I have an older S&W K 22. Unless I keep the chambers squeaky clean, the fired cases are very hard to extract. After about 3 cylinders full, you have to start smacking on the ejector rod to get the cases out. A few more cylinders full and you cannot hit the ejector rod hard enough with your hand to get the cases out.
Is there a fix for this? I have not shot a large amount of shorts out of this gun. Not enough to rough up the chambers.

Have you shot enough shorts to get a lead/carbon ring built up at the front of the chamber?

Several possibilites spring to mind.

First off it wasn't unknown for chambers to come from the factory rough enough for cases to stick, both in S&Ws, and even Colt Pythons. A simple cure which sometimes works is to wrap a patch around a new .22 bore brush, coat the patch lightly with some 400 (or finer) grit such as intended for fire-lapping (DON'T use auto valve-grinding compound!), then chuck the brush in a small battery-powered low-speed hand drill and run in and out of the chambers 3-to-6 times each. Use a new patch after about every second chamber. Then thoroughly (and that means T H O R O U G H L Y) clean the cylinder and ejector rod assembly and relube it.

A second possiblity is a slightly bent ejector rod or crane. If either is out of alignment or bent, it makes it difficult for the extractor/ejector rod to slide back and forth, even when clean and well lubed. As it is fired, and becomes a bit dirty and some of the lube sort of disappears, it sometimes becomes almost impossible to make it work. Only cure there is to correct the alignment problem, usually by either replacing parts or very careful straightening/stoning.

Third, and a real possibility, is just having a lot of gritty crud in under the ejector "star" and on the ejector rod where it passes through the bushings and the cylinder. Then, although it may work fine with unfired ammo, when the cases expand upon firing, the close friction-fit produced and its resultant added friction is too much to easily overcome with the small amount of purchase between your hand and the ejector rod cap. The obvious cure for that one is to use something like a dental pick, brake cleaner, artist's brush, and/or clean patches to get the crud removed from the hidden areas of the assembly, and to relube.

Probably half a dozen others I have failed to mention, but you might look for those for starters...

Thank you, AC.
I keep it pretty clean, so I don't think that's the problem. You mentioned abrasive compound. Would extra fine valve grinding compound work if its 400 grit or finer?
I've thought about chucking some extra fine abrasive cloth in a dremel and polishing the insides of the chambers. Think that would work?

Quit smacking the ejector rod. You can knock it and the yoke assembly out of alignment real easy. Other than that I have nothing to add... Good luck! Oh yeah, dont use any abrasive cloths or sand paper in the cylinder, instead, try a piece of Scotch Brite pad.

I had the same problem. The chambers were tight. I took it to a gunsmith and he ran a .22LR reamer through the chambers. No problem afterward. No loss in accuracy. Fairly cheap.

Before you cut any metal from that cylinder, change ammunition types and see if that helps. Different brands tend to function differently in some guns.

Clemson

I've had a few K22s over the years. Easy way to solve the problem? Use Remington ammo...it's smaller in diameter. CCI usually works too.

quote:

Originally posted by Max503:
Thank you, AC.
I keep it pretty clean, so I don't think that's the problem. You mentioned abrasive compound. Would extra fine valve grinding compound work if its 400 grit or finer?
I've thought about chucking some extra fine abrasive cloth in a dremel and polishing the insides of the chambers. Think that would work?

No, Fine abrasive valve grinding compund does not break down quickly enough for me to recommend using it. Ditto abrasive cloth.

Most fire-lapping abrasives, or J-B Bore Cleaning compound will work...they have about the same abrasive-life as toothpaste, maybe a hair longer. The object here is to polish, not to cut, at least that's MY objective.

Fire-lapping compound is CHEAP, so it won't likely save you enough money to be worth the risk, if you try to make something more aggressive do the job just because you already have it or can get it easier or cheaper.


EDITED TO ADD: Old Joe asked if you had shot your K-22 enough to build up some carbon or lead at the front of the chambers. That is an important question. Lead, in particular, is very hard to see in revolver chambers. It and a small carbon ring can build up right at the muzzle end of the chambers and be almost impossible to see. The lead in particular, can have just about exactly the same colour as the clean steel of the rest of the chamber.

If a deposit builds up a bit, it can act pretty much like a tight chamber neck would if a person fired standard un-turned cases in a benchrest rifle...that is, be too confining to easily allow the release of the bullet when fired, thus building both more pressure and case expansion, and not allow the easy release of the case when extracting it.

Though I don't like the use of stainless steel brushes in barrels, they can be handy to remove that carbon and lead from revolver chambers by rotating a few times in each chamber. There is some real risk of steel brushes scratching the chamber, though, so what I very much prefer is to take a piece of brass rod, reduce it in my lathe to the same diameter as the chambers, and then file the end of it to look very much like a screwdriver blade-type tip.

What I make that way is a brass "scraper" that works like a chisel when the rod is rotated. One side of the "chisel" is "straight" while the other is "sloped" to provide a little relief behind the blade. Rotating that slowly by hand in each cylinder chamber will remove any lead or carbon at the front of the chamber without damaging the "step" at the muzzle end.

Brass is generally about 10 times as hard as lead but is much softer than the cylinder steel, so it cuts one and not the other. Brass is not as hard as some kinds of carbon, though, so you want to clean the end of the rod which coes the chiseling pretty often. That will keep it from using the carbon it scrapes off as an abrasive on the end of the chamber and thereby cutting or scratching that end.

Max 503

Well it looks like you have a ton of advise to sift through.

Canuck has very keen insight in regards to the lead building up in a 22 rimfire chamber and being very difficult to see.

One method of removing such lead with absolutely no damage to the chamber is to get some chore girl stainless steel pot scrubber material in the grocery store. Obtain a 3/16 inch wood dowel about 6 inches long. Rough up one end of the dowel with a knife blade, pull off a few strands of chore girl and wrap it around the end of the dowel so it fits snugly in the chamber of the cylinder, then spin it with a small electric drill. It seems to work better when dry, no solvent.

This method will not scratch or remove any metal from the chamber. And works well in my shop. In fact it is the way I clean and polish rusty shotgun chambers and bores too.

Also you might want to try a couple of differant brands of ammunition. If your revolver is fairly old it may have pretty tight match chambers which were not intended to digest just any old cheap ammo that comes along.

Thanks everyone for all the help. I have some lead away cloth. I will try patching with that first. I already bought some WW HP ammo and will give it a try. Will also try mini mags and stingers just to see what happens. I will also try polishing with the chore boy and the brito. I already gave the chambers and star extractor a good brushing with ed's red. Hopefully one of these will work.

In case any of you are wondering, it was the bullets. I shot a box of WW HP's through it today and the last ones came out as easily as the first. Guess its been a long time since I paid $2/box for 22's. As you may be able to tell, I usually shoot the cheap stuff.
Time to buy a brick of Winchesters.