:-[ Met a lot of great people and learned a lot this weekend. Got soaked in the rain and soaked by sweat in the heat! Florida can be hot in the summer! Thought I had prepped well for this weekend but S&W let me down. Bought new M&P 15/22 from Buds three weeks ago and has constant problem of misfires which I think are from light primer strikes, usually on the first round and then runs thru the rest of magazine fine. I've used four different brands of ammo Winchester Super Silhoute, CCI Match, Randfeuerpatronen Rifle Match and Aquiline, Same problem with them all. Bought two new magazines but problem there with any of the four mags. Sling on/off makes no difference. Replaced trigger springs with JP set but problem seemed to be worse? I put all stock springs back in. Very frustrating in timed fire, racking round out and starting a round down. Today I was lent a 10/22 (Thank you) but even there I had a bit of learning curve having never shot 10/22 before (I'm greatful for the loan but I'm not crazy about the stock trigger) local shop tells me to send it back to Buds to have it sent back to S&W but I feel like just taking the hit and trading for a Ruger this week.. Any advice would be appreciated.
I have the 15/22 as well, but have not had any issues with it. I used it for my first Appleseed and was able to take home a rifleman patch (actually did it twice that weekend. I don't know what the issue might be with yours, but I love the platform. Hope you can get it working right.
Hornet Products has some very good triggers for Ruger 10/22's
http://www.hornetproducts.com
From what you describe the first round is not seating. As I hate protruding mags I don't own an AR type but... the problem is that the first round is not getting the full force of the return spring. Are you (can you) riding the bolt forward? Does the bolt release drag on the bolt? The problem is somewhere in the bolt not getting full force on the first round.
Have you tried starting with the bolt forward, mag in, pull bolt all the way back and release?
2cl
The S&W 15/22 is the only under 400$ AR clone I would consider buying.
Failure to feed (FTF) is not an issue that is normal to the S&W 15/22 or to S&W factory mags. Now I have seen a lot of FTF's with some of the knock off mags for that rifle.
IMO it has couple issues that distract from it as a excellent Appleseed rifle out of the box. (1. zero shift with a tight sling 2. Extractor can be easily popped out of the bolt by the chamber flag) Thats not a knock on S&W, all the Brand's factory rifles have a couple things that could be tweeked for Appleseed. (as you noticed with the factory Rugers of late the crappy triggers)
I didn't see you having all the rifle issues my friend wish could have shot it or observed it better.
Did Arch, Trey or Todd get a chance to do a once over on it? If their diagnosis matches yours then send it back to Bud's.
Good feedback. I will try tomorrow the bolt foreward, insert mag and then rack it. I have tried using both bolt release button and charging handle, no way to ride bolt foreward? Also there should is no foreward assist to use. I have tried removing the inside mount of the foregrip to eliminate pressure on the barrel from the sling. I forgotten to mention that the rifle is very well cleaned with minimum lubercation as the book says. All the mags are factory the only modifications are a foreward sling swivel and a Vortex Strike Eagle scope. I really like the AR platform as it's been referred to as the musket of today. I'll get this fixed but I'm also going to start building a 10/22 as a backup for my next Appleseed.
If you decide to go with the Ruger 10/22, get the Tech sights for the rifle. The stock sights are junk. I only had to make minor adjustments to my sights to achieve a 25 yard zero. I tried many ammo varieties and had the best luck with the 40 grain Mini-Mag ammo from Federal. I also tried the bulk pack and suffered from many issues during the qualification shoots. I was not able to recover from a dud round. The CCI Mini-Mags and Velocitors performed just as well or better than the Federal.
I earned my Rifleman badge at Liberty Center, Ohio last June at my 2nd Appleseed on the ONLY AQT during the entire weekend using an old Wally World Stainless Steel Ruger 10/22 with swivel sling mounts and a Tech Sight setup. The 10 round magazines are easy to handle quickly without much fuss. My Ruger 10/22 is different from the stock Ruger 10/22 because it has a slightly longer barrel. I think this helped me a lot with my precision. The rifle is also consistent with where it puts the rounds. I have not tried it yet, but I did see an "improved" trigger kit at Bass-Pro that I was very close to buying. It has a lighter and smoother trigger pull.
