Reliability of semiauto 22s

[Doc TH]

I have a general question for FL Forum members. It relates to the overall reliability of SA RF rifles. I have refurbished a Norinco 22 ATD that used to belong to one of my sons. I gave him my Browning ATD, as a good dad will do, and re-worked his old Norinco ATD. I improved the tubular feed and carefully polished all the bearing surfaces of the bolt and receiver. I took it out for a range test and found the following:
trigger pull marginal (no surprise, I didn't polish the sear or firing pin bearing surface);
accuracy was quite good 1 - 1 1/2 inches offhand at 25 yds with open sights and older eyes;
had two failure to feeds in 100 rounds.

This rifle has not been shot a lot, so the FTFs might be partly due to inadequate "working in" of the parts.

I recall very few FTF problems with the Browning, but that may be old, optimistic memory. So, my question is, what is a "usual" or accepted/acceptable observed rate of misfires (FTF, FT eject, etc.) of semiauto .22s? It seems to me that 2% is on the high side. What have you observed to be the rate of malfunction in your rifles, e.g., a Ruger 10-22? Any observations would be welcome.

For the record, my "usual" .22 rifles are a Marlin 39A and Remington 511, which have never failed.

Thanks

 

[snolden]

depends on ammo. My ruger 10/22 made in 1965 is always flawless with CCI ammo but will sometime fail twice in one mag with federal bulkpacks. remington golden bullet is better but i will usually get 2 failures per hundred.

I clean my rifle about every 200-500 rounds or so.

i think you will find most folks will tell you to find out what brand ammo your gun likes. each gun is unique.

 

[FS2K]

Well in the case of the 10/22

Allot of it depends on the magazines being used. With clean factory ten round rotary magazines the 10/22 is very reliable, with no problems for hundreds & hundreds of rounds. It is only after the magazines get fouled with powder residue that you may see a FTF. Out of a factory barrel failures to eject are equally as rare, but I have had failures to eject while using after market barrels.

 

[silicon wolverine]

the remington golden bullet ammo available in my area is covered with some sort of waxy coating that remington claims is a lubricant. it chokes just about any semi ive shot it in including a 10/22 with factory and aftermarket mags, walther p22, several differnt marlin bolt actions and even a NEF sinlge shot (gummed up the ejector). Over all my 10/22 is very reliable as long as it is clean. dirty semis dont function that well, especially with the low impulse power of the .22.

SW

 

[dfaugh]

Well, I've shot over 5000 rounds through my Marlin Model 60 (and I got it slight used), tested every kind of LR ammo I could find for accuracy.
Out of all that I've had maybe (I forget exactly) 5 FTEs (stovepipes).

Which would leave us with a .1% failure rate.

 

[Doc TH]

reliability

Thanks for the observations. The Norinco was very clean at the time of my test. I was using CCI minimags which have been most reliable in my SA pistols and the 10-22 that I used to own. But, you are right that the brand of ammo is a major factor. From your combined experiences, it sounds as though FTF should be very uncommon with at least certain brands of ammo. So if my 2% figure is accurate, I need to try something beside CCI. Or give up on the Chinese rifle.