While taking my youngest and his new Ruger American .22 to the range today we ran into a consistent issue of the casings not so much ejecting from the rifle, but barely being extracted from the barrel and falling loosely on top of the magazine. While slowly opening and operating the bolt it appears that the empty casing is dragging across the top of the upper round in the magazine. This top round in turn is acting as a quasi ejector by knocking the casing loose from the extractor but obviously not really ejecting the casing from the gun. This issue was consistent across the magazine that came with the rifle, the magazine that I had from my 10/22 which is +/- 15 years old, and a Butler Creek hi-cap.

My assumption is that the magazine is sitting too high in the receiver but is there any other causes that I should look into?

How is the extraction and ejection with an empty magazine, or without one?

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
How is the extraction and ejection with an empty magazine, or without one?

I tried cycling unfired rounds and if I work the bolt with a single round in a magazine the round falls off of the face of the bolt and back down into the empty magazine. If I chamber a round and then remove the magazine, the round will just fall straight down out of the magazine well. If I take the bolt completely out of the receiver the extractor doesn't hold the rim tight enough to hold the cartridge onto the bolt face.

What ammo? Even though it may not cure it, it’s a good starting point. Mini-Mags, CCI Blazer or Federal Game Shock 36gr HP work best for me.

How fast are you working the bolt when you eject the single round with no magazine? If the bolt speed is slow, as with low power ammo, a dirty gun or overly lubed or cold it will do that.

I just checked my OLD 10/22 and if I cycle the bolt slowly, the round will fall down the well or sit on top of the loaded mag. I’d I work it quickly, it ejects well.

Has it been taken apart? Is the ejector there and not damage, things happen even in a new gun. https://shopruger.com/10_22-Ej...r/productinfo/60031/

So for those of you who are being kept up at night wondering what the cause was, here is what Ruger did. The end result is it extracts and ejects shells like a typical rifle would.

1) Replaced Positioner spring and magazine (I know the magazine wasn't the cause but it was nice of them to throw in a new mag.)
2) Repaired the extractor pocket.

Check the chamber mouth for any dings or dents. They need not be large to cause this problem. Firing pin strikes will do this, the reason why dry firing a rimfire is a bad idea.

(this is the point where someone says "modern .22's don't do that. In a perfect world maybe, I don't live there)

Never run a bolt gun slowly OT gently. They are met to be forcibly ripped on with authority