...about older S&W .22 revolvers is the ridiculously tight chambers. Yes, I suppose cutting chambers to match tolerances makes for an accurate revolver, but when only a few cylinderfuls of bulk Remington .22 leave the thing so fouled that you're darn near having to knock rounds in with a hammer to seat them fully, it can take some of the fun out of the experience.
I'd gladly give up a little bit of accuracy in a 2" Kit Gun to be able to get the fiftieth round into the chamber as easily as the first.
Use good chamber hygiene.
ReplyDeleteBrush, nylon or bronze, every so often.
Save the flossing till you get home.
J, t R
Sounds like a job for Danny Dremel!
ReplyDeleteWV = "progrock"; Yes, Pink Floyd, etc.
Or try Federal bulk ammo. Remington is about the dirtiest burning .22rf made this side of a Phillipino sweatshop.
ReplyDeleteI'm utterly stunned by the accuracy and reliability I've been getting from Aguilar, particularly the 38 gr. High Speed Hollow Point. It is, quite simply, the best ammo I can get, period.
But the stuff's not cheap anymore. They've gotten their name recognition, and now they're after as much as they can get for their goodies.
For reference, it's made in a former (nationalized) Remington plant in northern Mexico, run by Brits, and using Eley Tenex priming compound.
If American ammo workers were out of a job I'd be buying Yankee, but since every cartridge factory in the U.S. is running every machine 24/7, I don't mind sending a few bucks south of the Rio Grande. It might keep a few of them home, instead of coming here and competing for American jobs.
I also want to get a fast twist barrel for the 10/22 (1 turn in 10 inches) and stock up on a few thousand rounds of that Aguilar 60 grain subsonic. I'm hearing stories of minute of angle groups at 200 yards, with no noise. Woodchucks will tremble at the sound of my footsteps should such prove true.
*cough*Taurus*cough*
ReplyDeleteTight tolerances will not be a problem...
In an 8 3/8" 17-3 that I formerly owned, Remington Yellowjackets were extremely accurate. A cylinderful would go into a dime sized group at 25 yards. But, the ejector would stick after about two boxes giving me exactly what you are experiencing. I could shoot a smallbore handgun silhouette match with it but I had to limit pre-match practice if I wanted to prevent the "hole" in the left palm by the end of the match.
ReplyDeleteJim Stroh, Alpha Precision, (706) 783-2131, can size the chamber throats to the correct diameter. You should be able to ship just the cylinders to him. The last time I knew, he charged around $90 per cylinder shipping included.
ReplyDeleteYou can chat with him on his message board at www.alphaprecisioninc.com.
Now that's a relief.
ReplyDeleteHere I thought I was doing something wrong...
Interesting side note, though. The S&W model 17 does exactly what you describe - after maybe 75-100 rounds it gets progressively harder to cram rounds in.
The Colt Official Police, however, does not suffer from the same issues, yet is only marginally less accurate (and I'd wager in more, ahem, skilled hands - I *did* get the nickname "Minute of Berm" from Ambulance Driver, after all - the difference would be negligible...
I have an older Taurus M96 target model that does the same thing. It's extremely accurate and fun to shoot, but I try to remember to take a brush with ti to the range to clean out the cylinder after every 100 rounds or so.
ReplyDelete"The Colt Official Police, however, does not suffer from the same issues, yet is only marginally less accurate"
ReplyDeleteJay, I can't get her to use my Colt .22 revolvers. She wrinkles her nose and tells me that they rotate the "wrong way".
I tell her that Colt can before Horace and Danny, but all I get is more nose wrinkling.
Shootin' Buddy
This has come up on the Smith forum in the past. It seems to vary between individual guns. Some chambers are cut tighter. The guys on the Smith forum polished out the tight chambers and corrected the problem. Running a chamber reamer into it, probably even by hand, will likely correct it also. I had two older Smith K-22's, one would get gummy quickly, one would go on forever without needing cleaning, and shooting the same ammo.
