Never have I seen this !

T

Talljoe

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A little while ago I bought some .22 ammo. I 'think' it was 'Thunderbolt', but it was in a green and yellow bulk pack. Anyway, soon after buying it I read somewhere that this stuff was dirty so I gave it to my son - with a warning, and said he may just want to dump it.

I think he shot it all thru his 10/22.

Last week he asked me to sight in the rifle as he was having trouble with the iron sights. I put a rail and a Bushnell red/green dot sight on it and went to the range this morning.

Couldn't hit the target at 25m, so ended up shooting at dirt at 50m to see where the shots were going. There was no grouping, unless you call a 10 foot circle a group. (Using decent Federal solids) Eventually got a bullet on paper at 25m and saw it went in sideways.

Then the light came on. Packed up, took it home, and am now half way thru cleaning. Had to knock out a chunk of lead over an inch long and lots and lots of flakes. After about 20 patches they are still coming out dirty, and the jag still catches a patch of gritty rifling about half way down. Soaking in Kroil at the moment hoping that will loosen the lead.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I have never had to clean a 22 barrel. I have shot thousands and thousands of rounds since the 60's, through all sorts of rifles and pistols from military training rifles to top target pistols, all sorts of ammo, outside lubed military issue, copper washed modern stuff, solids and hollow points, and everything in-between.

I have never seen leading in a 22 barrel. Not that I have looked as accuracy has never fallen off.

Anyone else have similar horror stories with that ammo ?

TJ
 
Talljoe said:
A little while ago I bought some .22 ammo. I 'think' it was 'Thunderbolt', but it was in a green and yellow bulk pack. Anyway, soon after buying it I read somewhere that this stuff was dirty so I gave it to my son - with a warning, and said he may just want to dump it.

I think he shot it all thru his 10/22.

Last week he asked me to sight in the rifle as he was having trouble with the iron sights. I put a rail and a Bushnell red/green dot sight on it and went to the range this morning.

Couldn't hit the target at 25m, so ended up shooting at dirt at 50m to see where the shots were going. There was no grouping, unless you call a 10 foot circle a group. (Using decent Federal solids) Eventually got a bullet on paper at 25m and saw it went in sideways.

Then the light came on. Packed up, took it home, and am now half way thru cleaning. Had to knock out a chunk of lead over an inch long and lots and lots of flakes. After about 20 patches they are still coming out dirty, and the jag still catches a patch of gritty rifling about half way down. Soaking in Kroil at the moment hoping that will loosen the lead.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I have never had to clean a 22 barrel. I have shot thousands and thousands of rounds since the 60's, through all sorts of rifles and pistols from military training rifles to top target pistols, all sorts of ammo, outside lubed military issue, copper washed modern stuff, solids and hollow points, and everything in-between.

I have never seen leading in a 22 barrel. Not that I have looked as accuracy has never fallen off.

Anyone else have similar horror stories with that ammo ?

TJ
Click to expand...

I clean my 22 every 500 rnds... at LEAST. I think you just had the snowball effect from not cleaning it, and once choked it REALLY started stripping lead. Also.. I once had a barrel start to corrode forward of the chamber, and had an episode like yours which alerted me to the rust issue. Have a good look at the bore once cleaned
 
When I read 10' groups I immediately thought there must be a barrel obstruction. You then wrote that.

Yes, .22s do get dirty. You just proved it.
 
When I used thunderbolts, I had to clean every 250 rounds through my Pietta PPS-50, and every 100 rounds in my Colt 1911-A1 .22

I have a brick of Thunderbolts left, and I'm only using them when every other brand of ammo is AWOL.
 
I had it happen to an old 1022, a hot summer day camping with friends, every body was doing mag dumps earlier, then couldn't hit clays at 25m, ammo was cci blaser. Couldn't even get the brass end of the bore snake down the bore. Got it clean and shot well after, but switched to copper plated shortly after For my semis, I check the bores on a regular basis now. Only time I ever had an issue, barrel got to hot with lead rounds. Once the lead starts to build it compounds fast. Good luck
 
I clean my 22 every 500 rnds... at LEAST. I think you just had the snowball effect from not cleaning it, and once choked it REALLY started stripping lead. Also.. I once had a barrel start to corrode forward of the chamber, and had an episode like yours which alerted me to the rust issue. Have a good look at the bore once cleaned
Click to expand...

Mmmmm, the snowball effect I do agree with, but this 10/22 was a new gun with maybe 100 rounds through it. Interestingly the build up was (still is until later today) about half way down the barrel, so a defect like rust is also a possibility.

When I was at school we shot the cadet corps 22 single shot rifles twice a week with outside lubed army issue ammo. They never got cleaned and were always competition accurate. My BSA 12/15 and Martini International were treated the same, and were superbly accurate.

I saw a warning about the ammo which I suspect really is dirty. A 30 round mag and (probably) some rapid shooting may not have helped.

I will definitely pay more attention to cleaning now !

TJ
 
Once you get the barrel clean, take it off, stick a .17 cal cleaning rod in there with a jag - but first wrap the end with plumber's tape just past where the jag screws on, and push the rod in so the jag is just inside the muzzle. warm up the end of the barrel with a torch (take off any plastic sights, first) - and then, while the barrel is still warm, cast a lead plug around the cleaning jag. The plumber's tape is intended to seal the the rod so that the lead doesn't go past where the jag is... Then tap the lead plug (known as a "lap") part way out of the muzzle and cake it with valve-lapping compound, and run it a whole bunch of times (a few hundred) up and down the bore, refreshing the lapping compound when necessary, and focus on the rough spot until it's not rough any more...

If that doesn't help, throw the barrel away and get an aftermarket one. Or do that instead...
 
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