.22LR AR malfunction

This was a one of a kind malf – I had honestly never seen this happen before.

This is one of the Umarex made “Colt” branded .22 LR AR-15 clones.  As you can see, a piece of .22 LR brass is jammed crosseyed across the bolt face.  The open end of the brass is hooked over the extractor, and the rim of the case is lodged over the top of the bolt.  Clearing this malf required prying the case out of the gun with a knife blade before we could even get the gun running again.

I show you this not to bash Colt, whom I’m actually quite fond of, but rather to illustrate a point about .22LRs.  They are excellent training platforms for larger guns, especially when they have all the same fire controls.  But not all .22s are created equal, and they will at times create malfunctions that are impossible to replicate in a centerfire gun.  Choose your rimfire trainer wisely!

5 Comments

  1. I had similar malfunctions when I was breaking in my CMMG AR .22 conversion kit.. after about 500 rds through it, it’s stopped happening.

  2. Really, ALL rimfires will have some issues like this even the much vaunted Ruger 10/22 at some time or another. The only real difference betweeen any rimfire platform is simply how long each is able to go without a similar malfunction.

    For each rimfire rifle that someone will claim has been bulletproof it would take someone else not very long to Google-fu an example of another that had a problem with it. Rimfire ammo, by it’s very nature, is a very finicky beast due to it’s design. This is not to say it’s a bad choice to train with or that they’re all bad just that none of them are perfect either.

    But, Caleb does have a point in that anyone choosing a particular platform for training be it rimfire or something else should do their research and know what they are getting into.

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