Ruger Mark II Failure to Fire

[BarryLee]

I just returned from shooting my Ruger Mark II Government Target model and I had four rounds that did not fire out of a total of 200. The marks on the cases that did not fire seemed to match the ones that did. The ammo in question was Remington, so it was decent quality, I guess. The rounds that did not fire all were the first round from a full magazine. I was using the slide release as opposed to the slingshot method if that matters.

So, does anyone have a clue why these rounds did not fire? Also, just curious what kind of failure rate people have noticed with .22LR ammo?

Anyway, just trying to determine if this might be ammo related, gun related or operator error.

 

[overkill0084]

Your first mistake is assuming that Remington is good quality ammo It's not without it's detractors. I've not found it to especially accurate. FWIW, rimfire ammo in general is suseptable to this sort of failure. It's due to there being a void in the priming compound in the rim for whatever reason. Perhaps the ammo was dropped at some point or otherwise mishandled. Some lots within a brand will vary as well. I had a brick of CCI Blazers that had 5 or 6 failures. Several bricks later I've not had any since that one brick. 4 out of 200 (2%) isn't THAT bad (It's not good either.) You could try to rotate them and see if they fire or throw them away and not worry about it.
If you haven't already, field strip your gun and verify that the bolt and firing pin channel aren't too cruddy. Just to eliminate that as a variable.

 

[BarryLee]

You could try to rotate them and see if they fire or throw them away and not worry about it.

Yes, I just tossed them, but wish I had thought to try them a second time.

 

[straight-shooter]

Certainly not uncommon with .22 ammo. I've experienced misfires in almost every brick i've bought of either Remington, Federal and Winchester. My odds did greatly improve once i replaced the firing pin and extractor with the Volquartson. Extracts much better and flings the cases and the firing pin hits better. Although if like stated earlier there is a void in the bottom of the casing then it won't fire regardless.

 

[myshoulderissore]

I recently shot up what I had of CCI Minimag... 200 rounds, and 3 didn't fire. Even premium ammo is fallible. Its rimfire, and that is the reason I use it solely for fun, because I haven't found a brand that hasn't had some failures.

Beauty of it all, each failed round when shooting .22 is only a penny or two wasted, rather than $.50+...

 

[Walt Sherrill]

If you've not encountered failures to fire from .22 ammo before, you've been very lucky.

If you've used a lot of bulk ammo and not had failures -- you need to run down and pickup up a couple of lottery tickets. You are a very lucky person, and should try your luck elsewhere.

 

[Dragline45]

I found as far as cheap bulk .22lr goes CCI Blazers to be some of the better. I experience less FTF with the Blazers than the Federal bulk walmart packs or the Winchester white box bulk packs out of my 10/22 and 22/45. I don't like Remington ammunition regardless of caliber, some of the dirtiest inconsistent ammo I have come across even in their expensive SD stuff.

just curious what kind of failure rate people have noticed with .22LR ammo?

Ive gone through multiple bricks of .22 and not had a single FTF, I have also had multiple FTF's all in the same brick. The cheap stuff is meant for recreational shooting and varmint hunting and the companies know this. The QC for the bulk anything ammo is not as good as the premium stuff.

 

[BarryLee]

If you've used a lot of bulk ammo and not had failures -- you need to run down and pickup up a couple of lottery tickets. You are a very lucky person, and should try your luck elsewhere.

Yes, I have experienced some failures in the past, but I suppose one out of fifty seemed a little high. What kind of concerned me was that they all happened to be the first round from a full magazine. I guess I never really knew what was “normal” sounds like my experience may be more common than not.

 

[whippoorwill]

Last weekend, I tried about 5-6 different brands in my new CZ Kadet2. Really only had problems with one type... Aguila Target (Eley Prime). Approximately 25% required a second hit. Perhaps the ammo was old. It was new from the store, but the box didn't look brand new. The Aguila Match Pistol, on the other hand, did fine.

