A short range day,

which involved putting 100 rounds through the 15-22.  Which worked just fine, so hopefully it'll keep doing so.

Looking at that apparently-new bolt & carrier, got to thinking: I've read of a number of cases of these rifles having a OOB, so I'm wondering if, when a rifle comes in after one, they have a upgraded bolt that they count as 'repairing the extractor'?  This is complete speculation on my part, nothing I've heard anything about.

In any case, they paid for the shipping and repair, and it seems to be working as it should.

The 15-22 has returned from its sojourn

in the PROM.  All the repair ticket shows is 'replaced extractor'; they either also did the damndest job of cleaning the bolt and carrier that I've ever seen, or those are new.

In any case, next day or two there will be range time, and we'll see how it does.

Demand a public apology for treating them as 'accused, so they're guilty',

the apology being just as loud as the condemnation, or sue their ass off.  They'll have earned it.


Socialism!  Is there anything it can't doeff-up?


The 15-22 is on the way back, I'm curious what the 'action taken' will be on the paperwork.

E-mail last night, the 15-22

has arrived in the PROM.  We'll see what they think.

Well, that was interesting Update

Some of you may remember the Saga of the 15-22 from several years ago.  The rifle they replaced the original with has functioned flawlessly, until today.

On the range, trying out a few rounds of some new(to me) Winchester ammo, the first round fired, and then had an out-of-battery fire as the second round was still a bit out of the chamber.  Which got my attention.

No damage to me or anything other than the rifle, the extractor pin appears to have sheared, the extractor is in its groove in the barrel, and the spring is still in the bolt.  With the ruptured case sticking out of the chamber.

Pictures later, I want to contact S&W about this before I move anything more than necessary.

Update: message from S&W, "We'd suggest you return it to us for examination, provide the following information", etc.  So it begins.

Saga of the 15-22

Nothing bad to report. Either they had a lot of bugs in the early ones and I got one of the buggiest, or it was simply a lemon. In either case, I've now got about a thousand rounds through this one and the only failures to function I can blame on either not having the top round in the magazine in proper position(round popped to vertical instead of feeding), or a couple of brands not having quite enough oomph or something to cycle the action. Odd, that; it's fired Eley Sport and some other subsonic stuff with no problem, but a couple of brands this one just won't work with.

Remember the Remington Golden Bullet problem? I found a box of old stuff, between 2-3 years old, buried under some other stuff and tried some of it; functioned perfectly in this rifle. But the stuff made since? Not so much.

When I got this rifle I wiped out the bore with Eezox, and wiped the bolt and rails clean with it, left it open to dry and haven't touched it since. It's been roughly a thousand rounds through, so today I opened it up. Bolt face:Inside the receiver:
Fairly filthy with .22 fouling, most of which wiped off with a damp patch(trying Strike Hold this time). Not nearly as dirty as this AR15*, but standard 'not cleaned in a while' .22-level.

I found a BSA .22 scope stuck in a corner(found on sale somewhere) and stuck it on for testing ammo. Now I need a calm day at the outdoor range so I can try this at 50 and(hopefully) 100 yards. Want to try the Fed Auto Match in the Martini, too, see if the promise of that one group holds up.


*That's the dirtiest I've ever seen. The second-dirtiest firearm for me was a Marlin model 75 sold cheap because it wouldn't function. Reason it wouldn't was, from the looks of it, whenever it started getting sticky they'd just spritzed some oil- motor oil, from the smell- in and kept going. That's the only .22 I've ever had to actually soak the works in solvent to clean: grey sludge caked on/in EVERYTHING inside the receiver. Kind of wish it was still mine, as after cleaning it was a very reliable and very accurate little rifle.

I have to note that this scope kind of sucks. Big problem is that it's VERY picky about eye relief: get just a touch too far back and everything outside the center of field gets blurry. REAL blurry. But it holds zero, so I'll give it a try for this.

I mentioned finding some very high rings

Here's how they worked outFound them here. A full inch of rise from the top of the rail to the bottom of the scope body. Got to the range today, and there's a world of difference between this rifle/scope with these rings and regular extra-high. These put it high enough that you get a good cheek weld on the stock, as opposed to forcing your cheekbone into it to get low enough. They're aluminum, well finished and seem very solid; and seven bucks total.

