TLDR: Loctite from mounting rail on receiver dripped through screw holes onto firing pin assembly and caused failure to fire.
New 10/22. Stainless Carbine with synthetic stock.
My first 10/22 and my first post. Ran into an interesting problem and thought I would post the solution for others with similar issues.
Bought it. Cleaned it. Test fired it with cheapo Thunderbolt. Shot great, no malfunctions. Put maybe 200 rounds downrange.
Mounted a picatinny rail and red dot last night. Used blue 242 Loctite for the rail and the red dot screws.
Went to the range this morning to zero the red dot and had a FAILURE TO FEED on the first round from every magazine (10 round and 25 round Ruger mags). %%%?! Magazines seemed to be seating well, no play,but round were getting fed at the wrong angle. First round was jammed partially in the chamber. I would drop the mag, pull the bolt back, and work the round into the chamber. Reinsert mag. Once I got a round in the chamber I could go through the full mag with no malfunctions. Same with all mags. Not a mag issue.
Got the red dot zeroed, came home and disassembled the rifle to see what might be causing the FTF.
At first, I couldn't figure it out. Then I looked more closely at the bolt assembly and realized that the firing pin was frozen - it was not moving at all. Realized that there were two spots that looked like glue in the "valley" that the firing pin sits in. It was frozen and would not move back and forth at all. Couldn't figure out what it was at first, then realized that the Loctite from the rail mount the night before had dripped right into the action and locked the firing pin tite!
Weird that with the firing pin frozen in place it was firing reliably and only failing to feed on the first round, but it was!
Removed the firing pin (PITA to remove that hollow pin with the firing pin locked against it), cleaned out all that %%%% Loctite, and it feeds beautifully now.
If you are having failure to feed issues and have checked your mags, stock/receiver fit, etc. make sure your firing pin is seated and moving in the block correctly!
I looked at a bunch of google results for "Ruger 10/22 failure to feed FTF" but none of them highlighted this specific problem/solution, so hopefully posting this will help someone.
New 10/22. Stainless Carbine with synthetic stock.
My first 10/22 and my first post. Ran into an interesting problem and thought I would post the solution for others with similar issues.
Bought it. Cleaned it. Test fired it with cheapo Thunderbolt. Shot great, no malfunctions. Put maybe 200 rounds downrange.
Mounted a picatinny rail and red dot last night. Used blue 242 Loctite for the rail and the red dot screws.
Went to the range this morning to zero the red dot and had a FAILURE TO FEED on the first round from every magazine (10 round and 25 round Ruger mags). %%%?! Magazines seemed to be seating well, no play,but round were getting fed at the wrong angle. First round was jammed partially in the chamber. I would drop the mag, pull the bolt back, and work the round into the chamber. Reinsert mag. Once I got a round in the chamber I could go through the full mag with no malfunctions. Same with all mags. Not a mag issue.
Got the red dot zeroed, came home and disassembled the rifle to see what might be causing the FTF.
At first, I couldn't figure it out. Then I looked more closely at the bolt assembly and realized that the firing pin was frozen - it was not moving at all. Realized that there were two spots that looked like glue in the "valley" that the firing pin sits in. It was frozen and would not move back and forth at all. Couldn't figure out what it was at first, then realized that the Loctite from the rail mount the night before had dripped right into the action and locked the firing pin tite!
Weird that with the firing pin frozen in place it was firing reliably and only failing to feed on the first round, but it was!
Removed the firing pin (PITA to remove that hollow pin with the firing pin locked against it), cleaned out all that %%%% Loctite, and it feeds beautifully now.
If you are having failure to feed issues and have checked your mags, stock/receiver fit, etc. make sure your firing pin is seated and moving in the block correctly!
I looked at a bunch of google results for "Ruger 10/22 failure to feed FTF" but none of them highlighted this specific problem/solution, so hopefully posting this will help someone.