 

[m_liebst]

Stick with ammo in par with CCI. CCI adds a generous amount of their surefire priming mixture to ensure 100% reliability.... assuming that your guns firing pin/ spring/ mechanics are in acceptable working condition.

I've shot over 7500 + rounds of various CCI ammo in my MKlll with 0 duds. CCI Blazer is what I shoot the most.

Actually, to tell you the truth- I've shot almost 10k in my ruger (CCI, Fiocchi, Aguila, and few Remington) and have had only 2 duds- both being to the bulk pack of remington subsonics.

Remington is some of the worst ammo you can get, especially with rimfire.- still have the 2 duds to showcase the ammo you don't ever want to rely on. Even though its not the best thing to do- I even tried refiring the 2 rounds that were duds several times again,... -still with no bang!

If you've not encountered failures to fire from .22 ammo before, you've been very lucky.

If you've used a lot of bulk ammo and not had failures -- you need to run down and pickup up a couple of lottery tickets. You are a very lucky person, and should try your luck elsewhere.

Gotta disagree with ya on that. I go to the range twice a month with a few buddies we all end up bringing along the .22lr rugers as well as our centerfire pistols. We all shoot CCI. I'm the newest comer to .22lr but as long as we've been shooting in the past 3 years or so I don't recall one of us getting a dud from the CCI.

I've seen others with other bulk ammo, including Rem.- n I've heard some irritable comments n seen disbelief in faces.

You might wanna switch your ammo n try some better quality bulk. Or try cleaning the internals of your bolt once in a while.

 

[Edward429451]

What kind of concerned me was that they all happened to be the first round from a full magazine.

That is odd. If it were strictly the ammo then you'd expect it to happen at oft times. I wonder how do you chamber your first round? Do you ride the bolt forward with your hand? Perhaps the way you chamber it, the round does not fully seat and then the firing pin seats it, but does not have enough retained energy to fire the round.

When I chamber a MK II (or any semi) I pull it to the rear smoothly and quickly and let it slip out of my fingers at full rear, so there is no contact with it on its forward travel. The bolt spring is a light spring and I surmise it would not take much interference to inhibit its operation.

 

[Dragline45]

Barry
If you've not encountered failures to fire from .22 ammo before, you've been very lucky.

If you've used a lot of bulk ammo and not had failures -- you need to run down and pickup up a couple of lottery tickets. You are a very lucky person, and should try your luck elsewhere.

M Liebst- Gotta disagree with ya on that. I go to the range twice a month with a few buddies we all end up bringing along the .22lr rugers as well as our centerfire pistols. We all shoot CCI. I'm the newest comer to .22lr but as long as we've been shooting in the past 3 years or so I don't recall one of us getting a dud from the CCI.

So you are disagreeing with him that .22LR is unreliable? I have had plenty of FTF's with CCI minimags, as well as bulk ammo. As Barrylee said, you are lucky, or you don't shoot nearly enough .22LR.

M Liebest - Stick with ammo in par with CCI. CCI adds a generous amount of their surefire priming mixture to ensure 100% reliabiliy.... assuming that your guns firing pin/ spring/ mechanics are in acceptable working condition.

No ammo ensures 100% reliability, especially Rimfire.

M Liebest-
I've shot over 7500 + rounds of various CCI ammo in my MKlll with 0 duds. CCI Blazer is what I shoot the most.

extremely hard to believe

 

[m_liebst]

extremely hard to believe

Hey I'm just stating what has been in my case. Theres lots of factors even beyond the quality of ammo. Lets just say- I've gotten started in the last 2 years with .22lr,... even gotten a 1022. Thats easily around 13000 rounds with the 2 duds. Hey maybe I'm lucky.

Or maybe you don't have reliable operating parts in your gun..- who knows.

What can I say- maybe ya don't really spend time cleaning, n dissasembling parts( like the bolt every so often ) that average gun owners wouldn't think to do in the guns ya own , or maybe you just own crap that you use to shoot... Is your gun old, a possibility could definitely be a weak firing spring.

