed the one round had blow the bottom off of the casing.

Is it the gun or the ammo?

I've owned a model 422 for years and never had a problem with it. It was always accurate and reliable, and a hell of a lot easier to clean than my Ruger Mark 3. Chances are it's the ammo. Try some CCI Mini Mags or Federal premiums. If you have any problems with the Mini Mags then you know it's the pistol. Good luck.

 

[Zappa]

never had an issue like that with my 422, although i bought it used and had a bear of a time to get it to cycle reliably. (my third and last reason i will never buy a used gun again)

it's a reasonably complicated pistol, not for non-mechanically inclined to work on (that upside-down barrel is like --(wa da fuq???)

the pistol has to be almost totally dis-assembled to take the barrel out and you need a $30.00 tool to remove the barrel nut

There really is no reason to remove the barrel from a 422/622 series gun frame unless it somehow got pitted and needs to be replaced. I have three of these (422, 2214, 622VR) and you only need to remove the slide to get full straight-through access to both ends of the barrel with a cleaning rod.
BTW, I bought the 622VR new (only made in 1997) and the other two were used (the 422 for only $125) and they all function perfectly. Removing the slide is a bit odd, but easy enough to do by using the factory chamber flag as a tool, it can also be done by using a spent .22 shell.

 

[scatter]

+1 for correct use of the word "anomaly." -1 for incorrect use of the word "clip." Net: zero

You haven't said if this is a new or used gun, and when/if you have cleaned it. My guess is a dirty chamber and/or a gunked up action, and your rounds are not chambering properly.

 

[boscru]

There really is no reason to remove the barrel from a 422/622 series gun frame unless it somehow got pitted and needs to be replaced]


true!! i only did for fun because it came with an extra brand new barrel and i love a challenge

 

[Zappa]

There really is no reason to remove the barrel from a 422/622 series gun frame unless it somehow got pitted and needs to be replaced

true!! i only did for fun because it came with an extra brand new barrel and i love a challenge

Why did it come with an extra barrel, were they anticipating that you'd have a boating accident ???