Best ammo for Winchester mod. 63?

What ammo have you tried?

I would try a quality 22LR ammo like Mini Mag and go from there.

Sounds like a rusty/rough/dirty chamber problem to me.

Are you saying a fired round is getting stuck in the chamber? If so clean and dry the chamber really good. It may have some pitting or most likely a buildup of crud. Get some Hoppes no.. 9 solvent and go to work. You could have a weak extractor spring too.

351 WINCHESTER said:

You could have a weak extractor spring too.

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Mr. 351 Winchester makes the same suggestion I would have: If the fired case remains in the chamber after you open the action, the problem may very well be the extractor. Fouling and grit can accumulate under the extractor and cause it to over-ride the case rim. The problem is doubled with a cruddy chamber. Some ammo can also contribute, but finding ammo that works doesn't solve the problem.

Well, it was made for Winchester Super X.
But I think I would give it Minimags or Velocitors now.

I'd bet money your ammo isn't causing your problems, friend. It sounds to me like you need to take the gun down and really give it a good scrubbing. A lot of old 22's have corroded chambers from the old ammo, and I've found when having trouble such as you have, that it can be somewhat easily fixed. Simply chuck a short bit of cleaning rod and a bronze .30 caliber brush into your cordless drill, oil the brush lightly, and then run it into the chamber to polish it. That stopped a lot of jams and stovepipes in my guns. Also, give the bolt a good soak in Hoppes, and then blow it out with compressed air (canned air from wally-world works pretty good), then oil lightly and re-assemble. It only takes a few minutes, costs almost nothing, and will improve the function of your gun. Good luck!

Mac

In addition to giving the chamber a good cleaning as many have suggested, I would also look for a burr raised on the edge of the chamber caused by dry firing.

gpb said:

In addition to giving the chamber a good cleaning as many have suggested, I would also look for a burr raised on the edge of the chamber caused by dry firing.

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this could be it too. Check brass to see if there are any indentations from protrusions in the chamber. Brownells sells a tool to fix this. Since the gun is old, I’d change the extractor spring(s) too.

Ironic timing, I’ll be following this thread. I just received a customer rifle with feeding issues. It’s missing a few parts now as well, after other folks have worked on it, but I’m expecting to have it open this week, and running next weekend at the outside. Kind of a neat design, with the action plunger arranged out front. Like they had a slide action and wanted it to suddenly be a semiauto.

Mine is post war but it eats everything from cheapo to mini-mag without a glitch.

well those Winchester wildcats in the 70’s were dubious at best and maybe they had occasional issues, I don’t trust my memory anymore.

Varminterror said:

Ironic timing, I’ll be following this thread. I just received a customer rifle with feeding issues. It’s missing a few parts now as well, after other folks have worked on it, but I’m expecting to have it open this week, and running next weekend at the outside. Kind of a neat design, with the action plunger arranged out front. Like they had a slide action and wanted it to suddenly be a semiauto.

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Winchester made several models of that design. 1903, 1905, 1907, 1910 & the model 63.

351 WINCHESTER said:

Winchester made several models of that design. 1903, 1905, 1907, 1910 & the model 63.

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I had repaired a Win 94 Big Bore and a Browning 69T (SA22) for this guy, and upon delivery of the first two after I finished, he gave me an old Rem 121 and a Win 63 to repair also.

Varminterror said:

I had repaired a Win 94 Big Bore and a Browning 69T (SA22) for this guy, and upon delivery of the first two after I finished, he gave me an old Rem 121 and a Win 63 to repair also.

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What was wrong with the 63?

351 WINCHESTER said:

What was wrong with the 63?

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He said it hadn’t fed properly for years, so he took it to another smith at one point, who either couldn’t or at least didn’t get it running right. Then it went to another which then ended up coming home in parts - some missing. So it went into a safe for some years, and now I’m left to determine what is missing and what needs tuning to get it running properly. I just picked it up last weekend, one of the parts missing is the mag tube, so I have a repop tube on order to at least start function testing everything else.

Not so different is the Rem 121, it apparently was drilled and tapped for a side mounted scope mount years ago, missing the serial number by the finest hair-line you could imagine. It had been missing some parts as well after a trip to the smith for ejection issues, for example a couple of screws coming back obviously as generic plug screws, not the factory parts (or even a facsimile of). Tickling my whimsy, my customer has had this rifle for decades, his father’s old 22, but has sparsely shot it. When he handed it to me, pointing out the large holes D&T’d in the side of the receiver, asking for plug screws, I immediately also noticed his rear sight was on backwards - assuredly to offer clearance for the scope when installed - but in all of those years, he’d not noticed!

