Ruger 10/22 and misfires

In my experience, Federal bulk needs a heavier strike. Dunno why. However, 1 out of 20 is a lot. I had maybe 1 out of 50 rounds where a 2nd blow will ignite it.

There are several things to consider...

How did the 10/22 shoot before the new hammer?

Could be a bad box of Federal Bulk ammo?

Try a different box or Brand...... If the other brands have the same result then it is most likely your rifle

I have a stock 10/22, and I cannot ever remember a misfire or FTF ever with Federal Bulk ammo...?

The only bulk ammo I have ever had FTF's with is the Remington gold bulk ammo,..... and even then it was only in my 22lr pistols no troulble in any of my 22lr rifles 10/22 or the Marlin 60, 795, or my Henry.

The Federal Champion 525 valu-pak seems to cycle better for me than any other bulk ammo, and it is the lowest priced Brand of the bulk packs in my part of the country.

Try some CCI's, Winchesters Super X,and Aguila and see if the problem remains. Sometimes guns have a favorite ammmo . Most of mine do

Hope this helps ,........Tentwing

I have the exact same hammer installed and little else. Federal bulk rocks in my 10/22. Winchester 333 has had several FTFeed or FTFire.

It sounds odd to me because Federal bulk goes bang (consistantly) for me every time. That's with 3 different rifles and not one failure. If after trying other brands and the problem pursists I would replace the firing pin spring and or the firing pin itself.

You might check the hammer spring strut assembly. There is a C shaped washer at the back end that retains the hammer spring and acts as the the rear support for the assembly. The assembly needs to be installed with the notch in the washer facing up. With it facing down, the hammer strut can rub inside the hole that it fits in.

Some triggers work with it either way, but some don't. I've put one together wrong, and I randomly got misfires, doubling, and jams until I figured it out.

Ammo is important, but there are ways to reduce misfires or inconsistent ignition.

There are several things that can be done to improve ignition. First, check the firing pin nose. Some are flatter and larger than they should be. It should be shaped narrower than high and the top shouldn't hit the outside of the rim. The bottom should be slightly longer than the top, so it forms a fan that spreads the flame to each side. You don't want a chisel shaped pin that will cut brass, so round the edges a bit.

Hitting the outside of the rim takes precious energy away and there's no priming compound there. Hitting it also increases vibrations that can throw shots slightly.

The other modification that helps ignition is to hone the mainspring strut and polish it, if you have a Moto-Tool with a polishing head and compound. Honing will remove small rough spots on the edges of the strut that can rob power. It's not a strong mechanism, so if the mainspring has to fight friction against the strut, misfires can happen.

If you still have misfires and have tried other ammo without success, reducing headspace will help. If there's too much headspace, the firing pin must push the cartridge ahead in the chamber until the rim bottoms out. That takes energy away from the firing pin strike, especially as the chamber becomes dirty. The way to cut back headspace is to have the bolt milled to rim diameter, .042", if it's greater than that. I've gotten away with .040" in some guns without slamfires.

Remember that in blowback autos, crud builds up on the breach end of the barrel and bolt face. If you already have too much headspace, much more space occurs with crud buildup.

Good luck in getting better results!

Picher

The simplest way to test it is to try another brand ammo, and compare the two.

Are you taking this gun apart & giving it a good cleaning ??

Are you using stock magazines or aftermarket hi capacity ones? I also use bulk Federal; with the stock magazine it runs great but with hi cap mags it usually jams at least once or twice every 25 rounds. Though I take that as the magazine's fault and not the gun's.

Is it an old rifle? Maybe the fireing pin also needs replaceing. My wifes 22 just desided it would start giveing trouble with no changes for some time.I changed my wifes fireing pin to a PC titanium pin and did not know how different the design was till getting it. They have a much thinner strick area. Where did the smithy pin your fireing pin. They allready have one roll pin thru them now that controls front to rear movement.
Miss fires are NOT mag related. Falure to feed are. He does not have that problem.

Rifle might just be dirty. Could be a dirty chamber not allowing cartridges to fully seat. Could be a dirty firing pin channel. Could be a cruddy boltface. Could be a worn out firing pin. Could even be a worn hammer spring. Could be any combination of the above.

Hope it runs for you this weekend. Both our ruger firing pins have some vertical movement so if the breach face is clean and hammer spring has not been messed with the fireing pin is about all that can go wrong. Maybe to many dry firings?

Most of the bulk .22 rf is hit or miss at best, I wouid never bet my life on it. I have better luck with it in other than semi-autos, pistol or rifle.

The 10-22 ignition system is relatively weak, compared with that of bolt-action or other straight-line (striker) systems. It must be kept clean, and dry-lubed for it to work well with good ammo. Sometimes, improvements are needed to make firing more consistent. Remember, consistent ignition in rimfires is very important to accuracy as well as preventing misfires. For every round that misfires, probably 10 don't fire as consistently as necessary for good accuracy.

In addition to the firing pin nose modification and either deepening the bolt's firing pin staking or roll-pin mod, smoothing/polishing/lubing the hammer strut and the "U" washer can improve ignition.

Another mod that is recommended is to reduce headspace to .420". This is done by using either a milling machine or a bench disc sander, carefully controlling the 90* face angle (obviously, remove extractor first).

Reducing headspace works well because it minimizes the distance the firing pin has to push a round forward, especially in a dirty chamber, before the shell rim is supported by the breech and indented sufficiently to ignite the priming compound. JP

I think you meant .042; to avoid confusion.

Glad to hear you found the fix for it Ricky

Now find out what ammo it likes best and enjoy

.....Tentwing

Its not surprizing... I burn through a lot of Federal bulk 22lr, and for me it has not only been the most consistant of the 500+ bulk ammos , but it has also been cheaper than the Winny bulk and the Remmy bulk to boot

Again enjoy your 22lr.....