Bought a large quantity of Winchester M-22 cartridges at the local sporting goods store and thought I was ready for some lengthy shooting fun, but was very disappointed with the absolute inability of this ammo to fire two consecutive shots without stoppage in my SR22. Worked better in my other Ruger pistol, but still had about 1 dud cartridge out of 15. After about a half an hour's worth of clearing stoppages, I just gave up and went home. What gives? What is wrong with this ammo? Do I have to have a "black rifle" for this stuff to work?
Winchester M-22 cartridges
- Thread starter 98PK
- Start date
Help Support Ruger Forum:
I had the same problem with the Winchester 333 ammo in my SR22 it just didn't have the power to cycle the gun, had some Winchester Xpert ammo with me and it shot just fine, real disappoined to hear the Winchester M22 is so under powered I thought is was made for semiauto's, glad I never bought none, Federal bulk red box has worked best in my gun, these guns can be very ammo picky, what works in one SR22 don't always work in another SR22 either.
Precision32
Blackhawk
Check your firing pin protrusion. With the firing pin pushed hard against the back of the bolt, you should have a minimum of 0.025" to a maximum of 0.035".
sharpshooterassassin
Bearcat
I had 1000 rounds of the Winchester M-22 .22lr Ammo and now am down to one box of 500. I use it in my Ruger MKlll 22/45 Target Model. Out of the whole box I maybe had 3 failure to fires. Works in my pistol almost as good as CCI Copper Round Nose Ammo. I'd buy more but that's just my opinion.
m657
Buckeye
I use them in my brace of antique High Standard target pistols, along with my T22 Ruger. While I like them in general, they have a fail-to-fire rate in all these guns of about 2%. The last box of "325" I have on hand of the M22, cost me around $25 about 2 years ago at WalMart. Can't find them anywhere lately......the gun show yesterday, a guy had $85 on a box he was trying to sell.
Yes, I wondered about the firing pin potrusion measurement, but Haven't had this kind of trouble with other ammo and I fired this stuff in three different fire arms with the same misfire results. I have one unfired cartridge with three stamps in the rim! Just ain't gonna fire. I wondered if they just failed to prime these cartridges, and I also wondered if this so-called "tactical" ammo had some kind of primer that might be more "heat resistant" or somehow less apt to "cook-off" in some kind of tactical-zombi-crap shooting contest, or something. Oh well, always something to make you wonder.
6gun said:
None of my guns cared for the Win 555 and 333 bulk stuff either, traded my stash away earlier this year. Winchester used to be one of my favorite brands... still have one brick of Dyna-points and a few hundred rounds of Super X HPs, but that will likely be gone this fall.
The Winchester Xpert ammo has always worked best for me in any gun, use to be $13.98 a box of 550 at Walmart for years until the 2008 ammo hoarding, after that Walmart brought back this 555 crap thats not any where as good for lots more money, and the crappy 333 stuff for the same price the 550 Xpert was selling for.
Never tried M-22, but I've nothing but trouble with Winchesters 555 and 333 stuff. Lots of misfires, fluff loads, etc.. I have an AR15 with a dedicated .22 LR upper and it absolutely hates it. It either misfires, jams or fires with a partially open bolt. That is no fun, believe me. The most consistent ammo I've found is CCI Mini Mags and Standard Velocity ammo. Now if I could just find some....
6gun said:
I went plinking one time and found several Winchester Xpert rounds(unfired) on the ground from a previous shooter. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they all had firing pin hits in the rim but hadn't fired. I rotated the rounds in the chamber of my rifle until the firing pin dents were bottom dead center. After firing them a second time, some went bang and some didn't. I swore to never buy an Winchester Xpert ammo after that. I also have a low opinion of Remington Dunderdolts.
Here is some info on .22LR headspace that might be helpful. The rim thickness on .22LR ammo varies from one manufacturer to another--no exact standard of thickness. Of course then, if you have too much headspace, you will probably get light firing pin strikes and case bulges and/or ruptures. If you have too little headspace, you could get a slam fire(especially on a semiauto). If you do not know how to check the headspace, TAKE IT TO A GUNSMITH!
Pic on headspace:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/ralfus/NewPicture.png
Discussion of headspace:
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-364735.html
Pic on headspace:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/ralfus/NewPicture.png
Discussion of headspace:
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-364735.html
