SA Uberti Stallion 22 wmr...80% misfire average!!

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Deej92

Inactive
Finally took my single action Uberti 22 mag to the range this morning. It shot 22 LR without any issues. Very accurate and nice to shoot.

Then I switched to the 22 magnum cylinder. And holy hell...on average, only 2 of the 6 rounds would fire on the first strike every single time I loaded it. I would have to cycle through and strike each round several times before they ignited. I was using brand new CCI maxi mag rounds..supposedly very reliable. And it was the first time I have ever fired the gun, so no accumulation of grit can explain it either.

Based on what I googled, it seems the problem can be a weak trigger spring, or that the cylinder itself is moving forwards a little bit when the pin strikes, absorbing some of that force.

Any advice from the more informed/experienced men and women here? I'd really appreciate it...hope this gun isn't a lemon.
 
If it shoots ok with the standard .22s, it's probably not anything in the frame.
But the magnum cylinder could be the problem.
Either the one you already mentioned or maybe it's not locking up correctly under the hammer.
It's easy enough to check the fore and aft play, and if so, adding shims to take up any excessive clearance should improve things.
If the cylinder is misaligned or machined incorrectly somewhere, then it will have to go back to where it was born for correction.
Since it's rimfire, it's always a possibility it is the ammo.
If you don't want to go to the bother of fixing things, you could just shoot regular .22s and the heck with the magnums.
I never did see the attraction of .22 magnums anyway.
Kind of too heavy for light work and too light for heavy work, and too expensive.
 
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Well, that's a bummer! A revolver in .22 magnum is a nice choice. I'd return the pistol for full refund. Then go get a one that will punch .22 magnums all day!
 
Well, just because you were probably going to do it ANYWAY I'd say give the cylinder a really good cleaning to get any manufacturer's preservative gunk out of it and see if it still happens. If it does then a trip back to the factory might be in order.

P.S. How do the primer strikes on the .22WMR that don't fire look?
 
I never did see the attraction of .22 magnums anyway.
Click to expand...

You must not have gave them much of a chance then. I killed my first big animal with a 22 mag round. A large goat I hit between the eyes and blew out the back of his head. A 22lr would not have done that I don't believe.

And the old gun writer Bob Milek used a 22 magnum in lots of his articles to kill coyotes and ground hogs. Animals that are borderline too big for a 22 lr round.

I like the option of the 22 mag with the LR round. I like that the 22 mag comes with a real jacketed bullet if you stay away from that plated stuff from CCI.

My buddy had a new burn barrel he wanted some vent holes put in. I used a 22 lr and it would go through one side but just dent the off side. A 22 mag would blow through both sides no problem. I just wish I would have had a couple more barrels to line up behind the first barrel just to see how many steel barrels this round would penetrate.

To the OP. Get your gun repaired. If its new the factory should make it right.
 
Assuming the WMR ammo is not old and has not been stored under advserse conditions, my first thought is what do the mis-fired cases look like?

The .22 WMR has a thicker case than the .22 LR, because of the higher pressures involved, which means that it takes more of a blow to fire the WMR.

I suspect one of two problems or maybe a combination. Assuming you have not yourself lightened the mainspring, might someone else have done so? If so, the correction is obvious.

Second, is the WMR cylinder correctly headspaced at the rim? To get proper ignition, the rim must seat firmly in the chamber; if that is not the case, the cylinder must be replaced.

Jim
 
Doesn't Uberti has a warrantee? Customer Service at (301) 283-6981 (option 2) or (800) 264-4962 (option 2), 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday.
 
Do you feel any resistance when loading the rounds? Or if you drop them in and then push do they move just a tiny bit? The chambers might be just a skosh small and the brass catches just a bit before seating all the way. Then when struck by the firing pin they finish seating but the amount of energy absorbed moving that little bit may not leave enough to ignite the primer.

Did you attempt to re-fire without moving them from the cylinder? If they fired on a second attempt this conjecture might be contributing.

BTW I have a semi-auto 22 magnum that would ignite 80% of the rounds and the firing pin was broken in half. When they wouldn't fire you could see that the strike was as close to parallel to the edge as practical (or a chord if you prefer).
 
I would by a new box of mags to weed out the ammo and then like other's suggested would send it back to Uberti.
 
Just throwing this out there . . .

You say you switched cylinders . . . does that pistol have a cylinder pin "safety" like a Cattleman does? i.e. a two notch cylinder pin that acts as a hammer block when pushed all the way in? If it does, any chance the cylinder pin was pushed in a tad too far when you replaced the cylinder?
 
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