interesting way to break my 10/22

wayupnorth

wayupnorth

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so i have a couple 10/22's.
:)

i would consider myself to be very knowledgeable when it comes to taking them down and fixing them and just all around mucking around with my 10/22's.
but i must admit i got nailed with a head scratcher today.

so this is the story.

i had a new stock 10/22 that ran flawlessly.
had it out a couple times, didnt know what direction i was gonna go with it and what i wanted to do to it for mods so i was just using it now and then so it didnt feel neglected while my brain percolate about what to do with it.
i was laying in bed and i thought.... i have a barrel i pulled off another 10/22 when i put on a bull barrel and that stock barrel i had put some fiber optic sights on - i should take those off and put them on this new 10/22 so im not losing money by not using those expensive fiber optic sights.

so i got bored 2 nights ago.
i took off the Fiber Optic Sights and installed on the new 10/22 - that went off without a hitch. so i sat looking at the new 10/22 and decided at the very least i was gonna take the gun down and clean up the inside of it.
nothing with the trigger group - just the receiver, clean up the inside, light sand and polish then clean up the bolt and polish, bold release mod and a extended mag release.
nothing fancy, what i would consider the bare minimum of what every 10/22 should have done to it when you get one new (or used for that matter).

so took the gun down, took some 1600 grit wet and some light oil and cleaned off the ruffness on the inside of the receiver, couple seconds on each friction side where the bolt runs. just enough to make it smooth.
same thing with the bolt, just the rub area's, 1600 wet with oil for a second then polish with a dremel to shine.
while i had the dremel out i zinged up the Bolt Lock plate so the bolt mod was done.
smoothed up the plate of any burs or ruffness i may have caused with the dremel.
put on the TacSol extended mag release and function checked, all smooth.

put gun back together and everyone cycled fine.
did note that the Ejector was running on the bottom of the bolt and with the ruffness there was giving a audible sound, hit both with the 1600 for a second, sounded better but still there, decided to leave it be for now.

so i went out to the range today to test the new sights out to make sure they where in place and accurate.
3 rounds then a stovepipe!
woa..... that was strange.
cleared it and set to go again.
6 rounds - stovepipe!
not liking this!
5 rounds - stovepipe!
5 rounds - stovepipe!

so i sat back on the tailgate of the truck thinking to myself..... when ive had this problem before historically what ive done is what i listed above, clean up the inside, polish, check the extractor.

so what do i do when what i WANT to do to fix the problem is what i did to CAUSE the problem??!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

my only thought is to take back down and start from scratch and do it all over again and make sure nothing has a burr i missed and pop out the Extractor and check it to make sure nothing got in there to gum it up - i didnt pull it out when i did my first clean up so maybe some of the grit i took off the bolt got in there with some oil?

anyone have any thoughts?
 
i didnt pull it out when i did my first clean up so maybe some of the grit i took off the bolt got in there with some oil?
Click to expand...


While reading your description this was actually the first thing that came to mind. I'd strip the bolt, clean extensively and reassemble.
 
Why did you take sand paper and a Dremel to your, at the time, fully functional 10/22?

If it ain't broke... Don't fix it.
 
ericbrowning said:
What ammo were you using
Click to expand...

I would go with that as well

Given how picky .22 semis are with ammo choice you might have made it too polished. The rifle might be too smooth that the rifle has cycled to the ejection but the bolt is closing too fast and catching the ejecting round before it can clear the ejection port. Changing ammo you might find a ammo that works fast enough to not stove pipe in your rifle.
 
If it is not ammo related, try a softer recoil spring to slow down the bolt slightly. Did you change the buffer? I found that the Kidd buffer is so soft that it can become distorted and prevent the bolt from opening fully, causing stovepipes.
 