I'm looking forward to getting to the outdoor range with this combo; I think the 50-yard and 100-yard groups will improve, as it'll be easier to get my eye properly aligned with the scope. I want to try some groups with every ammo it cycles, see how tight I can keep them. Maybe next week, as starting tomorrow it's supposed to turn very windy again.

I should say that this 15-22 is holding up well; no problems other than the Remington Golden Bullet ammo. Today tried it with Remington Viper, Federal Champion and some Federal HP; the Viper had one failure to fire, all others went bang normally and grouped quite well at 30 yards. I had some older Remington GB I tried; one wouldn't go into the chamber, the others all fit but had one FTF out of ten rounds.

A variety of shooty stuff, starting off with good customer service from Remington

Last week I wrote of contacting Remington about their bulk-pack Golden Bullet ammo being a bit inconsistent; they wrote back and sent a shipping label: "Please pack up in the original box, put these stickers on and send it to us and we'll test it." Today I got a letter from them, detailing what they found:
A priming problem on some of the shells.
Some cases may have had a scratch from the forming die that caused them to split on firing(Wow! I hadn't seen any of those; if I had, I'd have really freaked).
So they not only answered me, they did serious tests and found the problems. And they're making it right. Good for Remington.

Ran a little over 100 rounds through the 15-22, no failures or problems: so far, so good.

A while back I lucked into a clearance at a store on Limbsaver slip-on recoil pads and got one. I took it and the 1903 Springfield and some ball ammo along: that is the best recoil pad I've ever used, well worth their price(the regular, at the clearance worth well over what I paid).

The M1 Garand continues to function well with the cast-bullet loads. I've decided that until I can mount a scope on it, I'm going to have to call the sometimes-iffy accuracy at 100 yards my fault; I'm just not as good with iron sights as I used to be.

A while back I picked up some of the Yugoslav 8mm heavy ball ammo, and tried it out today; that stuff's not bad at all. Recoil is definitely heavier than with light ball, I'd not like shooting a whole bunch of it in one day.

And I still love that Martini Model 12; it's one of those guns that make it easy to shoot well.

In the Continuing Saga of the 15-22,

the replacement arrived. Good timing, because I was planning on hitting the range today. Brand-new rifle, gave it a look-over and headed out. Didn't have a lot of time, did try it with the following:
Remington Golden Bullet bulk-pack
Federal 36-gr hollowpoint bulk-pack
Federal Champion
Federal Auto Match
Eley Sport
Winchester 36-gr hollowpoint bulk-pack

I wasn't expecting perfection(wishing for, but...) out of a brand-new semi-auto, as many seem to need a break-in period besides finding what ammo it likes and doesn't. It didn't care much for the Auto Match, but the only real problem was with the Remington; and I strongly suspect the problem there is the ammo. Remington quality control seems to have gone to hell, at least on this stuff, very inconsistent in power: some was very light, some seemed very hot*. And a few rounds just didn't want to chamber. I looked those over closely, no sign of dings or whatever from feeding, just very tight in the chamber even though everything else slid right in.

There's the possibility the Auto Match trouble was from the magazine, that one's been iffy on other stuff. And I know it's that one because I took Tam's advice and numbered almost every magazine I own. Didn't have any more of that ammo with me, so next time I'll try this stuff in a different mag just to be sure.

So about 200 rounds downrange. It ate the Federal Champion, Fed hollowpoints and Eley without a hiccup**. The Winchester seemed a touch light, there were a couple of rounds that didn't quite cycle the action fully. I think I've got a box of Remington stashed away that's a couple of years old, I'm going to dig it out and see if it's a bit more consistent than the recent stuff.

I'm going to try to take this with me every range trip the next while and put at least a couple of magazines through, if there's going to be a problem I'll find it. And speak appropriately with Smith & Wesson about it if there is.


*I've had a couple of times I've cleared a gun and checked the bore because the shot seemed so light I wanted to be sure there wasn't a bullet stuck in there.

**A couple of misfeeds, but possibly mag related; rimmed cartridges not uncommonly have trouble if a round happens to drop into the magazine wrong. Badly. Whatever. We'll see.

