Constant FTF problems with S&W 22 compact

[HJB]

Finally I gave up and shipped my Smith and Wesson M&P 22 compact back to S&W for them to look at. I have had constant problems with "failure to extract" with several different brands of ammunition and have to use a wooden rod to dislodge the casing from the chamber after I fire a shot. I usually estimated this at a 20% to 30% rate.

The gun is a little over a year old, purchased in September 2019, and I estimate about 1500 rounds have been fired. I kept thinking after using it some, it would eventually "break-in" and not have so many failures. I actually think it seems to get worse and not better.

So yesterday, after thoroughly cleaning the gun, and oiling it like a Thanksgiving turkey, I went to the range with Federal, 36 grain, hollow point, brass coated, 1260 FPS bulk ammo that you can buy almost anywhere.

I kept detailed records and finally gave up after 60 rounds because I got tired of screwing with it. In those 60 rounds I had 30 "failure to extract" failures and an additional 8 "fail to feed" failures. Too damn much !

So, I took it home, cleaned it up again and boxed it up and took it to FEDEX to ship it back. I had contacted S&W and they did send me a label to use that charged the shipping costs to FEDEX. They estimate 4 to 6 weeks in the e-mail they sent me.

So, I hope they can fix it because my wife won't hardly shoot it anymore because she gets tired of having to stop and go through the disruption of removing the fired casing.

But, if they don't make it a whole lot reliable and make it extract and feed close to 100% of the time, I'm going to go buy a Glock 44....which I kind of want anyway because it is a good practice gun for my Glock 19. Early reports on the Glock 44 are that is shoots everything !

My wife can handle my Glock 19 so she could easily shoot the Glock 44, but she does kind of like the weight and the smaller size of the S&W.

Anyone else had problems with a M&P 22 compact and extraction and feeding problems ?

[kwb377]

I've had the exact same issue with my Compact. I bought it new approx. 6 months ago and have put maybe 200 rounds through it.

The problem didn't really manifest until my last range trip...it was cleaned and oiled beforehand and wouldn't fire more than about 3 rounds before malfunctioning.

I haven't contacted S&W yet...I kinda threw it back in the safe and forgot about it after last time.

Thanks for the reminder...I'll go ahead and start the return process on mine.

[HJB]

I guess if I had your experience I might try again before I sent it back.

What ammo are you using, and how many different ammos have you tried with it ?

If you do decide to send it back, send them an e-mail and they will want a description of the problem to give you "authority to return" and then they will send you a FEDEX shipping label that charges them for the shipping. Box it up and put that shipping label on it and FEDEX will ship it.

Good luck !

[Doc_Glock]

I had a different issue with out of battery ignitions with an M&P compact .22. S&W took it back and completely fixed the issue and it runs like a top now. Hopefully your experience will be similar.

[Navin Johnson]

Got mine in a couple years ago... Probably only a thousand or so rounds through it.... Cleaned it once..... Feeds and extracts everything I put in it.... Very accurate with higher speed CCI and Winchester stuff.

[HCM]

Finally I gave up and shipped my Smith and Wesson M&P 22 compact back to S&W for them to look at. I have had constant problems with "failure to extract" with several different brands of ammunition and have to use a wooden rod to dislodge the casing from the chamber after I fire a shot. I usually estimated this at a 20% to 30% rate.

The gun is a little over a year old, purchased in September 2019, and I estimate about 1500 rounds have been fired. I kept thinking after using it some, it would eventually "break-in" and not have so many failures. I actually think it seems to get worse and not better.

So yesterday, after thoroughly cleaning the gun, and oiling it like a Thanksgiving turkey, I went to the range with Federal, 36 grain, hollow point, brass coated, 1260 FPS bulk ammo that you can buy almost anywhere.

I kept detailed records and finally gave up after 60 rounds because I got tired of screwing with it. In those 60 rounds I had 30 "failure to extract" failures and an additional 8 "fail to feed" failures. Too damn much !

So, I took it home, cleaned it up again and boxed it up and took it to FEDEX to ship it back. I had contacted S&W and they did send me a label to use that charged the shipping costs to FEDEX. They estimate 4 to 6 weeks in the e-mail they sent me.

So, I hope they can fix it because my wife won't hardly shoot it anymore because she gets tired of having to stop and go through the disruption of removing the fired casing.

But, if they don't make it a whole lot reliable and make it extract and feed close to 100% of the time, I'm going to go buy a Glock 44....which I kind of want anyway because it is a good practice gun for my Glock 19. Early reports on the Glock 44 are that is shoots everything !

