Stainless 10/22 Sporadic Light Strike

[CrazyIvan]

I'm trying to troubleshoot my wife's Stainless 10/22. After a really thorough cleaning, we can fire about 200 rounds or so with no failures, then it starts experiencing light primer strikes. I've also noticed that when this occurs it often looks like the primer strikes are smaller and more focused on the outside edge of the cartridge rims, as if the firing pin was experiencing lateral movement as well as linear movement.

For lubrication, we only use a couple drops of oil to lightly coat the bolt and recoil spring/guiderod. I tried using grease at one point, but that lead to a higher failure rate. The ammunition we've been using most frequently is Norma Tac-22. It's a lubricated round, similar to the wolf match ammo.

Has anyone else experienced this? Could the coating on the ammunition be gumming things up? Could this be a problem with the firing pin itself or the headspacing? The rifle doesn't seem to have that much carbon in the barrel or bolt face when I clean it. My 10/22s (50'th anniversary takedown and a 1990's 10/22 international) have no problem with this ammo and can shoot all day long with no problems.

Cheers,
Ivan

 

[Gunny1]

Sounds like a dirty or gummed up firing pin. Have you tried something as simple as removing the bolt assembly and spraying Gun Scrubber into the nooks and crannies?

Youtube has plenty of videos to help in disassemble/cleaning if needed such as this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eobAjygRpIo

 

[Pinecone]

And try using more lube on the firing pin channel. Lube also is a carrier to help move gunk out of an area.

 

[CrazyIvan]

I'll give removal/cleaning a try before replacing any parts. It didn't seem like the problem since the firing pin seems to move freely, but I guess it doesn't take much of a reduction in movement to screw things up.

Cheers,
Ivan

 

[BigDaddy]

Reminds me of my MK 2 light strike thread.
Some more info would be helpful.

Has the rifle always done this, is it a new rifle?
What did you install that is not Ruger? Charging handles, barrels, bolts etc.
Have you ever disassembled the bolt or trigger?
Does it do this with other ammo?

One theory is that the bolt is not fully closing and the firing pin is pushing the round to seat in the chamber rather than making it go bang. This may be an ammo problem, a chamber problem or the bolt slowing down on rough spots on the receiver.

The other theory is that the firing pin can move vertically in the bolt. This is widely believed and their are many threads on the Ruger forum of the "BB" fix to prevent this movement. The "roll pin" fix sounds a bit more elegant.

Trouble shooting hints:
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=566116&highlight=firing+pin

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=542510&highlight=firing+pin

 

[BigDaddy]

FP movement should be minimum 0.025" to a maximum of 0.035"

I would not remove any material from the back of the bolt until all other possibilities have been eliminated.

I forgot, you have other rifles, try swapping bolts and see if the problem follows the bolt.

 

[CrazyIvan]

Reminds me of my MK 2 light strike thread.
Some more info would be helpful.

Has the rifle always done this, is it a new rifle?
What did you install that is not Ruger? Charging handles, barrels, bolts etc.
Have you ever disassembled the bolt or trigger?
Does it do this with other ammo?

One theory is that the bolt is not fully closing and the firing pin is pushing the round to seat in the chamber rather than making it go bang. This may be an ammo problem, a chamber problem or the bolt slowing down on rough spots on the receiver.

The other theory is that the firing pin can move vertically in the bolt. This is widely believed and their are many threads on the Ruger forum of the "BB" fix to prevent this movement. The "roll pin" fix sounds a bit more elegant.

Trouble shooting hints:
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=566116&highlight=firing+pin

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=542510&highlight=firing+pin

Thanks for the information! To answer some of the questions, the rifle is about 2 years old (purchased in 2013). When we first purchased it, we had no failures of any type. We were using mostly CCI Minimags, Aguila high velocity (both copper washed) and Norma Tac 22 (standard velocity, light oil/grease coating). During the height of the ammo shortage, we could only consistently find the Norma ammo online so we bought it when we could. The only non-Ruger part we have installed is a Kidd bolt release. I installed this same part on my other 10/22's as well with no ill effect.