Well, hell, since I'm in a bad mood I might as well cover both items

Item the First: I had one of the early model CRKT M16 knives. 'Had' being the operative word, and it seems to have disappeared, and it's one of the best pocketknives I've had. So I've been digging around and it seems that, while they have a whole range of M16 models now, there's a problem:
mine had a 'Lawks' mechanism; when you opened it, the liner lock locked, but if you wanted to be super-certain it was locked you could rock a lever on the back of the grip forward, which locked the lock. Well, now all the damn things seem to have an 'Auto-Lawks', which goes on when you open the knife. So now, if you want to be able to close it one-handed- that and one-handed opening being very handy things- you have to pull the Auto back and hold it(spring loaded) while then pushing the liner lock off AND then close the blade. And I really don't like that kind of juggling.


Item the Second: is on the Continuing Saga of the 15-22. As in it's back at the factory. Because, after posting on it being back from the THIRD trip, I looked it all over, put one of their empty-chamber indicators in place, dropped the bolt and CLICK-click-click. "What the f-?" F- being that the extractor had extracted itself from the bolt. Again.

Phone call was made, which began with "I need a return ticket, and I want to speak with a supervisor." You can be proud of me: I didn't lapse into profanity or excessive verbiage either one, while still getting the point across that a bleeping .22 rifle should not require FOUR TRIPS BACK TO THE FACTORY.

Ahem. I do believe they got the proper idea that I am a Dissatisfied Customer Who Is Tired Of This. This time the shipping label arrived by e-mail within an hour or so of ending the call. They're replacing the rifle with a new one. Which I am going to shoot the crap out of and see if this one will actually continue to work the way they're supposed to.

Dammit.

In the Continuing Saga of the 15-22,

that was fast. Notice from the shipper that it's here, picked it up this morning.

This time the 'Repaired' lists three things:
Updated to latest spec.(whatever the hell that means)
Replace mag
Replace/repair springs

Why 'replace mag' I don't know, I guess that's their current way of saying "Sorry 'bout that, here's a new magazine".

So next time I get to the range it's test time: every kind of .22 ammo I've got and see if it works the way it should.

As I say, this was a fast turnaround, which is good; I haven't heard a word from S&W in this whole mess, which is not. I sent an e-mail to customer service with details(the latest e-mail that they either ignored or didn't bother to answer), and while waiting for the shipping label I wrote an actual letter, hoping that might get more attention; no idea if it did, no response at all. Be kind of nice if S&W could bother to spend a moment answering the e-mail at least; why bother having a 'customer service' address if you're not going to bloody ANSWER anything?

Oh, and the shipping label they said they'd e-mail? That never arrived. Wonderful, that is.

The M&P15-22 is now at S&W,

officially delivered. Now we'll see what happens.

Took the 15-22 to the range,

and it seems to be functioning properly. Only problems I had were all with some Federal bulk-pack hollowpoints. Partly a few of them not feeding from the mag properly(maybe ammo, maybe mag) and the rest...

Has anyone else noticed how damned variable the things have been lately? All out of one box, in each magazine you'd get some that seemed to have barely enough oomph to fully cycle the bolt, and others that cracked like they were charged a touch on the heavy side. Not real good for either smooth function or accuracy.

By the way, when I sent it back for repair I'd removed the scope and put the original sights back on. After having been removed for a while, then replaced, they were still dead-on when put back on; so was the scope when I took the irons off and replaced it. That's the way it should be.

The Saga of the M&P15-22

I just heard a knock on the door and found a UPS guy with a box.

So it arrived on the 17th and it's back on the 24th; figure four-five days in transit back and they got to it and made the fix in a week, not bad.

Annoyance: "Repaired: Updated to latest spec."

Aaargh, that's the same thing they said before! So I think I'll write to them and ask just what the hell that means.

But they did throw in two new magazines, so that's to the good. But it'll be a few days before I can take it to the range; I don't care how much Tam likes realistic practice, I'm not going out shooting in this.

On the 15-22 saga, got some information in comments from Bullseye

First, as many of you are very aware, the magazine of a semi-auto can cause more problems than sometimes believed: on that subject, this link has some information.

The ejection problem: he found this video showing one way to fix it yourself.

I've got one magazine that occasionally winds up with a round sticking up vertically with the rim stuck in the feed lips; the others have always fed just fine. Like with anything else, you can get a mag with a problem.

On the ejector, I thought of messing with it myself, but didn't for two reasons:
First, in case it was something unusual, wanted S&W to be aware of it(turns out that wasn't a problem), and
Second, the damn thing was new and this should have been caught before it left the factory, so I wanted them to fix it.
I should add one more: I could just see breaking the ejector and then having to return it...