My wife can handle my Glock 19 so she could easily shoot the Glock 44, but she does kind of like the weight and the smaller size of the S&W.

Anyone else had problems with a M&P 22 compact and extraction and feeding problems ?

Have an M&P 22 Compact from 2014 with no issues and thousands of rounds through it.

All .22 Ammo is not created equal. Bulk pack ammo can have minor imperfections from knocking around in the bulk pack which affect reliability.

My first step in an .22 diagnostic is to clean and lube as you did followed by trying CCI mini mags. I would try the .40 grain copper wash solids. If the gun won’t run with that it won’t run with anything.

These are cheap mass produced guns and they offer the warranty for a reason. Wait till you get it back and shoot it before getting spun up.

[HJB]

Got mine in a couple years ago... Probably only a thousand or so rounds through it.... Cleaned it once..... Feeds and extracts everything I put in it.... Very accurate with higher speed CCI and Winchester stuff.

That is why I bought it in the first place because it seems everything I saw about it is that it will eat anything. I kind of wonder if the diameter of the chamber is not just a little bit undersized because when these things fail to extract, they are stuck really good in there. I can't rack the slide a 100 times and even get them to move. Have to push it out from the end of the barrel and it takes a pretty good little push to even get it out then. I love the gun and once I got it sighted in it is very accurate. Hope they can do something to make it a useable range gun.

[HJB]

Have an M&P 22 Compact from 2014 with no issues and thousands of rounds through it.

All .22 Ammo is not created equal. Bulk pack ammo can have minor imperfections from knocking around in the bulk pack which affect reliability.

My first step in an .22 diagnostic is to clean and lube as you did followed by trying CCI mini mags. I would try the .40 grain copper wash solids. If the gun won’t run with that it won’t run with anything.

I have run some CCI mini mags and it does shoot those better for sure. But, I didn't buy it because I thought it would shoot the most expensive 22 ammo I could buy. I got it to shoot range ammo and the mini mag is the only think it shoots reliably. It is more than double the cost of range bulk ammo.

[HCM]

I have run some CCI mini mags and it does shoot those better for sure. But, I didn't buy it because I thought it would shoot the most expensive 22 ammo I could buy. I got it to shoot range ammo and the mini mag is the only think it shoots reliably. It is more than double the cost of range bulk ammo.

The point is it’s part of the process in determining if it is the gun or the ammo.

As I said all .22 LR is not created equal. No just premium vs bulk but between bulk brands and product lines. If it runs with mini mags but not your specific Federal bulk ammo, then it is an Ammo issue and you would want to try a variety of other ammo (bulk or other wise) to see what works. It may be as simple as running with 40 grain ammo. But not 36 grain.

There is reason many ammo companies have semi auto specific .22lr ammo, often branded as “tactical” in between the cheapest bulk stuff and the premium stuff. I have never, in 40 years of shooting, seen a semi auto .22 that ran with EVERY type of .22 Lr. Some run with most .22lr but none run with everything.

Re federal - the federal “Black Friday” bulk pack ammo both rimfire and centerfire has been particularly bad in my experience.

[HJB]

The point is it’s part of the process in determining if it is the gun or the ammo.

As I said all .22 LR is not created equal. No just premium vs bulk but between bulk brands and product lines. If it runs with mini mags but not your specific Federal bulk ammo, then it is an Ammo issue and you would want to try a variety of other ammo (bulk or other wise) to see what works. It may be as simple as running with 40 grain ammo. But not 36 grain.

There is reason many ammo companies have semi auto specific .22lr ammo, often branded as “tactical” in between the cheapest bulk stuff and the premium stuff. I have never, in 40 years of shooting, seen a semi auto .22 that ran with EVERY type of .22 Lr. Some run with most .22lr but none run with everything.

Re federal - the federal “Black Friday” bulk pack ammo both rimfire and centerfire has been particularly bad in my experience.

I have fired about 10 different types of ammo and had problems with all of it except had very few problems with mini mags. Every other ammo had problems ranging from, I'll estimate, 10%-15% fail to extract, up to Federal Auto Match which had an absolute 100% failure rate and I tried it because they advertised "specifically made for semi-automatics" That ammo was pure garbage and looked like it and I Federal took it back, paid for shipping and returned all of my money after I e-mailed them with the problems I'm having.

So, if this thing comes back and will shoot Federal Bulk, Bravo Brass, or other lower cost range ammo, then fine. If not, I'll be heading out to my gun dealer to buy a Glock 44, and this thing will be up for sale !