Browning .22 auto

C

cowboybob

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Super GunNutz
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Moncton, New Brunswick
Was reading through the threads and it struck me - I should see if anyone out there in CGN land has any bright ideas how to make a Browning .22 auto more dependable. I`ve got a beautiful little one with wonderful wood that has been my favorite bunny gun for 30 years. It`s as light as a wand and passably accurate but has always had feeding problems. Have tried almost every ammo available and haven`t found any that feed reliably. Truncated cone (Remington Yellow-jackets and Stingers) are horrible and render it a cute little single shot.

Have cleaned it to mirror brightness but that just gives me the satisfaction of knowing I`m hunting with a spotless rifle, it hasn`t made any in difference in reliability.

All ideas are welcome!
 
I have a very old FN version (loads from the top of the stock) and it would jam up or fail to chamber every few rounds. I replaced the cartridge guide spring in it and was able to fire over 100 rds of winchester superx through it without any problems. As far as I can tell, if you can keep the rounds from jamming up in the reciever as they come out of the magazine tube you should be in good shape as long as the guide spring is doing its job. I also give the stock a good tap when I load it to make sure the first couple of rounds in the tube feed all the way to the cartridge guide. You can hear them drop into place. I've also considered polishing the feed tube at the rear of the reciever so that nothing hangs up while feeding.
 
I've found the Browning to be very dependable, this is with various ammo and numerous rifles. If a rifle has issues I would first suspect the individual and not the entire line.
 
Check over at rimfirecentral . I recall reading of a few cases where the cartridge cut-off was worn causing feeding problems . It was a while ago so you may have to search a bit . However, my 67' browning digests thousands of rounds a year without a hiccup so it can't be a fault in the overall design . Hope you find your problem . Please keep us posted as your woes may help someone else with a similar problem. Good luck!
 
If it's anything like my other rear tube-fed rifles, the cartridge must pop out of the magazine with surprising speed. It positively leaps into the chamber. And that means the magazine spring must be clean and strong. Check there as well.
 
The FN-Auto or Browning Auto is the most reliable of any 22 rimfire I have ever owned, I shot alot of CCI ST Vel. and Winchester WildCat without a hiccup. I would bring it to a competent Smith for a Looky Lou! good luck, dale Z!
 
cowboybob, if you can describe the malfunction in a bit more detail I will do some checking in my books.
 
If you do a bit of hunting around, you should be able to find the service manual for the rifle. I downloaded a pdf of it awhile back, just dont remember where. It helped in tuning up mine. Do a search for Browning Autoloading 22 field service manual.
 
Still have the service manual (30 years and still have it - who says being a pack rat doesn't pay off).

So here is what I've done. Pulled the whole thing apart and cleaned every bit of crud and film out of it. Close inspection of the feed ramp showed slight wear where the bullet noses sit against it. Polished this out with 400 then 600 then 1500 wet paper wrapped around and appropriately sized drill bit. Went outside and gave it a try with Federal Lightnings. Jammed 5 times out of 50 shots. Better but nothing to write home about.

Took Hairygrump's suggestion and polished the feed tube at the back of the receiver then pulled the magazine tube and polished the inside of it with a .311 bore brush and Rem Oil bore cleaner on a short rod fitted in a drill. This was a little bit of a pain to get the follower in the tube and then push it all the way in with the bore brush but the end result was a much smoother feed of the follower up and down the tube.

Took it back out for a shoot and had 1 jam shooting a box full of Lightnings. Switched over to Federal Gold Metal Target. Shot a whole box flawlessly. Will experiment a little more with ammo but am basically pretty pleased with results.

And by the way, for those of you who may not have tried it yet, the Federal Premium Gold Medal Target ammo is pretty impressive for the price. It sells for $34.00 a brick at one of the local dealers and shoots ragged holes at 50 meters out of my Anschutz 1712 FWT. I've had similar groups out of other types of ammo but they all cost 2-4 times as much.

Anyhow, thanks for all the input folks. This little sweetheart is working better than it ever has.
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