Making 22LR & other rimfires more reliable

[Onward Allusion]

Most of us have experienced a 22LR cartridge fail to ignite at one time or another. More that 1/2 of the time the round will ignite when it's re-chambered or a second strike is applied.

Given the design of rimfire cartridges, wouldn't a larger firing pin or one that is wider with a curve combined with a stronger striker spring (or hammer) make duds or misfires less of a likelihood?

 

[RyanM]

Yes, but that would result in a heavier trigger, too. Even with a single action, a heavier hammer spring will show up to some degree in the trigger.

With semi-autos, the hammer/striker is also cocked via either movement of the bolt (from blowback and/or recoil), or by the action spring returning the bolt to battery. Obviously, there's only so much "power" in a .22 to work with, setting a practical limit on how strong the mainspring in an auto can be.

With a bolt-action or other manual gun, the limit is on how powerful a spring the user can draw comfortably. Given that .22s are often intended to be shot by beginning shooters, they're probably at roughly the optimum spring weight, and thus the optimum striking size, etc.

 

[rcmodel]

Years ago when I was growing up, almost all .22 rimfire ammo was nearly 100% reliable.

Making ammo cheaper & faster, to lower quality standards, in faraway lands today is the problem.
Not the firing pin design.

You might note that .22 WMR and .17 RF ammo is totally reliable.
But it costs several times more per round then Wallywork bulk-pack, so the expected quality is put into the premium ammo from the get-go.

The same can be said with the better grades of .22 RF ammo.
You won't be getting constant misfires with top shelf CCI, or Winchester Super-X, or other higher priced brands.
You truly do get what you pay for.

The downside to a heavier / bigger firing pin is, slower lock time unless made up for with a very strong spring. Then .22 ammo would not have enough power to cycle a semi-auto action.

rc

 

[bigfatdave]

Cheap bulk ammunition can only be helped so much, I've wondered about dual FP setups or something similar a few times also ... and I've come to the conclusion that I'll accept the 1/100 or so failure rate I get from Federal 550 or the 2/100 rate I get from Winchester 555. (The rates I have had with remington bulk .22lr are unacceptable, however)

If I want reliability, I go with CCI or another non-bulk ammunition. But considering that many of the failures will fire on a second try and that various .22lr firearms exhibit the same failure rate with the same bulk ammo, I'll still take the Fed550 off the shelves and I still think it is the best "bang for your buck" literally.
Changing the guns just won't make much of a change in reliability when the priming material in the case rims isn't evenly distributed.

 

[raz-0]

A well maintained 22lr firearm is about as reliable as it's ammo. By well maintained, I mean more things like springs that aren't EOL, firing pins that haven't been peened, extractors that are square and in good condition, and not something that has been cleaned 8 bajillion times.

Rimfire ammo has the primer compound smeared into the rim. Most FTFs that light off on try number two are due to primer compound missing form an area, or stuff that had crumbled. On try two, very often you aren't striking the same area of the rim. With very bulk crap, i find that you get something like this <=1% of the time. Total duds are about once per brick/bulk box.

However, common to both of them are the fact that you could hit them in that bum spot as hard as you like and it wouldn't go off.

now if the striker hit in two spots on the rim, you could probably cut failure down a whole heck of a lot.

 

[MCgunner]

Given the design of rimfire cartridges, wouldn't a larger firing pin or one that is wider with a curve combined with a stronger striker spring (or hammer) make duds or misfires less of a likelihood?

I have guns that are reliable as a centerfire (NAA mini, Rossi 511), I have some that will misfire with the bulk ammo occasionally, (Ruger Mk 2 and 10/22) and I have ONE, a Ramline exactor, that's fine with CCI and the better loads, but HATES the bulk stuff. I'm convinced it's the design of the firing pin. The NAA has a big, square striker, the Rossi's is large and round, the Ramline is a very narrow little rectangle and doesn't dent much rim. The better ammo is better primed. Bulk stuff is cheap for a reason, but some guns seem just fine with it.

And, this is one reason the little kit guns, .22 revolvers, tend to have stiff DA triggers, extra spring rate to get the job done.

 

[Jim Watson]

Which is probably why the 1860 Henry .44 rimfire had a dual pointed firing pin to minimize the risk of hitting a void in the priming.

I recall that the Freedom Arms superrevolver has dual firing pins to improve ignition and accuracy. Must work, they are very accurate. Probably not so you can use cheap ammo in an expensive gun.

 

[rogertc1]

I have never had a miss fire using 22LR CCI Min-Mag in my semi=autos. Costs more but works all the time.

 

[rcmodel]

I think a lot of .22 rimfire misfires are caused by dirty guns & neglect too.
Crud build-up on the barrel face and breach face hold the bolt open slightly and cushon the FP impact.

