[Larz]

My sons Ruger 10/22 Missfires (gives a soft hit) out of 10 it will misfire on two or three, CCI Mini mags (solid and hollow points) Remington Golden hollow points and Federals all hit soft. The only bullets that works without any problems are CCI Blazers. I've had lots of Ruger 10/22's over the years and never had this happen with any one that I had. Can anybody give me any advice on how to fix it. It's a new gun and I always clean it after every time we shoot it. I have read the other threds on this subject and I think that maybe that I might need to re-stake it or pin it to limit the pin travel. Any comments?

 

[4583]

I'm a newbie here too but I'll suggest that you check to see if the bolt is closing fully. The extractor can get stopped short if the barrel cut-out is dirty. Try using a toothpick to dig out any fouling.

Also, check to see that the bolt seats flush with the barrel.

If you've had the hammer spring out (or even if you didn't) you might check to verify that the groove in the spring retainer is pointing up, not down.

Did the rifle misfire out of the box or did it run OK for a while?

WW

 

[Larz]

10/22 misfireing

Winston, Thanks for the input I just finished putting the 10/22 back together, the bolt seams to be closeing all the way. Its looks to be very clean and with no visable fouling. The only thing that I notice on it is that it seams to be sloppy from side to side.
The hammer spring was upside down and was not in the center of the hammer strut washer, I corrected all of these things and I will try it this weekend. P.S It misfired from day one, I just bought it new last Christmas.

 

[The Shootist]

Did you clean it before the 1st shooting?

The lube in the gun from the factory is really a preservative, and will "varnish" the chamber if not cleaned out prior to firing the gun for the 1st time. This coating will make some cartridges not want to seat all the way into the chamber, and the firing pin uses too much energy seating the round, making it unable to dent the primer.

The bolt will still close all the way, but the round protrudes into the "headspace", or the indention in the bolt face. A thorough cleaning of the chamber, and possibly headspacing the bolt may fix this.

To find out, try dropping a few rounds into the chamber by hand. The rounds should drop into the chamber and stop with the rim against the breach face, if not the chamber may be fouled.

These guns also have an occasional problem where the slot in the firing pin is too short causing light strikes.

 

[106]

Did you clean it before the 1st shooting?

The Shootist,

Did you clean it before the 1st shooting?

My thoughts exactly........! !

 

[vmaxx]

I'll put my two cents in, you may have a firing pin that is just a tad short or one that is stopping to short from between the barrel and the round.

 

[899]

An additional note about the "firing pin".

It is a "stamped steel" manufactured item. The "stamping" process can leave rough edges that can cause it to "drag" in the bolt's channel.

"dressing down", (a machinists' term for "smoothing out"), the edges and polishing the sides, works wonders!

While ya got the bolt "disassembled" clean off all preservative and/or oil and give everything a coat of "dry-lube" Teflon.

 

[Jim W.]

miss-fires

I made sure that Larz's 10/22 was cleaned before it was fired the first time. The various rounds fit very easily (loosely) into the chamber and the chamber is pristine. There is more headspace than I am used to seeing, but I doubt it's excessive. The bolt fit seems sloppy from side to side; to the point that the flat face outboard to the recess in the bolt face can hit the rim on a chambered shell. Larz says that the bolt seems to be fully closed after each shot but I want to check this myself. If the bolt face is not fully against the barrel, part of the hammer's force will be absorbed and a missfire may result.

As Larz has said, the firing pin can move up and down in the bolt to a great extent. The firing pin strike is very light and only on the top edge of the case. The staking on the top of the bolt is very shallow, allowing the firing pin to float higher than it should. I doubt that this is the whole problem. If you seat a case by hand, the primer strike looks normal. This makes me think that the slot in the pin and the length is OK. I also removed all punch burrs and smoothed the sides of the pin and checked the slot in the bolt.

We may have a feeding problem from the magazime that is shaving some lead and fouling the round as loads into the chamber. I will be doing some tests to troubleshoot it further. Feel free to make other suggestions if you have any.

Thanks

 

[Jim W.]

Hey Larz,
I know now what is causing the missfires on your 10/22. It may or may not be the anser for some of the other postings, but here is what is happening on yours.

Like I mentioned in my other post, there is a lot of side to side play in the bolt. About 3 out ten tries feeding shells from the magazine, the bolt is not fully closed. The edge of the recess in the bolt face is not lined up with the chambered case on the opposite side from the extractor. This edge has even damaged the outer radius of the case rims. When the hammer falls, the bolt goes the rest of the way closed but alot of hammer's energy is absorbed. OK, That is the reason, but what is the solution???

I'm not sure what can be done, short of sending this hunk of junk back to Ruger. The reciever or the bolt is likely defective. In any case is still under warranty, send it back.

Jim W.

 

[4583]

The edge of the recess in the bolt face is not lined up with the chambered case on the opposite side from the extractor

Jim,
Any chance that the extractor is defective or not seated properly? This could push the case over like you describe.
You might check to be sure that the arm of the extractor dosen't enter the recess.

WW

 

[Larz]

Misfires

Thanks for looking at it Jim.
I took it back to Sportsman's Warehouse and they are sending it
back to Ruger for me, hopefuly they will fix it. Thank's for every
one's input. They said three to four week's.

 

[Jim W.]

Hey Winston Wolfe,

I looked at the extractor very close and it is not the problem. The bolt doesn't line up with the chamber (part of the time) due to all the side to side clearance. when the bolt is fully closed, with no shell in the chamber, you can move the bolt about .085 in. sideways. When there is a fully seated shell in the chamber, the recess in the bolt face won't go around the rim about 3 out of 10 tries when you let it slam shut. If you let the bolt slide very slowly, the non recessed face of the bolt hits the rim every time not letting the bolt close. You need some clearance in the system but this is way more than this mechanical engineer can understand. This is a Ruger quality problem so they can fix it......

Thanks for your ideas.

Jim W.

 

[Jim W.]

Hey Guys,

As a followup to this story, the following things have happened.

Since this was a new gun, we sent it back to Ruger for repairs. It came back with a note that said they replaced the firing pin and barrel. Since this didn't seem like what we expected for a fix, we tried it again. This time we got about 50 shots before the same old problem was back. The bolt still has the same slop from side to side and does not close all the way about 30 percent of the time. We noted that the lighter recoiling ammo is worse since the bolt doesn't slam back forward with the same gusto.

The rifle has gone back to Ruger for another try at it. I wonder if there is a Lemon Law for rimfires??? Larz is not happy. I think he would rather have his money back. The turn around time was about a month so his son was not happy as well.

Jim W.