.22 Jamming Hard

[ford.304]

I have an old Colt Ace .22 conversion kit that my grandfather gave me. After a lot of cleaning and a new recoil spring, I thought I had it running pretty well. Not 2,000-challenge well, but consistent through a range session as long as I cleaned it when I got back.

But now it's having a serious jamming issue. Somehow it ends up with the new round failing to feed so hard that the unfired .22 gets bent over, and the rim gets jammed into the front feed lips of the magazine. It is locked up so hard that the only way to extract the mag is with a rubber mallet or a set of pliers.

At first this only happened with a new metalform magazine I had bought for it, when I loaded it near full capacity. I assumed it was a bad mag and kept using the 30-year old one that came with the gun. But it happened twice yesterday at the range with the old, previously reliable mag.

I don't even know where to start diagnosing this. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

[peterb]

I've had feed problems with a Ruger Mk II due to gummy buildup inside the magazine from the bullet lube. Seems to be worse in cold weather. The unplated standard-velocity .22 seems to be the worst offender.

[NETim]

Cold/cooler weather does not agree with .22 conversions in my experience. The lube is hard and though I couldn't prove it, I'd bet good money the powder is temp sensitive.

Also, my Wilson conversion kit runs near 100% with Kimber .22 mags and CCI Mini-Mags in warm weather. The Wilson/Marvel mags not so much. I dunno if the Kimber mags are compatible with the Colt kit though.

[ford.304]

As far as I could find, the only new mags you can get for the Ace kit are the metalforms. The thing *was* made in the 60's.

Definitely noticed issues with cold weather (and the slide not going all the way forward), but the latest jams were indoors.

And when I got the pistol, the floating chamber was literally soldered to the barrel with lead build up an eighth of an inch thick. I've only run high velocity, plated stuff through it since and clean it after every range session.

I will try cleaning the mag.