Finally got my M&P 15-22 to the range and broke it :)

devolut

devolut

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Haha, I have said it before and I'll say it again. This sport is not for the impatient. Bought the rifle privately from another CGN'er (Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22 with 6 mags) in March, waited two months for the transfer, then through the process at the range to obtain my ATT. Finally got the ATT on July 5th. Got it to the range today. Was trying out all sorts of 22LR since I got some with it and who doesn't have 4-5 types?

Anyway, I got through two boxes of the older Blazer (flawless) and then moved on to Winchester SuperX. I'm not blaming the Win ammo for what happened next, but after about 13 shots, I fired one and a LOT of smoke was coming out of the action. I kept going after checking the gun for anomalies, and two more shots later, I got a little more than I bargained for. Either the gun wasn't in battery or it was a bad cartridge. The empty case was still in the chamber, split in two and mangled at the rim. The two metal pieces of the ejector were 6 feet away, having been blown out of the bolt. The spring was still in the bolt thankfully, and I was able to find the other pieces.

I was lucky because the spring stayed put, and the metal bits of the extractor weren't bent or damaged. Took it home and put it back together, and it's back to extracting/ejecting like a champ.

Anyway, as I said before, this sport for the patient, and you too must be patient for reading this post only to find that I didn't really break my gun after all :)

Just thought I'd share, and see if any other M&P 15-22 owners have faced similar situations.
 
It could very well have been the ammo. I don't have much experience with Win ammo but I was at the range last Friday shooting my Marlin XT .17HMR using Win ammo and I had one of the casings crack and get stuck in the chamber. I havent noticed any damage to the rifle but I'm starting to think twice about buying Win ammo.
 
volitaire said:
check the barrel for obstruction / deformation
Click to expand...

Just had a look now, barrel looks good, the round left the gun. The chamber also looks fine, which leads me to believe it was weak brass, and after firing, as the extractor was doing its job, it was tearing the bottom of the cartridge off. Then, boom. I'll give it a better look tomorrow when I clean it up a bit more and triple check everything before attempting again at the range. I was disappointed because it is fun as hell to shoot, but from now on I'll be paying closer attention to things until I'm comfortable.
 
They've been known to fire out of battery, usually a problem only with older ones. If you have the new "blue" recoil spring it's been updated. Note that the issue also usually involved blown extractors since the firearm's timing was off.

ht tp://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010/07/31/sw-mp-15-22-kaboom/

ht tp://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-wesson-m-p-15-22/255091-has-firing-out-battery-issue-been-fixed.html (post #14)

I have many thousands of rounds through mine and love it.
 
Was it the grey box of Winchester? I've been reading recently about that particular version having a lot of issues, at least with the 10/22's. Same with the Remington Golden Bullets. I suspect it's the fault of the ammunition, more than the firearm, so I would just stick with the CCI's (or whatever else it likes) and leave it at that.

Glad to hear that nobody was hurt, and there was no serious damage though...
 
pope_face said:
Was it the grey box of Winchester? I've been reading recently about that particular version having a lot of issues, at least with the 10/22's. Same with the Remington Golden Bullets. I suspect it's the fault of the ammunition, more than the firearm, so I would just stick with the CCI's (or whatever else it likes) and leave it at that.

Glad to hear that nobody was hurt, and there was no serious damage though...
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Yes it was the grey box, and I bought it.. oh, May? at LeBaron. It is an older 15-22 as well, w/o the blue follower spring, but since it was in several pieces I did see it has the right revision of extractor plunger with the notch on it. I haven't looked into this at all beyond this, and I'd love to bring it up to modern spec. Is there an authorized dealer I can take this to or order the parts from?
 
devolut said:
Yes it was the grey box, and I bought it.. oh, May? at LeBaron. It is an older 15-22 as well, w/o the blue follower spring, but since it was in several pieces I did see it has the right revision of extractor plunger with the notch on it. I haven't looked into this at all beyond this, and I'd love to bring it up to modern spec. Is there an authorized dealer I can take this to or order the parts from?
Click to expand...

Found the two S&W dealers listed on their site. Everything's arranged, got my STATT to the post office, and it's on its way to BC this week :)
 
Wanted to give an update on this..

I took the 15-22 back to the range about a month ago, which resulted in a repeat of the failure as before (extractor blown clear of the bolt after tearing the rim off a case during extraction), except this time I could not find any of the pieces of the extractor and that was the end of that. This week at the range was a completely different story.

When this whole thing began, I had called a local dealer and they sent me a new extractor/extractor plunger & extractor spring since mine had seemingly failed. I installed it, headed out to the range, and had no problems at all. Ran some old Winchester Super X HV through it, no problems. Then some new production Winchester M-22, no problems at all.

Replacing the extractor/plunger/spring is one of the many "fixes" you can find on the Internet for issues with the 15-22, but this one worked for me.
 
Willing to part with two mags? Im looking for some more. $36 at nosale sports.
$15 each in the us on sale.
Darn we get it where the sun dont shine sometimes!
 
Wanted to cap this thread with a final bit of advice, the Winchester Super X that I was firing from this gun was subsonic ammo which is not really recommended for semi-automatics like the 15-22. After using only high-velocity 22lr in my gun I've had no problems.
 
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