semi-automatic, .22lr, reliabilityI’m new to rimfire cartridges in trying to reduce my target shooting costs from using 9mm all the time. I picked up a Sig 1911-22 several months ago and have been less than impressed with the reliability. I take good care of it and use Ballistol and TW25 to clean and lubricate the firearm.
After about 50 rounds it starts to jam big time. Fails to cycle, fails to eject, you name it. Recently the guide rod snapped while firing, locked up so bad I sent it back to Sig to fix it. I couldn’t even take it apart.
I’ve been shooting mostly Fiocchi and some CCI, jacketed. It was broken in with HV rounds, yellow jackets, per the sales guy recommendation.
My question is are these levels of reliability normal for this platform? Is there an ammo type/velocity I should be using to avoid these problems? I’m ready to give up and trade this in for a 22LR revolver. Thanks in advance.
Peter
Update 01/24/2012 Finally received the 1911-22 back from Sig and the guts of the gun have been replaced. An upgraded recoil guide rod and barrel bushing, along with a new barrel.
It’s the last part that bugs me as the gunsmith went on to say that he discovered “gas cutting” in the chamber which was likely the result of using .22 cal “short” ammo. This implies that I was shooting the wrong loads which is completely false. I guess it’s impossible that the throat tolerances on the bore were off to begin with, that would mean QA failed.
We’ll take it out to the range soon and see how it does.
Reliability in a .22 is a combination of several factors.
The primary factor is always the ammunition. People shoot .22 because (among other reasons) it’s inexpensive. The cheapest brands (Remington bulk boxes come to mind) will unfailingly have about 1% duds.
Magazines are probably the second biggest issue. Being a rimmed cartridge it’s harder to make a quality magazine for a .22. Ruger has done quite well, and some of the 1911 conversions (TacSol and Marvel) have also made very reliable magazines. Many aftermarket magazines do not perform well. If you’re using multiple magazines, number them and take note of the mag in use whenever there’s a malfunction.
Dirt. The .22 is a dirty round. A bit less so when you use the quality stuff, but it’s still much messier than any centerfire ammunition. .22’s often run best pretty dry, to prevent accumulation of debris. When the Akins Accelerator was still being sold (a full-auto mechanism) the manufacturer recommended a teflon-based dry lube (Liquid Wrench, etc. - available in home stores).
Finally, there’s the firearm in question. If you don’t have 500 rounds through it, don’t do anything (other than cleaning and light lube) until you reach that mark. After that you might take a piece of crocus cloth and polish up any of the areas where you see wear. This should smooth things out considerably, and was a necessary step to get one of my Ceiner .22 conversions to work.
If none of that fixes the problem, send it back.
I had a Ruger .22 target pistol that was unfailingly reliable. Literally thousands of rounds of nearly any old LR I ran through it.
First thing I would try is some different ammunition brands.
The only other thing I’d like to add is that you should keep your pistol well lubricated. I’m somewhat familiar with Sig’s 1911-22, it being basically a re-branding of a GSG pistol, and I happen to know that they are finicky when run too dry.
My issues have been resolved and are the culmination of several factors, many of which were contributed by this forum, and upvoted accordingly.
1) Defective parts - Sig claims that gas cutting occurred and was the result of using 22 short in a system designed for 22LR. This is not true, nothing but 22LR was run in this system. Most of the parts of my gun have been replaced, in one RMA turn around: barrel, barrel bushing, and guide rod.
2) Even after the rebuild, Fiocchi continued to have problems across the board. I’ve settled on CCI Mini Mags and Velocitors. I experience now on average about 3 failures/100 rounds, evenly distributed across 5 magazines, except for one that I’m keeping an eye on.
3) Numbering the magazines went a long way towards better understand the failure modes, quantifying things, and clearly distinguishing which area might be responsible.
4) The suggestion that this is a “best when wet” lubricated gun has improved the overall function of the system. Don’t skimp on your TW25.
Thank you everyone for your time, I no longer have a paper weight. However, my experience with Sig support on this matter has greatly diminished my consideration for their brand; You don’t blame the customer for your product’s shortcomings.
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