Dulvarian
Member
This post described a terrible piece of manufacturing.
After a long time of sitting around waiting to get chopped up, I decided to see if I could clean it up.
Polished feed ramps. There was something on there, some poly type coating and some lumps that were causing feed problems. Carefully cleaned and polished.
Feed ramp and chamber misalignment. Each round was getting a scallop cut out of the bullet, which was causing erratic flight. At 25 yards, it would shoot around a 100ft Army small arms target like it was numbering the hands on a clock. Always between 3 and 9. Random, but after 10 rounds, it would have put most of the numbers up, all around the rim of the target (about 2 inches in diameter). Needle file to smooth the base of the chamber to align properly with the polished feed ramp.
Trigger slop. Removed the trigger mechanism and inserted some plastic washers to either side to keep the trigger and hammer riding in the center.
Firing pin was not matched to the slot in the bolt and was gouging the lead. A little more file work and that was fixed.
(In both cases, less than a 1/32 of an inch of material was removed. And with the amount of unsupported chamber in all of my centerfire pistols, I figured that wouldn't matter much in a .22LR. Not to mention, so long as it ejects, a teeny bit of case bulge is negligible since you can't reload anyway.)
Was shooting ragged holes. No fail to fires, to fail to chamber properly out of about 200 rounds. After about 100 rounds I gave up on the cheap scope which I could not get proper elevation on. 15 rounds or so and irons were dialed in.
It wasn't worth the cost of sending to a gunsmith to fix what was wrong with it, but, with the tools and spare parts hanging out in my garage, I got it running, and running very well. About three hours and a couple of glasses of bourbon were all it cost me.
Next time, I'll remember not to leave the scope out with the caps off for the adjusting screws. I think I got a case of kids messing with the scope, though no one owned up to it. Disassembled it, got it back to a proper zero and roughly sighted the scope. I'll give it a shot again tomorrow and see if I can get the scope running right.
After a long time of sitting around waiting to get chopped up, I decided to see if I could clean it up.
Polished feed ramps. There was something on there, some poly type coating and some lumps that were causing feed problems. Carefully cleaned and polished.
Feed ramp and chamber misalignment. Each round was getting a scallop cut out of the bullet, which was causing erratic flight. At 25 yards, it would shoot around a 100ft Army small arms target like it was numbering the hands on a clock. Always between 3 and 9. Random, but after 10 rounds, it would have put most of the numbers up, all around the rim of the target (about 2 inches in diameter). Needle file to smooth the base of the chamber to align properly with the polished feed ramp.
Trigger slop. Removed the trigger mechanism and inserted some plastic washers to either side to keep the trigger and hammer riding in the center.
Firing pin was not matched to the slot in the bolt and was gouging the lead. A little more file work and that was fixed.
(In both cases, less than a 1/32 of an inch of material was removed. And with the amount of unsupported chamber in all of my centerfire pistols, I figured that wouldn't matter much in a .22LR. Not to mention, so long as it ejects, a teeny bit of case bulge is negligible since you can't reload anyway.)
Was shooting ragged holes. No fail to fires, to fail to chamber properly out of about 200 rounds. After about 100 rounds I gave up on the cheap scope which I could not get proper elevation on. 15 rounds or so and irons were dialed in.
It wasn't worth the cost of sending to a gunsmith to fix what was wrong with it, but, with the tools and spare parts hanging out in my garage, I got it running, and running very well. About three hours and a couple of glasses of bourbon were all it cost me.
Next time, I'll remember not to leave the scope out with the caps off for the adjusting screws. I think I got a case of kids messing with the scope, though no one owned up to it. Disassembled it, got it back to a proper zero and roughly sighted the scope. I'll give it a shot again tomorrow and see if I can get the scope running right.