Fun little projects, which can take a lot of time and don’t make any money, but there’s not much more American than a 22 LR rifle, so getting them running right is a labor of love I never turn away.

I have a 1930 or early 40's Winchester 74 that was my dad's. Many parts were worn enough that they needed replacement or careful touching up. As well as good cleaning. I would agree that the chamber and extractor need very close attention. Also has it been rechambered to a very tight match chamber. I have an old 540XR that only likes match ammo. The bolt won't close on some ammo.

Varminterror said:

Not so different is the Rem 121, it apparently was drilled and tapped for a side mounted scope mount years ago, missing the serial number by the finest hair-line you could imagine. It had been missing some parts as well after a trip to the smith for ejection issues, for example a couple of screws coming back obviously as generic plug screws, not the factory parts (or even a facsimile of). Tickling my whimsy, my customer has had this rifle for decades, his father’s old 22, but has sparsely shot it. When he handed it to me, pointing out the large holes D&T’d in the side of the receiver, asking for plug screws, I immediately also noticed his rear sight was on backwards - assuredly to offer clearance for the scope when installed - but in all of those years, he’d not noticed!

Fun little projects, which can take a lot of time and don’t make any money, but there’s not much more American than a 22 LR rifle, so getting them running right is a labor of love I never turn away.

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I agree 100% about the fun and rewarding projects of getting old guns running right. My Dad's old 1950 model 121 that all of us kids shot when we were kids sat for approximately 45 years with some broken internal parts that relegated it to single shot only, which meant that one of us might have taken it out as a novelty for a few shots once in a while. A local gunsmith gave up on fixing it way back in the day for some reason that I can't recall - don't remember if he couldn't find the parts, thought they were too expensive, tried to fix it and failed so he put it back the way it was and returned it to my Dad, or what.

It probably hadn't been fired in at least 25 years, probably longer. A couple years ago I brought the gun home with me, planning to dig into it and see what it needed. When I looked at it I found a broken internal part, and apparently some missing parts, so I decided that I might be better off just finding a parts gun so I'd have everything I might need. A few months ago I snagged a 1951 model "parts gun" off of GB for $160. The parts gun was fully functional, didn't appear to have been fired very much, but the exterior had been allowed to rust and pit pretty badly. I was somewhat surprised to find that some of the parts that I needed required a little "fitting" to transfer from '51 model to the '50 model and work properly. They weren't different parts, but just needed a little clearancing in places. Perhaps those old guns had a good bit of hand fitting at the factory...

Now the '50 model 121 is fully functional, works beautifully, and is surprisingly accurate. It's not scoped so I'm limited by the iron sights, but I think it may be my most accurate 22 LR (out of several) with iron sights. I can out-shoot my iron sighted CZ 452s (Trainer, Lux, Scout, and Ultra Lux) with it, and that's saying something. Part of it is, I believe, that I'm more accurate with the U-notch and Bead sights that the 121 has than I am with the Patridge sights that the CZs have, but the 121 is really accurate.

How can this thread about wonderful old rimfires be so lacking in photos?

Charly2020! said:

Good evening y’all.

Just got an original Winchester model 63 (1939). This is a semiautomatic .22 Long Rifle (see picture)

However, I cannot fire more than three (3) rounds without having the next round stock or having the case from the round just fired stock in the chamber.

PLEASE, any advice as to what type of .22 works for this rifle?

Your help is really appreciated.

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Clean the chamber well, as recommended. Then, oil your ammunition and see if that increases the number of rounds till weapon malfunction. It should by breaking the friction between case and chamber. What I believe is that as your chamber fouls, with wax and lube, extraction becomes more difficult. It might be worth having someone measure, or just take a 22lr reamer and "clean out the chamber". It is possible that you have a tight chamber from a worn chambering reamer.

Charly2020! said:

Howdy everyone. Thank you very much for your input.

The rifle is working incredibly well. there were no issues with the rifle itself; as I mentioned, it is in very very good shape. The answer to my problem was the ammo.

Originally, I tested 40 grain Federal ammo and IT DIDN'T work AT ALL...... because it wasn't a High Velocity round. However, I tried the following AGUILA cartridges, and they solved the problem.

Aguila Super Extra and Aguila Interceptor, both 40 grains. I can shoot 'em as fast as my finger can pull the trigger without any issues at all.

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Glad you found the solution, My 540XR has a tight chamber and only likes match or high quality ammo.