ReplyDeleteMy looser guns chambers went about .226"-.227" ID, the tighter gun had a couple chambers that were about .223"-.224" ID, with a couple going .225"-.226" ID. This is as close as I could tell with a dial caliper, but seemed pretty consistant when checked.
Malamute
Well, OK, Lady Tam if you insist, I guess this is the way it's gotta be. Regretfully, I'll take it off your hands - I'll give you 20% more than your paid for the too-tight chambered revolver.
ReplyDeleteSo far, hasn't really been a problem with my K22(damn, I like that pistol!) with the exception of some Eley Sport; VERY tight fit with it, so I'll save it for the rifles. All others, gets maybe a tad sticky, but that's all.
ReplyDeleteI've had the same problem with my Ruger Single-Six...with Remington .22s being the worst offender.
ReplyDeleteEspecially Thunderbolts, which also have the charming trait of leading the heck out of the bore.
--Wes S.
For what it's worth, Colt's has always finished their .22rf chambers at a number 1 drill size, which, if memory serves, is .228.
ReplyDeleteChamber finish is a different matter, something I found out about the hard way up at S & W last year, with an incredibly evil bunch of Mossberg Military 5.56 mm barrels on the M & P 15 line. Not a shining example of Mexican workmanship.
Bottom line, you need between a 6 micro and a 12 micro for a chamber finish. Anything worse (above 12) will hang up.
You can pick up a surface comparator plate at any machinist supply store for 12 or 15 bucks, and bend a coathanger to a short L shape with a point. If the guy on the counter looks confused, tell him you want a Bishop's Plate or a Baptist Plate and he'll get the idea.
Scratch the 6 micro and the 12 on the plate, then compare to what you feel in the chamber to see if you've polished enough. If not, keep working.
You can also get precision gage pins in the same place, for about $3 each, in .222 through .229. That way you know where you really are, you're not guessing.
I wonder if a multi-brush cleaner in which the individual brushes could be made to rotate would make this easier to clean. I think Outers or Kleenbore used to make one that was six mops and six brushes, but they were stationary. A stationary brush big enough to do the job would be hard to push through.
ReplyDeleteHow many shots? is it a 10 shot like the new K22? Man, I want one of these.
Ed,
ReplyDeleteChamber finish looks good. Everything's peachy keen when the gun is clean, it's just that there's only room for the cartridge, not the cartridge and some dirt.
Og,
Six shooters. I don't have any particular moral objection to the 10-shot 617, but the newest .22 caliber S&W I own was made in 1957, when they all still had six-shot cylinders.
My brother was lusting for a K-22, but their hard to find around here. He finally settled on a Colt. The Basterd let me shoot his, and now I want one.
ReplyDeletethe six shot idea is actually kind of nice since it forces you to count carefully.
ReplyDeleteRemington .22's are junk. Just bought a 550 box, it was an ordeal to go through them. One misfire out of every 20, and a distint difference in report and recoil, in four different guns. I have always used CCI before. I was wondering about the Aguila, that is what the CMP sells.
ReplyDeleteWow, I use the Remington Golden Bullets all the time. I probably do 5000 rounds a year, at least, and I've had very very few troubles with them, predominantly being failure to feed- which are usually less than one or two a box.
ReplyDeleteog, get a drill and a .22 bore brush. Chuck brush in drill, stick in chamber and fire it up. Use some sort of solvent or even light lube and your done!
ReplyDeleteI despise those tight little chambers but love the tight little groups.
FWIW, my M17 makes hitting 8 inch steel plates at 55 yards boooooorrrrring. :)
Anon, it will spin the cylinder. I'm an engineer, I can make this more complicated.
ReplyDeleteGot a High Standard Sport King that loves the Remington Golden Bullets above all else; I think I've had three or four fail-to-fire out of a couple of thousand, and maybe two failures to feed that could be blamed on the ammo. A lot more accurate than I expected, too.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, few years ago got a couple of bricks of 'yellow box' Remington, and that stuff was crap; at least the lot mine came from.
That thing must be broke. I'll *ahem* take if off your hands so it will trouble you no more! ;-)
ReplyDelete