Answer

Stop putting superglue on the rounds before you fire them. 🙂

Lots of possibilities, including just simple dirt/scum/varnish/old oil/etc. in the cylinder. A thorough cleaning, followed by polishing if that doesn’t fix it and you should be okay. Have you looked at the spent cases after you get them out to see if there’s an issue? I’m assuming they’re actually stuck and it’s not just that the extractor doesn’t grab or hold them for extraction. In other words, it takes you some effort to get the stuck cases out. Jeff

Question Follow Up

Yep, takes quite a bit of effort to get them out. Actually have to take the cylinder out of the frame and tap the extractor rod on a table top to get them started. Thanks

Answer

Check the cylinder maybe dirty or the rod bent. You will have to clean the cylinder clambers and oil them too. Tony

Answer

I would oil the cylinders after a thorough cleaning. However, don’t leave any oil in the chambers. When you fire a round with the chamber bore oiled, the cartridge case will not properly grip the cylinder walls and the spent case will back out and stick to the recoil shield. Douglas

Answer

Does this happen with all types of .22LR ammo? Sounds to me like soft brass, and is not springing back some like it should. Years ago I bought a couple of bricks of Russian steel case .22, and they stick in the chamber every time. I took some measurements, and found that they pop out to chamber size and stay there. Strangely they work OK in a semi-auto. I suspect they exit the chamber before they have a chance to stick.

I’ve never had any sticking problem with quality brass cased .22.

If this doesn’t help, check the chambers they should have some taper in them. If they don’t, or don’t have enough, cases will surely stick. Check out the SAMMI chamber specs.

Hope this is useful information for you. Tulsa Jim

Answer

Check it with standard .22 LR shells. A good chamber polish is not a bad thing unless the chambers have been polished and are already oversized. Ken

Question Follow Up

Thanks for all the comments. Polishing the chambers reduced yet didn’t eliminate the cases sticking issue. Don’t want to polish further since std dummy 22LR rounds drop in easily. Test fired with CCI std 22LR is what indicates a reduction in the amount of sticking.

Answer

Regardless of how easy dummies drop in, what are the chamber specs? Are the chambers oversized? Are there scratch or gouge or pit marks on the fired cases? Ken

Another Question, Same Problem

I’m currently working on a K22 target with the same problem. After thoroughly cleaning, (rod cleaning with brass brush and patch for barrel and cylinder chambers) ultrasound bath, and ultrasound oil, I returned it to the customer. The customer returned it later, and stated that after 100 rounds, the ejector wouldn’t eject spent cases without a lot of effort.

I test fired it and found the same problem using a variety of cartridges. (CCI, Remington, Federal) I cleaned it again, test fired it, and immediately found the same problem. I observed the following:

1. All cartridges were easy to insert into the cylinder.
2. I could barely hand-eject the cases immediately after firing. A sharp hit from my palm on the cylinder ejector rod would eject them.
3. After firing, the case mouths were observably larger in diameter than the case diameter back towards the case rim and showed a rim of carbon around the mouths. I did not measure the actual diameters.
4. I inserted the spent cases back into the cylinder. They stopped about 1/8 of their length from total insertion. I had to exert significant pressure to push them all the way in. I could not hand-eject them back out because they were so tight.
5. The spent cases were easily inserted for about 7/8 of their length and did not exhibit any signs of roughness or drag until the last 1/8.
6. All the cylinder chambers are very smooth with no pitting and no observable pressure or wear rings.

This leads me to believe that the cylinder chambers have become asymmetric, although I can’t see any rings in any of the chambers other than the chamber throats. The smoothness of the chambers are at odds with the theory that the chambers have been eroded.

This is an old pistol and has been taken care of and used well. I have no idea of the total round count through this pistol. From its condition, I would say quite a few. it is in good shape for its age. I just don’t think .22 brass casings should be able to erode a steel chamber that much, if that is the problem. Any more ideas? Haydon

Answer

Pull the cylinder and cast the chambers in Cerrosafe. Knock those out, even if you have to knock the casts out toward the muzzle end to get them out. Use calipers to check the diameter along the entire length of the cast. An accurate inside micrometer could likely measure this, but you’re talking a $300 tool that doesn’t get used much if you’re not an engineer or precision machinist. Try plated rather than lead bullets. Sometimes what you’re seeing is a lead ring (kind of doubt it if you don’t see it).

By the way, use of corrosive powder can erode the cylinder, but you would normally see pitting. Plus, there’s no way to tell what some garage monkey gunsmith did to it years ago. Jeff

Question Follow Up

I think I can get some Cerrosafe and my boss may have a bore micrometer, so I’ll try both. Given the way the spent case went in, I’ll knock the Cerrosafe towards the back. I think the shoulders in the cylinder bores would probably ruin make any measurement possibility if I tried to knock it out toward the muzzle 🙂

If the measurements show an abnormality, I’m afraid that the cylinder is probably a lost cause and the customer is going to have to put up with a hard ejection. A new cylinder would probably solve the problem if I could find one and the customer could afford one. I don’t believe reaming the cylinder bores is a good solution either. The .22 cartridges are already pretty loose when loaded. Haydon

Answer

Used to be the cylinder was a restricted part I believe. The gun is fairly valuable in some versions, so it might be worth a replacement if you can find the cylinder. Jeff

Answer

Ken could tell us if the cylinder could be fixed using liners.

Question Follow Up

I hadn’t thought of re-lining the cylinders. My boss is really good at re-lining .22 barrels but that’s mostly lathe work. He’s done quite a few. I’m guessing cylinder re-lining would be all mill work. Haydon

Answer

Is it possible that substantial number of .22 short have been fired through the chamber? The front part of the chamber has been eroded to slight larger diameter. -TL

Question Follow Up

Anything’s possible. The gun was inherited and the customer doesn’t know much about its history. Currently, he’s only shooting 22 LR CCI standard velocity ammo through it. My boss gets back next week and we’ll discuss what he wants to do about it then. Haydon

Answer

The chambers could be relined. I would polish the chambers first to remove a slight amount of material at the rear of the chamber, and I do mean slight amount of material, so the back of the chambers diameters are the same as the front. If the cylinder is already ruined or damaged you aren’t going to be out anything.

After firing rounds and extracting them, don’t try to reinstall them. It doesn’t hurt the gun but it really won’t tell you much. Each shell will expand to the dimension of the chamber it is fired in. The fired case will never go back into the chamber in exactly the same way. Ken

Reply

Thanks for your comments Ken. I only tried to re-insert the cases to see where they were tight in the cylinder bore. What I didn’t mention before is that I cleaned the cylinder bores between the time I shot the cartridges and when I inserted the shot cases. Assuming the cylinder bore is supposed to be consistent from front to back (with the exception of the shoulder) I thought it was telling that the expanded case could be inserted easily except for the last fraction of an inch.