Help troubleshoot 10/22 problem

[ceriksson]

Ok I am having some issues with my Volquartsen 10/22


I insert a loaded mag, doesn't matter which, either my 10rd rotary (I have several new and old) or a butler creek style 25rd

I insert the mag and rack the action, you can feel the bolt work over the mag, chambering the round. It does slow down a little as it does this.

I go to shoot and *Click* doesn't fire. I remove the mag and re-rack the action. it will not eject the round no matter what. I have to pry the round out of the chamber. HOWEVER, if I remove the mag and re-rack the action, it will fire and then it will eject the round. However x2, If I remove the mag, re-rack the action, then put the mag back in, it will fire repititiously.... most of the time.

happens on all of my magazines and with a variety of ammo.


Causes I am thinking about:

1. Weak spring not getting enough force to push the round fully in after passing it over the magazine?

2. Mag well not lining up properly

3. cold wx causing lube to thicken up ( I did completely clean it and changed to a very very light coating of synthetic oil. Doesn't make sense either as it has happend while the action was still quite warm.

4. Dirty Chamber?

5. some other issue with the barreled action.


What I have done so far

Removed and reset the barrel into the action, ensuring it is properly lined up and pressed in properly.

dissassembled the action (did not take the bolt apart) and cleaned it thoroughly and replaced with very light synthetic oil (the new G96 synthetic)


Background. I just moved here from Vancouver Island. This was not an issue before I left. Could have been either caused by jostling during the move, sitting in cold temperatures during the move, or could it be a symptom of the cold weather up here. It is a volquartsen, not a ruger so it may be built to tighter tolerances making it more susceptible to the cooler weather.

I am going to take it apart one more time and get right into clearing out the chamber as well as wipe it down to a very very minimal amount of oil.

 

[JetRanger]

I doubt jostling during a move would cause this... if there was a huge temperature difference from the last time you fired it and the manufacturing tolerances are too tight I could see binding occurring.

If you have an original Ruger bolt you could try it to see if it works. You could also try to keep it warm/wrapped until just before you pull the trigger to test the effect of temperature.

Lube could definitely be suspect as well. Perhaps dry graphite would be in order.

 

[mmattockx]

Can't help with the misfires, but I have seen several rifles (not all 10/22's) have problems extracting unfired rounds from a match chamber. In .22LR most match chambers engrave the bullet well into the lands and the extractor can not have enough bite to pull it free again. If you have a tight chamber this may be the cause of the extraction issue.


Mark

 

[supernova]

As Mark said, failure to extract a live round is caused by a match chamber fully engraving the bullet. As to your issue, sounds like the bolt is not going into battery. This will prevent the hammer from striking the firing pin directly. Do the rounds that went click have a FP indent? Try chambering a clean spent casing and make sure it chambers completely. Drop the hammer on it and compare the FP indent with one of the misfired rounds.

 

[ceriksson]

As Mark said, failure to extract a live round is caused by a match chamber fully engraving the bullet. As to your issue, sounds like the bolt is not going into battery. This will prevent the hammer from striking the firing pin directly. Do the rounds that went click have a FP indent? Try chambering a clean spent casing and make sure it chambers completely. Drop the hammer on it and compare the FP indent with one of the misfired rounds.

As far as I recall, there was no strike indentation on the misfired round. so the firing pin isn't fully or properly striking the round. and the extractor hook isn't getting past the lip of the rim of the round to grab it and pull it out. No amount of racking the action (with mag removed) gets that extractor to grab the round, only after firing will it successfully extract.

I am thinking perhaps it is the match chamber however I was able to repititiously fire the round once I could successfully fire off the first round after removing the mag, re-racking the action, then replacing the mag. It seems to me the bold just isn't getting enough force from the spring on the first round when racking the action with my hand, rather than the semi-auto mechanism after the first shot. Could be a weak bolt spring perhaps?

If it was a tight chamber then shouldn't it not affect the fact that it isn't firing on the first shot. It may explain a failure to eject, however it does eject just fine when the round properly goes off.

I'm going to see if I can give the chamber a good scrub and then look at the bolt spring assembly. That and remove as much grease as possible and look into graphite.

Once I go through those troubleshooting steps I will also contact Volquartsen for their input

 

[supernova]

Its normal for even a sharp aftermarket extractor to fail to pull a .22 lr rd from a match chamber. Some engrave the bullet almost to the case mouth. If I ease the bolt forward when chambering a rd in a .22 lr match chamber it will not chamber completely without forcing the bolt closed. Once the bullet has left the case there is nothing holding the case in the chamber once it releases from the chamber walls. Thus it extracts effortlessly. It sounds to me like you describe, the recoil spring is not fully chambering the first round. The bolt bounces off the buffer while cycling which increases its momentum quite a bit over just dropping the bolt. Next time out, check to see if the bolt face makes contact with the barrel tenon when dropping the bolt on the first round. If it does not, push the charging handle to fully engrave and chamber the round and I'm betting she'll work. Definitely give the bore a good cleaning as match chambers get dirty and start causing issues much sooner than a sporter chamber. That could be all thats happening here. Has accuracy suffered since this started happening?

 

[ceriksson]

Its normal for even a sharp aftermarket extractor to fail to pull a .22 lr rd from a match chamber. Some engrave the bullet almost to the case mouth. If I ease the bolt forward when chambering a rd in a .22 lr match chamber it will not chamber completely without forcing the bolt closed. Once the bullet has left the case there is nothing holding the case in the chamber once it releases from the chamber walls. Thus it extracts effortlessly. It sounds to me like you describe, the recoil spring is not fully chambering the first round. The bolt bounces off the buffer while cycling which increases its momentum quite a bit over just dropping the bolt. Next time out, check to see if the bolt face makes contact with the barrel tenon when dropping the bolt on the first round. If it does not, push the charging handle to fully engrave and chamber the round and I'm betting she'll work. Definitely give the bore a good cleaning as match chambers get dirty and start causing issues much sooner than a sporter chamber. That could be all thats happening here. Has accuracy suffered since this started happening?

I'll check that next time I'm out (hopefully tomorrow).

As for accuracy. I haven't shot any groups with it yet since then. It was accurate enough to hit a game bird at 25 yards where I was hoping to hit it.

 

[ceriksson]

Ok figured I would post some closure to this thread.

Last week I took the rifle completely apart and wiped everything clean and didn't re-oil. I also really put some effort into cleaning out the barrel and chamber.

I went out hunting today and he rifle worked flawlessly. So thanks for the info guys,

I think it was that my chamber was a little dirty and the cold temperatures didn't help.