I was thinking about the bolt not fully closing, or there being resistance due to casting marks on and general extreme roughness of the "stainless" receiver. I was thinking of polishing the inside of the receiver to see if that helped, but haven't had time yet. I also may take a look at the charging handle/guide rod. When I inspect it next to another 10/22 guide-rod, it seems to have more distance between the resting point of the charging handle and the end of the guide-rod, just a little bit, but I suppose that could be enough to keep the bolt out of battery. It looks like I have my work cut out for me! LOL

Cheers,
Ivan

 

[photoracer]

Receiver is alloy aluminum. They have not made a stainless receiver in many years. Its possible that with a pinned bolt the issue might go away (most aftermarket bolt suppliers drill the bolt for a pin to keep the FP from riding up). However the charging handle and guiderod assembly holds it down also but not as much. TAC-22 is subsonic ammo (slightly) compared to most of the HV ammo like CCI-MM you mention. All .22 ammo has lube on it with no exceptions. This is to lube the barrel and prevent leading. As a competitive shooter I lube my rimfires as little as possible because the less you lube them the longer they can go without getting gummed up from powder residue. I always lube the guiderod because the bolt moving cleanly is the #1 thing to do to keep things working correctly. I do clean them thoroughly but I don't do that often, maybe every 1k-1.5k rounds at the most. I shoot exclusively high velocity ammo rated in the 1200-1240 FPS range. I think it works the action better than subsonic and match ammo. But I don't need match ammo's better accuracy downrange because I seldom shoot past 40 yards in matches. Some people like to polish off all the roughness in the inside of the receiver (I did not on either of my built from scratch 10/22s). Polishing everything can't hurt but is not really necessary in most cases. The guys on RimfireCentral have a lot of knowledge plus some are gunsmiths. And when in doubt you can send it back to Ruger and have them look at it. Most manufacturers ignore any warranty and just fix guns they make with any problems regardless of how long it has been.

 

[boatbod]

My guess is that fouling is making the rounds harder to chamber so the bolt isn't always going fully into battery. When the hammer falls, some of the energy is absorbed closing the bolt and the remainder transfers to the firing pin. Mostly this will result in light strikes, but just occasionally it may cause an OOB if the round fires before being hammered home into the chamber.

You might want to check for burrs on the edge of the chamber. Polish the feed ramp a bit and with enough break-in it should get better.

 

[photoracer]

I'm trying to troubleshoot my wife's Stainless 10/22. After a really thorough cleaning, we can fire about 200 rounds or so with no failures, then it starts experiencing light primer strikes. I've also noticed that when this occurs it often looks like the primer strikes are smaller and more focused on the outside edge of the cartridge rims, as if the firing pin was experiencing lateral movement as well as linear movement.

For lubrication, we only use a couple drops of oil to lightly coat the bolt and recoil spring/guiderod. I tried using grease at one point, but that lead to a higher failure rate. The ammunition we've been using most frequently is Norma Tac-22. It's a lubricated round, similar to the wolf match ammo.

Has anyone else experienced this? Could the coating on the ammunition be gumming things up? Could this be a problem with the firing pin itself or the headspacing? The rifle doesn't seem to have that much carbon in the barrel or bolt face when I clean it. My 10/22s (50'th anniversary takedown and a 1990's 10/22 international) have no problem with this ammo and can shoot all day long with no problems.

Cheers,
Ivan

You do realize that the 10/22 firing pin has no limit pin on top to prevent it from riding up except for the charging handle bar that goes over the top of the bolt? Some 3rd party companies make extra bucks by drilling a 10/22 bolt for a pin to limit travel. Some that sell their own bolts put ones in theirs also. And actually nobody on RFC is sure how much play the charging bar actually allows. As a result most who upgrade the bolt in their 10/22 opt for one with the pin installed. Kidd and JWH make and supply bolts that way.
Earlier this year JWH sold off a bunch of cast steel bolts they made when they switched to CNC with the mods and such for only $40 a piece on Ebay. I bought one I have not done anything with except trial fitting because I went another direction. If you are interested I would be willing to sell it to you at the discount price because it is just sitting in a box. If you don't like it I will take it back. Here is what it is:

http://jwhcustom.com/index.php/jwh-custom-brutus-bolt.html

Mine is painted (or powder coated) black (by JWH) because it was going in an all black rifle I built as the bolt was the only polished part when I built it. You could polish that off. Or you could spend about $100 for one of their CNC bolts which can be bought engraved if you wanted it made special for her.

All .22 rounds are lubricated no matter who makes them although the type and amount of lube varies.