I was not able to have my Colt .22 M4 Ops ready to go to my last Appleseed. I had many annoying issues with the gun when it was first released in 2009. I have not personally shot the 2nd generation of this gun so I am not sure if these issues were fixed. I can say unequivocally that this Colt .22 M4 has about the best precision of any .22LR that I have ever shot. It shoots the Velocitor or Stinger as precisely as the regular 40 grain ammo.
The Walther Engineers got that one important thing right (precision) when they designed the gun. My Colt was just impossible to zero out of the box and I settled for a red dot for the last 6 years. It would however put the bullets in the same hole over and over again. I made a post about the Colt .22 a few weeks ago and it has pictures. If you can find one of these for a cheap price and it is a 2nd generation version, I say give it a try. I fixed my gun's zero issue by swapping the M4 rail system for a Colt .22 M-16 rail system and took the stock front sight tower off. The gun has a good zero using some popup sights.
I also know that the Colt .22 is specifically designed to safely shoot the CCI Stinger and I was actually encouraged to use this ammo by Walther/Umarex when I called their customer support in 2009. Just make sure the spring tension is set correctly for the bolt speed (easy to adjust) when using the Hypervelocity ammo. Most of the issues you read about this gun were because people failed to RTFM. I am not saying that the gun was without flaws, it is just people on the web seemed to focus on the wrong stuff. It could be that they never RTFM and never moved beyond their issues to find the "other" legitimate annoying issues.
The Colt .22 M-4/M-16 is also mostly aluminum so it does not bend or flex much if at all when you put tension on the sling. The new rail/handguard that I have on it now puts no pressure on the barrel because it is free floating now. The hand-guard uses a thread that I think is M37x1. I did not have calipers when I had the hand-guard off last and did my best to measure it. I do know that the thread pitch is 1mm. This odd thread pattern means standard AR furniture won't work on it. I did read somewhere that the barrel nut threads to the receiver is the same as the AR so you may be able to replace the barrel nut and put any standard AR furniture on it. I have not confirmed this however.
I would take it back.
My family has three 15/22. None have had any issues with any type of miss-fires with any ammo. I have seen at least 25 on the line. None with issues other than possible barrel distortion with too tight a sling and the extractor / chamber flag issue.
In our 15/22s I have also discovered that different ammo is making a difference in groups.
Quote from: hogfamily on August 03, 2016, 12:42:33 AM
I would take it back.
My family has three 15/22. None have had any issues with any type of miss-fires with any ammo. I have seen at least 25 on the line. None with issues other than possible barrel distortion with too tight a sling and the extractor / chamber flag issue.
In our 15/22s I have also discovered that different ammo is making a difference in groups.
I agree with this. Send it back. 15/22s are very capable of Rifleman scores.
2 of 3 Riflemen in Clan Monkey run 15/22's with none of the feed issues you've had. 1000's of rounds through each.
I agree w/ the other 15-22 owners. I have one and have put several thousand rounds thru it at a liberty gong. It does get a little tired after about 400-500 rounds but it's fine. I have a failure to feed the first round, only on the factory 25 round magazines... but they are old and tired. They use to work, just not anymore. The good news is, you dont use 25 rounds in 1 magazine for Appleseed anyway.
I got 2x 10 round short stack magazines.. great stuff.
Send it back if you like the idea of a rimfire AR analog and just want one that works. The M&P15-22 is probably the best of that breed in a large sample setting (Umarex seems to run hot and cold).
S&W had fun issues reported with the line early on (including OOBs), and while it is vastly improved they still do have the occasional escape. They're big boys, they'll fix it.
If the only reason you have an M&P15-22 is because Rugers have so-so factory triggers, that's a different question.
Since the rest of the magazine usually runs fine after the first shot, you might try replacing the magazine with a another full magazine after you are able to get the first magazine to fire. That way you will have a live round in the chamber and a full magazine in the rifle. This should help determine if the magazine is the problem.
Just something that you may want to try and see what happens.
Terry