Aguila Standard Velocity in Ruger .22 Pistols

[Aguila Blanca]

Chamfering the bolt on the 10/22 moves the spot where it initially strikes the hammer farther away from the pivot point, so it requires less effort to cock the hammer.

I wonder if you could do something similar on the pistol bolt. Looking at it, the spot where it strikes the hammer when coming back (right below the firing pin) is just slightly rounded. If you were to carefully take that down a bit at a time, testing as you went, you would move the initial strike point up on the hammer, likely increasing the efficiency of the bolt stroke.

Clipping one coil off a used recoil spring is a lot easier and MUCH more reversible than trying to chamfer the bolt. Plus doing the spring then allows you to put the standard spring in for when you have the correct ammo. You're not likely to keep a spare bolt around, are you?

 

[Lavan]

My MkII Ruger with short 4.5" bbl does not like truncated bullets like Winchester. Feeds MOST of the time but not EVERY time.

CCI Standard Velocity runs it just swell.

As do most other RN bullets.
Even the MOSTLY round ones have an ...occasional... glitch.

Fully rounded..... slick!

 

[MoscowMike]

I decided to try a couple of things. If I were serious about the scientific method I should have tried one at a time to see what the results were, but I'm too lazy for that.

On both pistols I used a Dremel rubber polishing wheel and lightly rounded the ledge on the bolt which strikes the hammer as it comes back. I also polished the section of the bolt where the recoil spring slides and the face of the hammer. Lightly polished the feed ramp, and cleaned a couple of the magazines.

I have three recoil springs, one new, one from the 22/45 which is a bit looser, and one from the old standard model which seems to be the lightest of the three. Put the new spring in the 22/45 and left the lightest spring in the standard model.

At the range, the 22/45 seemed to have the same problems with the Aguila standard velocity. Switching to Federal bulk high velocity it worked fine.

In the old standard model the Aguila worked fine with the cleaned magazine, but a dirty one had some issues.

I swapped springs, so the 22/45 had the lightest and the standard model had the heaviest. Most of the problems with the 22/45 went away, with one cleaned magazine having a failure to feed on the second round.

The standard model, now with the heaviest spring, still worked fine with the clean mag and had one failure to feed with the dirty one.

So - it seems to be a combination of factors. The 22/45 likes a lighter spring, the standard model isn't as fussy. I'll do a bit more rounding on the bolts for both of them, clean out the other magazines and see what happens.

I doubt if North Idaho will see any more sunny 60 degree days this year (it's been a surprising fall), but even if the weather isn't as nice another day at the range will be fun.

 

[carguychris]

...the 22/45 seemed to have the same problems with the Aguila standard velocity. Switching to Federal bulk high velocity it worked fine.

I have another theory.

Does the feeding problem consist of stovepipes and/or fired cases wedged in the ejection port, OR does the pistol fail to go completely into battery?

IF it's the latter, perhaps your 22/45 has a tight chamber. Aguila SV bullets run large; I know this because I have problems using them in my S&W M18 revolver, which has tight chambers. (Vintage .22LR Smith revolvers categorically do.) This is compounded by the fact that Aguila ammo tends to shoot dirty, so the chamber gets dirty faster.

Federal bulk pack has small bullets and is easy to use in my M18.