I took my ST-22 out for the first time since I got it early last year. I had alot of failure to feeds, the rounds would get jammed half way into the chamber or the bolt would not close completely. I shot only about maybe 60 rounds out of 2 BDM mags. One mag worked better than the other. The ejected rounds all exhibited a bent bullet like it hit the top of the chamber, got jammed and bent the round still in the casing.
How many rounds should I put thru this before contacting Spikes? What else should I do before shooting this again, do I need to lube it up? Did I hear correctly that they like to run wet?
How many rounds are needed to break in the BCG? What else do I need to know for the future?
What kind of ammo were you running in it? I know that they seem to “like” Federal stuff a little bit better. I know that my Ceiner kit will only run with the Federal Bulk Packs and of course the more expensive stuff like CCI, etc.
I think that running it wet is best. My Ceiner kit likes to run wet.
From what I understand, the 22 conversions all require a pretty hefty break in period. I would clean it well, and shoot it some more.
I use Rem-Oil, but a good spray before I start shooting.
I have also read about just manually running the action for some time to help break things in as well. I did that with my Ceiner kit and it seemed to help.
I have a ST-22 that I have yet to shoot. Might need to get it out and see how it runs.
Might also want to try the CCI Stingers and see if that helps.
WD-40 is a good protectant and penetrant but I would never use it as a lubricant. I would use something like Break Free CLP or a thin film of synthetic motor oil (Mobil 1). Last year I started using Weapon Shield and really like it.
Well I had issues with failures at first too, mainly FTEs because the ammo was too weak, I solved it by fixing the hammer and installing JP 3.5lbs springs(makes it easier for the rear travelling bolt to push down the hammer again), the other way to solve such a problem is to cut a few coils of the recoil spring.
Lately I had issues like you with feeding and bullets being bent, turns out dryfiring had created a burr on the chamber, I polished it out with some 600grit sandpaper and now it works again, if you have dryfired it, check this to make sure, there would be an indentation of the firingpin at the 12 o’clock position if this is true. So remember, don’t dryfire without snap caps! Given your description it sounds like you could have this problem.
Here is what my chamber looked like when it started malfunctioning:
And the bullets looked like this:
Also the spikes should be run almost bone dry, only put some dabs of oil or grease on the rails and such. You only need to run wet with BCGs that are parkerized and such.
I would also try different forms of ammo. Mine so far eats pretty much anything, likes the CCI standard bulk packs.