This forum isn't science.., it's opinions

 

[Walt Sherrill]

We're happy for you. But, your case (your personal experience) is NOT typical.

 

[Dragline45]

Or maybe you don't have reliable operating parts in your gun..- who knows.

What can I say- maybe ya don't really spend time cleaning, n dissasembling parts( like the bolt every so often ) that average gun owners wouldn't think to do in the guns ya own , or maybe you just own crap that you use to shoot... Is your gun old, a possibility could definitely be a weak firing spring.

I field strip, clean, and lube my 22/45 and 10/22 every 1000 rounds which is far more than necessary, and that includes whacking the barrel off of the 22/45 and scrubbing everything clean with Hoppes and a toothbrush so its not an issue of lack of cleaning. I also owned a Henry Lever action which easily saw 20,000 rounds. Out of all three of these firearms, neither showed more of a tendancy to FTF. Every FTF I have I rechamber the round to see if it will fire on a second strike, I can only remember a couple of occasions out of the countless number of duds that actually went off on the second strike. So I know it's not an issue of weak springs or a damaged firing pin. The 22/45 is 3 years old and the 10/22 is maybe a little over a year old. It has nothing to do with the guns shooting them, rimfire ammo is not as consistent as centerfire, you will get duds here and there, there's no getting around it.

 

[m_liebst]

I field strip, clean, and lube my 22/45 and 10/22 every 1000 rounds which is far more than necessary, and that includes whacking the barrel off of the 22/45 and scrubbing everything clean with Hoppes and a toothbrush so its

I'ts Not needed to fully take the the barrel off...,that has nothin to do with firing pin issues. I'm actually talking about taking your bolt apart( taking the bolt stop out) to clean all that gunk/ fouling that ends up crimping the firing pin. And soakin the spring every so often..

I have I rechamber the round to see if it will fire on a second strike, I can only remember a couple of occasions out of the countless number of duds that actually went off on the second strike.

That's extremeley hard to believe- coming from: you're saying CCI ammo?

Like I said, only 2 duds I've gotten were from Remington.


Sorry to hear your experience is much worse.

Like you said maybe I'm lucky. Maybe not. It's not science on this forum, because we cannot obviously be there to see these things or have a control etc.

But mark my words, - I'll let ya know when I get my first dud from my CCI blazers, since your so ill tempered of this round.

Another very small factor in my reliability might also be that I don't buy these things by single boxes sitting on the shelves for who knows how long. I buy CCI blzrs in Bulk at my local gun show for 5000 rounds ( all packaged in one box) at $165.00- I save, while maybe getting less variation in proccesed ammo.

 

[dalegribble]

remington? well there's your answer. i won't buy anything with the remington name anymore.

 

[AndyWest]

My 2c.

I've also had problems with Remington/UMC and it's now on my do-not-buy list. I get (probably overly) annoyed with failures so now I only feed CCI Mini-Mags through my 22s. Not foolproof but worth the extra cash IMO. And keep 'er clean and oiled

 

[TunnelRat]

There's a reason we don't fight wars anymore with rimfire ammunition .

 

[Dragline45]

I'ts Not needed to fully take the the barrel off...,that has nothin to do with firing pin issues. I'm actually talking about taking your bolt apart( taking the bolt stop out) to clean all that gunk/ fouling that ends up crimping the firing pin. And soakin the spring every so often..

I know its not needed and I never said taking the barrel off to clean has anything to do with the firing pin, I was making a point that all my guns are clean enough to eat off, responding to your post about maybe my guns were dirty as the reason I was getting the occasional FTF.

That's extremeley hard to believe- coming from: you're saying CCI ammo?

I mentioned in an earlier post that I get far less duds in CCI Blazer bulk packs compared to the federal, winchester, and remington. Although I have still gotten a few in the Blazers, and even gotten the occasional dud with CCI Mini Mags which are $8 per box of 100. Since rimfire ammo lacks an actual primer and has a primer solution spun into the rim, every now and then your guna get some that don't go off. I am just amazed that you went through close to 10k rounds of blazer with 0 FTF's.