BTW: Both my S&W .22/.32 Kit Gun & S&W 317 Airlite .22 have Wolff reduced rate hammer spring kits in them.
They work 100% with all the ammo brands I will buy.

rc

 

[MCgunner]

Old, ill stored ammo can be troublesome, too. .22 is heal seated, will allow moisture to invade.

 

[Onward Allusion]

The reason I brought this up in the first place is that time after time, I read posts of someone wanting to carry something chambered in .22LR as their CCW. Aside from the arguments against it based strictly on caliber, the other main argument is that they are less reliable than centerfire cartridges.

I think there is a market for one of the manufacturers to produce a small light polymer frame semi-auto chambered in .22LR that will "always" go bang (dual prong firing pin???). Something around the size of the P32 (maybe a little thinner) but at 2/3 the weight fully loaded with 10 rounds.

Heck, I would want the dual prong firing pin just so that I can use the cheap stuff and not have duds.

 

[unspellable]

Modern rimfire cases are primed by dropping in the liquid primer compound and then spinning the case so the compound flows out into the rim. That said, there remains the question of how evenly it is spread, and as laid out above, that's a function of brand and quality level.

All of the 22LR misfires I have had were due to uneven priming. I have had the largest number of them with Remington Thunder whazzits.

It's for this reason, that if a sub-mouse gun is absolutely required, I favor the 25 ACP over the 22 LR. The difference in "stopping power" isn't worth worrying about.

(My idea of a proper mouse gun is a 32 ACP with Silver Tips.)

 

[Jim K]

The Swiss Vetterli also has a dual firing pin. There is really no reason modern .22's couldn't, but I would rather complain to the ammo maker when I get duds; enough complaints and they might take some action.

Jim

 

[MCgunner]

The reason I brought this up in the first place is that time after time, I read posts of someone wanting to carry something chambered in .22LR as their CCW. Aside from the arguments against it based strictly on caliber, the other main argument is that they are less reliable than centerfire cartridges.

I think there is a market for one of the manufacturers to produce a small light polymer frame semi-auto chambered in .22LR that will "always" go bang (dual prong firing pin???). Something around the size of the P32 (maybe a little thinner) but at 2/3 the weight fully loaded with 10 rounds.

They already make a reliable .22 and there's tons of 'em on the market. It's called the .25ACP. I carried one for years when carry wasn't cool. It always went bang and fed fine even in a cheap POS pistol. .25s were designed for this. They sit better in a magazine, have far fewer feed and extraction/ejection failures as well as reliable ignition.

I carry a .22, but it's in a mini revolver. I don't really trust small autos in the caliber. I'll go with the .25 if .32 is too big, or just carry my mini revolvers. Both Taurus and Beretta make small tip up .22s. If I got one for defensive use,, it'd be in .25ACP, though.

If ammo cost is a problem, buy one in .22LR also and use it for practice, same gun, different ammo. The guns are affordable.

 

[bigfatdave]

I'll go with the .25 if .32 is too big,

How often does that really come up, in this age of Kel-Tec p32s and NAA Guardians?

 

[MCgunner]

How often does that really come up, in this age of Kel-Tec p32s and NAA Guardians?

Well, hint, I don't have a .25 anymore. I do have a .380 and a .22 mini, skip right over the .25 option. Actually, I usually carry a 9x19 Kel Tec or a .38 UL snub revolver. I just bought this really neat 9x18 Mak Polish Radom P64, though, and I've been infatuated with it lately, have it in my pocket at the moment and my NAA mini .22 in the weak side. This thing is steel, but not all THAT heavy. It's heavier than my "tuperware", but still plenty pocketable. And, it's very narrow, as narrow as a LCP.

No, I really don't see the need for the little .22s and .25s. One can carry a full 9x19+P now days quite easily in a pocket and the .380s are as small as the .25s used to be. I made a wallet holster for my .25 years ago and an LCP fits in it perfectly. Why settle for .25 when you can carry .380?

 

[ArmedBear]

Get a Ruger .22 pistol, and you won't think .22LR is unreliable in a handgun any more.

I don't have any trouble, and I shoot matches with .22 pistols, so I'd notice if I did. Alibis are frustrating, and noticeable.

 

[wilkersk]

EVERY time I've had a fail-to-feed, or fail-to-fire problem with my .22LR pistols, I've fixed it by cleaning the pistol and the magazines.

I think the bulk .22LR ammo is very dirty. After grit and soot accumulated around the working parts, pistol and magazine, enough friction develops to cause things not to work as well, as well as internal operating dimensions are changed slightly.

One of the best "reliability" improvements you can perform on a .22lr semi-auto, is to clean the mag tubes and followers.

 

[unspellable]

Alibies

If the pistol dents the rim fair and square and it don't go bang, it ain't an alibi. The d**n thing didn't go bang!

