Walther G22 issues

[Leinahtan]

This is my first gun.

I picked this up off a friend a couple weeks back. He never registered it with Walther, so could I put my date of purchase as a couple weeks ago and register it as my own? Supposedly he had only shot ~300 rounds, all Remington 550 LR hollow point. I finished off the box, plus 100 more. I had many jams/shots where I would hear a "click", but the bullet didn't fire, and I had to eject the live round to continue shooting.

I figured it was the ammo, or the gun needed to be cleaned. Cleaned it, bought some CCI .22 LR. Had the same exact problems with the CCI ammo, so I suppose I'll try mini-mag next, federal, and anything else I can get my hands on (Wal-Mart). When I was shooting, I noticed the safety was starting to get a bit sticky.

I took it home and cleaned it again after ~200 rounds today, and the safety was completely dysfunctional at this point. It is now stuck in "fire", and will not switch to safe whatsoever. I have tried tweaking with the key lock, and taking it apart and manually pushing the safety forward from the inside. Nothing seems to be working.

I'm starting to think this thing is more trouble than it's worth.

Suggestions? Thanks so much.

 

[LJ-MosinFreak-Buck]

First off, welcome to THR!

Secondly, if the registry works for their warranty, send it in and get it fixed. It shouldn't fail to go to safe.

There will always be some problems with bulk .22. I get about 30 failure to fires out of every 500 it's normal. Sometimes the'll light off with a second strike, sometimes not. Just wait a couple minutes, make sure it's not a late boomer, and eject and proceed. Those aren't really jams, just misfires.

 

[chrome_austex]

Yeah, the G22 wants to be SUPER CLEAN, particularly at the bolt face where the extractors notch into the face.

Mine was a royal PITA until I learned that I needed to keep it clean. Any buildup on the bolt face will cause you light strikes. Mine even went back to Walther for repairs (they replaced the springs, which didn't solve anything until I learned to clean it properly.

 

[LJ-MosinFreak-Buck]

The .22 is a pretty dirty little round. There ain't much around that. My rifle (Marlin M80) is a bolt and I get mis-fires from that 30 rounds out of 500. Mainly from the bolt face getting dirty, but it's real easy to clean. One round down bore and my rifle has pretty bad fouling already. It's just the nature of the little beast.

As far as the safety goes, send it to Walther. That's a mechanical defect.

 

[6x6pinz]

Yep, I would send it back to Walther. I have two of them and have shot one of them a whole bunch. I even have the drum mags for it, which by the way takes shooting one to a new level. They definitely like a good cleaning more than any other 22 I have or have ever owned. Cleaning is kind of a pain but gets easier the more it is done.

 

[Leinahtan]

So I took it out today again, despite having no safety which is kind of stupid, and went through about 50 federals with no misfires. Switched to a clip of CCI, and right off the bat I got 2/5 shots misfired. I guess I solved that problem, now for the safety..Hopefully I can still get the warranty and I'll just send it in.

 

[LJ-MosinFreak-Buck]

Good luck, Nathaniel!

 

[desidog]

I had similar problems with mine about five years ago - the chamber was tight, the trigger was sloppy, the rear sight did not extend to the same height consistently. I sent it back, they worked on it (on their dime)...and it still sucked... so i sold it.

That experience, and a P22 experience, and an RWS 34 experience, have lead me to the firm conclusion that Umarex makes junk. I won't buy another of their products.