Hi all. A friend of mine got a 10/22 last year. it's a 50th anniversary model with a blue camo pattern.

He's been having some pretty bad ejection/extraction issues. 10rd mags, 25rd mags same issue. The malfunction that happens is the spent casing gets jammed deep inside the ejection port and the bolt will crush it basically. This was with all the factory stock parts. He said he'd get maybe a few rounds out of a 10rd or 25rd mag. My first thought was extractor not hooking onto the rim good enough and causing the casing to barely come out and therefore get stuck inside the ejection port. I have read the factory extractor wasn't very good.

He bought a KIDD extractor, recoil spring/guide rod and charging handle assembly. Those parts seemed to improve things a little, but he'll still have a pretty bad stovepipe 1-3rds out of a mag. 10rd mags seem slightly better. The stovepipe slightly improved (which is weird to say) where it comes mostly out of the ejection port and now gets caught between the front of the port and the charging handle, instead of getting stuck inside the ejection port. Ejection pattern was inconsistent, some shooting forward at about 1 o'clock.

We tried swapping in my bolt assembly from my 10/22 into his gun at the range, and that seemed to work fine for a few mags. Just wanted to see if anyone has experienced something similar and narrowed it down to something else other than the bolt before he calls Ruger. Thanks in advance.

FWIW, ammo used was a variety of 36-40gr stuff. CCI standard, Federal Champion, Browning BPR, Remington Golden Bullet, Blazer. Didn't really make a difference what was used.

Here are a few pics of how the malfunction looks now, these were just yesterday. I experienced these firsthand.

Try it with the stock bolt handle.

You’ve(he’s) tried different, full power ammo, that is good.

As mentioned, maybe the weight of the add ons is such that it takes more to work the action?

Once all is cleaned and lubed, try stock. The Kidd stuff should be good though. You can run it by the guys at rimfirecentral, or call Kidd & ask.

Inspect the top of the receiver. I had one receiver that had burrs from the rail mount causing the bolt to get hung up. Smooth out the burrs-problem solved.

Inspect and look for wear marks, to see where it might be dragging. It could be that the extractor notch is juuuust not quite aligned. I'd see if the barrel isn't canted.

Something is either dragging the bolt, or not allowing full rearward travel.

Are cases tearing at all?

Thanks for the replies all. So to re-iterate, the gun was worse in its stock form. The KIDD parts made things slightly better, but still resulted in the occasional stovepipe that looked like in the pics.

@Texas Bob C.
It was actually having the worst issues in its stock form with the stock charging handle.

@sourdough44
Yeah I'm not sure, we were comparing our bolts and his did look slightly different than mine in some areas. Could be why mine worked in his receiver when his causes the issues.

@SIGfourme
I'll tell my friend to check for any burrs there. Didn't think of that before

@arcwelder76
No tearing cases that we saw. Just dented when the bolt slammed into them. I did notice when I was test firing that it wouldn't feed very easily when I initially charged the gun. Then as I mentioned in the OP, the ejection was a little erratic. Definitely seems related to the extractor area.


Thanks again everyone. I'll forward along all the info!

Have you checked to see if the Hammer strut washer open end is facing up?

Are any of the screws for the mount protruding into the reciver causing drag on the bolt?

Since you've changed out the extractor and different bolts worked in the rifle, it seems to me there is an issue with the bolt. I suggest a call to Ruger. I'm petty sure they will address the issue. If not, you could send the bolt to Connecticut Precision Chambering. For $50 which includes return shipping, they will rework the bolt making sure head space is correct and the bolt face is perfectly square.

Why not put it back to stock and let Ruger deal with it?

My 10/22 would start to do this if it got really dirty and the lube dried out.

I couldn't help you, but the best place for advice is probably going to be on rimfirecentral.com. your head will explode.

Is the extractor mating properly with the barrel? Is the barrel slightly off or not torqued into place properly.

Does it do this with only cheaper/lower powered ammo or with all ammo? If hotter ammo works my guess is some kind of burr or tolerance issue.

KIDD makes FANTASTIC stuff but maybe you want to try a VQ extractor, cheap experiment might be just enough different geometry to help.

I have also found polishing the rear bottom of the bolt radiusing a bit can help as well.

SOOOO NOT AN EXPERT IN ANYTHING so take for what it’s worth.

Is this a take-down model in a full stock or do pics not show the break line? Either way, make sure the barrel is properly seated tightened(not over tightened) before sending to Ruger.

@Jelly
Actually no I don't think we did. I'll let my friend know to double check that

@NavyGuy
I definitely told my friend multiple times to contact Ruger, but he wanted to see if it was something we could take care of without sending in the gun. Good to know about the bolt work. If Ruger doesn't take care of it, could be an option.

@Sparkyk
As I mentioned to NavyGuy, friend was hoping it might just be something we could take care of without having to send the gun in to Ruger

@maladat
The gun was definitely well lubed but still had issues

@hambony
Ha! I thought of that as well, but didn't want my head to explode

@cslinger
I actually didn't look to closely at how the extractor and barrel mated. Sounds worth looking into. Seemed to have the issue with pretty much any ammo we tried, though the hottest stuff we used was only around ~1240fps. I think I might actually have a VQ extractor somewhere. That one didn't really work in my gun so we decided on the KIDD instead, but who knows, maybe it'll work in my friends' gun. Worth a shot.

@wolfe 21
It's a takedown model. Pretty sure the barrel ring is properly tightened, I remember making sure to ask him that when he first got the gun.

Thanks again for the help all!

I think I saw it mentioned a few posts up, but, check the screws that go into the scope rail. Perhaps one or more is sticking into the receiver and causing the drag. I have seen that happen before on one of my 10/22s. Good luck!

Some duplicate info and maybe some new. Strip the bolt and clean, as in pull out the extractor etc and clean. I use alcohol to get all the old lube off. Same with the receiver. Use very little lube, or a spray like a case lube like Hornady one shot. Same for the trigger group. This is only for testing.

Scrub the chamber and see if a case will fall out on its own.

Check screw length on scope mount as suggested and make sure it lined up and not over torqued.

Next, make sure you have high velocity ammo, which it looks like you do but try some MiniMags as they seem to be one of the better rounds.

Then, all stock parts. Only change item at a time. Maybe compare your extractor face to his and also the ejector.

I’ve had great service out of my modified 10/22 with a bunch of Volquartson parts but Brownells sells the stock extractor and springs pretty cheaply too.

Was it cold when shooting?