Oops! I failed to remember that the "alibi" is a technical term in formal target shooting.

 

[GLOOB]

One significant difference between 22 short/long/LR and ALL the other current rimfires:

Bullet diameter = case O.D. for the 22 short/long/LR. I believe the ammo gets a different type of crimp, as a result. Any rate, .22LR bullets commonly wiggle back and forth in finished ammo. That can't be good for long term reliability in suboptimal storage conditions.

In my experience, anyway, I have never had a misfire specifically attributable to the rimfire design. My duds have not fired after rechambering, so I attribute them to moisture/oil contamination. So just maybe, the crimp might be the bigger factor?

 

[MCgunner]

Get a Ruger .22 pistol, and you won't think .22LR is unreliable in a handgun any more.

My Mk2 will misfire one out of every about 200 or so rounds of Federal bulk pack Lightening. It's fine with better ammo. My NAA mini NEVER misfires on fresh Federal nor does my Rossi revolver. The problem isn't the gun, though, it's the priming on the cheap bulk pack ammo. I plink with it anyway, just jack the bad round out when it happens.

 

[SwampWolf]

I must be one of the lucky ones, or I keep my guns cleaner than "normal" or I use the "right" ammo (though I do use a lot of the "bulk" stuff), because in over fifty years of shooting lots of rimfire ammunition, I can count on a hand and a half the times I've had misfires directly attributed to an individual round. That said, simply due to the nature of the priming compound application for rimfire vs the dedicated "spark plug" primer for centerfire ammunition, for self-defense purposes, I think centerfire rounds are intrinsically apt to be more reliable.

 

[Manco]

Get a Ruger .22 pistol, and you won't think .22LR is unreliable in a handgun any more.

When I took my mom shooting for the first time in her life (had to nag some--I want her to eventually own a gun and be able to defend herself with it), I decided for kicks to rent a Ruger Mark III 22/45 because I had never fired one myself, either, and I wanted a light trigger pull for her to start out with. After the first magazine load the darn thing jammed on us every 3-4 rounds. We tried a different magazine, and it still kept jamming--mostly stovepipes, but a few rounds annoyingly diving under the feed ramp, too. We were shooting Mini-Mags, which I've always found to be quite reliable. Granted, it was a rental gun, but if these things need to be kept clean to not jam constantly, then they're not exactly the easiest to maintain, either. Take this for what it's worth--it's also possible that this particular gun needed repair or was simply a rare lemon, for all I know.

So anyway, we traded for a revolver, a Smith & Wesson 617 that I had shot before, and never had a single failure to fire among the nearly 200 rounds after that, which shows that a good batch of quality .22 LR ammo can be reliable. I've certainly used worse ammo in this caliber that failed to fire every so often (though still infrequently).

I don't have any trouble, and I shoot matches with .22 pistols, so I'd notice if I did.

Maybe I just had bad luck, then, but from what I've experienced regarding .22 LR, no gun is going to make cheap, low-quality ammo reliable. Like most everything else, quality control is what ultimately determines reliability, and is often lacking when it comes to the extremes of scale of this case, with low cost, small size, and a massive volume of production.

 

[MCgunner]

Manco, rental guns are often neglected. A Ruger, too, is such a PITA to strip for a thorough cleaning, I figure probably many range guns NEVER get cleaned or if so, danged seldom. I clean mine with the bolt back and never have problems with jams, clean it every time I get home with it. I've yet to take it apart and it's gone through thousands of rounds since I got it a couple years ago. All it really takes is a little TLC. That's not my misfire problem with that gun, though. It's the cheap Federal ammy I run though it. But, it isn't often enough to worry about. I'll even hunt with Federal in that gun. I mean, 2 or 3 misfires per 550 pack ain't a big deal to me. It's not a defense gun, after all.

In all the rounds that gun has eaten, it's never had a jam, not once.

 

[Manco]

Manco, rental guns are often neglected. A Ruger, too, is such a PITA to strip for a thorough cleaning, I figure probably many range guns NEVER get cleaned or if so, danged seldom.

I realize that, but I've rented many guns from this particular range to try out, and have rarely had any problems. Maybe it just needed cleaning or new springs, but it's one person's experience, anyway. Some of the larger-caliber semiautomatic handguns there seem to be just as dirty, and if the reason they keep working fine is that they have more recoil to work with, then maybe .22 LR is not the most reliable caliber for that reason, too. I'm not saying that I know what happened, but it's just one anecdotal data point, for what it's worth.

And by the way, being difficult to field-strip also tends to discourage owners from cleaning them as often as they should. I'm sure it's a fine range and target pistol when it's properly maintained, but because of ammo and other issues, I wouldn't trust it for self-defense, either.