Funny post. I wanted to make it work better and took the dremel to it and now it doesn't. What went wrong?
 
ya i did swap out the bolt buffer.
same ammo i always use, CCI blazer.

so last night i took it down again and i polished it up with some ultra fine steel wool, the inside of the receiver and bolt shine now, smoooooooth!
also popped out the extractor and ejector and firing pin and cleaned out every nook and cranny with Gun Buster then re-treated everything with g96.
by far the smoothest running 10/22 i have ever done!

im gonna head out here soon and function test it again.
if its still not running ill put the bolt buffer back to original.
if STILL not working right ill...... throw a hand full of sand inside of it and take a dump in it and see if that works?????

hahaha, ill report back soon.
 
so this is interesting.
and when i say interesting i mean im getting a little perturbed and irritated.

took the gun out and loaded up 3 mags.
all 30 rounds ran flawlessly!

i was so happy!
i was high five'n myself and doing a nice little jig there in the sand pit!

hopped back into the truck and was about to head home and i saw i had 10 more rounds in the box.
what the hell!
loaded up a mag and jumped down out of the truck and got a stovepipe on EVERY 2nd ROUND!
4 stovepipes out of 10!!!!!

i had thought it was that extractor because when i took it out and cleaned the bolt there was a lot of crud in there.
but the bolt and everything on it was top shelf this time.

well, i go back on my days on tomorrow so this mystery will have to wait a week until i go onto days off again.

the gun can not get any cleaner than it is now, its immaculate.
i think my next step is to put back on the original buffer bolt and put on a non modified bolt lock plate and put the original mag release back on.
that will take the gun back to original minus the cleaning.
from there function test and see if it runs.
if it does than it was one of those parts.
if it does not than im heading down the rabbit hole!
new extractor will have to be ordered, maybe a bolt....

at the end of the day in the back of my mind i keep wondering if the spring and rod are catching on the back corner of the bolt when it cycles.
i say this because sometimes when i cycle it i swear it sounds like the bolt is click click clicking like it would be if it was running down a spring.
what would cause that.... spit-balling here..... slightly undersized bolt than when i cleaned up the inside of the reciever and bolt took enough crap off to allow the bolt to now have a slight cant to one side - assuming front away from spring to do spring pressure - thus causing the back of the bolt to run along the spring when it cycles causing the bolt to run slightly slower and hang up the ejected round????
 
jza said:
Why did you take sand paper and a Dremel to your, at the time, fully functional 10/22?

If it ain't broke... Don't fix it.
Click to expand...

its OCD, have to clean the insides of my guns.
and by Dremel i mean polishing pad and jewelers rouge not a bit or sanding with it.
just a polish job.
:)
 
I don't think it is the buffer nor the Mag release nor the bolt release. Were you using the same Mag everytime? Could you have got some gunk in the chamber? Does the extractor sit in the center of the notch in the barrel and not bind on either side? Is the op rod spring and rod free and clear of all debris and gunk? I would try some brake clean on all action parts and then run it dry. 10/22's need to run dry.
 
well i seemed to have fixed the problem.
i think it was cycling TOO fast if that is even possible.
i took out the rubber bolt buffer and put the metal one back in and now its running flawlessly again.

go figure!
 
I am moving away from soft buffers and going to delrin. The soft buffers can distort and cause the bolt to not cycle fully. The Kidd ones are the worst for distortion in my experience. They work at low speed but not high speed, at least for me.
 
wayupnorth said:
delrin?
Click to expand...

Delrin is stiffer than nylon and has excellent dimensional stability. It's self lubricating and has excellent wear and abrasion resistance. Its easy to mill and drill and tap as cuts well with standard cutting tools. Over time like anything it will still deform and fatigue but it will take a heck of a long time before that happens. People in other forums have been using it for almost a decade and find it an acceptable buffer. I may try some myself at some point but my buffers haven't been gIving me any issues even after I polished the beegeezus out of my actions. I even radiused the rear face of my bolts and stovepiping isn't an issue even with cheap garbage 555 ammo.... 10/22's can be so finicky at times. I've always found in my own experiences that the most important mod to ensure smooth extraction, ejecting and feeding has been a high quality extractor like KIDD.
 
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