misfires on 22lr

While developing some level of trigger competency, I am working though some CCI and Federal 22 lr, range grade ammo.
I find a failure to fire on about 1 in 20 rounds. They fire when reloaded, but this seems pretty high.  I just got back to rimfire,
so is the issue the ammo or my Ruger 22/45?  The failures have a firing pin mark on them, which leads me to think ammo.
I have been shooting 45 an 9mm for most of the year before getting back to 22, so I have no experience with this.

22’s are notorious for leaving fouling in the chamber from lead, lube, and powder. Unless the chamber is carefully cleaned, eventually this fouling can prevent the round from seating fully causing a light strike. I don’t know if lubes have changed in the past few years but the chamber fouling problems seem to be worse than on the past. Also the tighter the chamber, the quicker it will give trouble.

CCI goes off 98% of the time now.

CCI & Federal are sister companies and one often produces 22LR ammo for the other.
Based on your post above I would first suspect a dirty chamber as posted above in the pistol and a good brushing/cleaning may resolve the issue.
For ammo, look at the lot number on the ammo boxes and see if the misfires are related to a certain lot. There have been issues with CCI/Federal in the last few years and I have returned a case (which they replaced) to CCI. If it proves to be a certain lot, call the manufacturer and follow their instructions. In my case, they had me ship a few boxes of the ammo for their testing, agreed that there was an issue, and replaced the entire case.

Get a .25 bore brush, bend the metal extrusion to 90 deg and use that to clean the chamber. Then run a bore snake through it to get rid of the gunk you just loosened. My Marvel conversion has needed this somewhere in the NM course to get through a full match for as long as I've had it. Interestingly the Nelson doesn't.
Anecdotally this is even more noticeable on a S&W 41.

I would add, the check the breach face too. Crud build up in the corner may prevent the bolt/slide "face" from coming in contact with the rim 100%. This then would reduce the firing pin indentation on the rim. If a revolver, the same would apply to the cylinder recess for the rim of the case.

Last, running as heavy of a recoil spring your gun/ammo can handle helps get the bolt/slide tight against the breach face.

Really last. Check the tip of the firing pin to make sure it isn't damaged. It can happen, especially with rimfires.

I've been buying Remington or Winchester HPs for my Henry squirrel rifle.  I'm guessing not more than 1% misfired.  They ignite on the second try.  I shoot around 50-75 rounds a year.
Dave

I guess I am a 22 snob but any near 1% misfire rate is way too much. I bought a full case of cheap Armscor SV last year and am averaging one misfire per thousand or 0.1%.

Kp321 wrote:I guess I am a 22 snob but any near 1% misfire rate is way too much. I bought a full case of cheap Armscor SV last year and am averaging one misfire per thousand or 0.1%.

No snobbism.  I'm shooting pests at the birdfeeder and misfires get a second chance as the varmint is not disturbed by a misfire.  You're shooting  competition.  Different story.
Dave

Started to get FTE on first shots after cleaning on S&W41. Added .25 bore brush to chamber cleaning and finished with oil patch to barrel and it seemed to solve problem.

I have shot 10s of thousands of CCI SV and other brands of 22 ammo and I can count on one hand the number of misfires.  Other people have had many more but that is my experience.

every batch and lot is different from CCI.   from the actual first hand contact i had with CCI quality engineers, if you have a box of say 100 rounds, if 50% fire the first time you use a firing pin on them,,, ITS MEETING ALL QUALITY STANDARDS. 

when 30% require 5 tries before they fire.. ie insert into magazine, load into chamber, pull trigger...  its meeting quality standards.

MODERN rimfire ammo uses a liqoud primer sprayed into the rim.  In the OLD days of the explosive putty.. the primer went directly into the rim.. 

with the modern spray method... at least HALF the interior of the case is sprayed and no way to control if it gets into the rim.  Somewhere i have a collection of cases with 4, 5, 6, even 7 firing pin imprints with a CCI head stamp

Could be the striker spring is tired and giving a light strike.

Allgoodhits wrote:I would add, the check the breach face too. Crud build up in the corner may prevent the bolt/slide "face" from coming in contact with the rim 100%. This then would reduce the firing pin indentation on the rim. If a revolver, the same would apply to the cylinder recess for the rim of the case.

Last, running as heavy of a recoil spring your gun/ammo can handle helps get the bolt/slide tight against the breach face.

Really last. Check the tip of the firing pin to make sure it isn't damaged. It can happen, especially with rimfires.

And extra really really last, check to see whether there might be a tiny burr on the breech face at the chamber. A burr can drag on the case. Some say that dry firing on an empty chamber can raise a slight burr.

Basically anything that might prevent the case rim from being held tight against the breech face can cause misfires.

Eindecker wrote:
MODERN rimfire ammo uses a liqoud primer sprayed into the rim.  In the OLD days of the explosive putty.. the primer went directly into the rim.. 

with the modern spray method... at least HALF the interior of the case is sprayed and no way to control if it gets into the rim.  

I recently pulled some .22 bullets to observe the primer compound. In an old Remington cartridge, there is a light green donut around the rim. In a CCI cartridge, the entire bottom of the case is is entirely covered with a light green primer compound. One CCI SV case had no primer compound. Aguila rounds looked like the bottom was covered with a dark brown compound and there appeared to be gunpowder stuck to it. A couple of weeks ago, I bought some Aguila Super Extra standard velocity ammo. I've been getting a lot of misfires on the first strike. Usually, the rounds will fire after the rim is turned and tried again. To be fair, I have been shooting them through a Sig P322, not a target pistol. The pistol shoots some old CCI SV ammo without any problems. When Aguila was still the new kid on the block, many years ago, I used to use a lot of it for bullseye pistol shooting, as did a lot of local club members. It was very reliable and accurate. It seems like quality has taken a back seat to quantity.