I will warn that Bullseye's site is about as Unsafe for Work as you can get, so be warned; he's over here.

In the continuing saga of the M&P15-22,

it did indeed arrive at S&W. Actually a day ahead of schedule; so tied up yesterday forgot to make note of it.

Now we'll see how long it takes to get to it and take care of the problem. Hopefully permanently.

As an update on the S&W 15-22 saga,

I can only say 'In transit'. From here to the People's Republic of Massachusetts, the 11th to the 17th. 'Tis the season and all that.

In the continuing saga of the M&P15-22,

the shipping label was in my mail this morning, so I'm off(shut up, Og) to the shipper.

Just for the timeline:
Wednesday evening: extractor failure(and disappearance)
Thursday morning: call S&W, "You'll get a label within 48 hours"
Late Thursday: take one last look before boxing it up and Lo! found the extractor; tape it and spring to the receiver
Friday morning: get label and take it to FedEx.

So a few days to get there, this time of year no telling how long to get to it. We'll see.

Well, THAT was interesting

Hit the range today(indoor, and yes, it was cold) and put about 200 rounds through the M&P15-22, and some .45acp downrange. This evening I opened up the rifle, wiped it out, cleaned the bolt and lubed the rails, reassembled, pulled back the charging handle and released.

Ping.

Whiskey tango foxtrot?!? What the hell was THAT?

Pulled back the bolt and there's a spring loose in there! It seems when the bolt dropped the extractor exited for parts unknown. I still can't find it.

Looks like there'll be a call to Smith & Wesson in the morning.

Hit the range the other day with a friend; good because
He hadn't been in quite a while, and
We hadn't gone together in even longer.
So we made lots of holes in targets. One of the things I had to do was sight in; I had a pistol scope I'd taken off the Trailside, and found some extra-high rings and mounted it on the 15-22.
The rings fit right onto the rail as they should. And, amazingly, it only took about three clicks left and two up to put it dead-on at fifty yards. I will note that it would actually have fit my face better with even higher rings, but this is what I had(do they make extra-extra high rings? Need to look).

It was blowing like hell yesterday, which did not help, and the angle of the sun was giving me some glare on the front lens; not ideal conditions for ammo testing. But, results so far, of the ammo I've tried, the most accurate out of this are Centurion 40-grain solids
and the real surprise, Eley Sport
Being lazy, instead of putting up another target for these I just held on the 12; no, I couldn't actually see the '12', just held where I knew it should be. The two to the right are called flyers, and I wasn't trying real hard for the best groups(see 'hell, blowing like' above); just steadied on the mark and squeezed off, and got this. And that's 20 rounds. The accuracy wasn't a surprise, I've had good results from this ammo before, but it's standard velocity stuff so most autoloaders won't reliably feed it(just not enough energy to fully cycle the action) ; yet it cycled through perfectly. You could tell from the sound and recoil it's a lighter load, but no failure to feed, cock or anything else. Impressive from the rifle.

Just to prove that I can actually shoot decently(sometimes), I'd taken the Martini model 8 along, and managed to fire this group at 50 yards
also with Eley Sport. And that's sitting at a bench, elbows rested and using the sling. I'll excuseblame the not as good groups from the S&W mostly on a little difficulty keeping the eye properly aligned(see 'rings' above), and it's quite possible that with some match ammo it might do much better; I just find it very easy to shoot good groups with this old BSA. I'll throw in that with the iron sights on the S&W, I actually managed equal to slightly better groups(with the Centurion) last time; sometimes a scope has its own problems.

I'm not real familiar with the AR-type platforms, does using a sling on them help with accuracy? Or is it not helpful with this rifle type?

On ammo, has anyone else noticed the variability in the recent batches of bulk-pack ammo? Out of some Remington Golden Bullet I got everything from proper high-velocity 'cracks' to one that damn near sounded like a CB cartridge, and some in between; not good for accuracy. And similary variability(not quite as bad) from some Federal 36-grain HP.

Friend had something along he picked up recently, and I'll try to get a good picture of it later: a Husqvarna single-shot bolt rifle in .32-20. Octagonal barrel, still has a lot of the colors from the case-hardening showing on the bolt and receiver, nice walnut stock; lovely thing. And a very good trigger; it shot very nicely.

So that was range day. Good time had by all, etc.