I shipped mine to S&W on Jan. 28th and received it back last night. Worksheet indicates they polished the barrel, replaced the extractor and test fired.
Took it to the range this afternoon...fired the first magazine (10 rounds) flawlessly, I was stoked!
On the second (and third and fourth) magazine, it immediately became a single-shot pistol with each round sticking in the chamber...the extractor would not engage the cartridge rim.
Ammo used was Federal Champion 40gr., as that's all I had on hand...but it's worked flawlessly in every other gun I've tried.
I've fired off another email to S&W...I guess it'll be heading back, then sold.
FYI federal champion and American Eagle .22 have been problematic isn some Glock 44s as well. I’ve had much better results with federal auto match.
Honestly semi auto .22 pistols and conversion kits are made to run with higher velocity ammo. Standard velocity. Working is, in my experience the exception, not the rule.
I've never as much as handled an M&P 22, but FWIW some random thoughts from messing with various bullseye 22 guns over the years:
0)Nothing wrong with making S&W fix a new gun.
1)In general, 22's, especially with SV ammo, just don't have a lot of extra energy floating around - even tiny problems can subtract enough energy they stop working. For example, I had a Model 41 that had worked flawlessly for maybe 30K rounds, then fairly abruptly got flaky. After a lot of work, I noticed that a thin spot towards the rear of the frame rails was ever so slightly peened - you needed a magnifier to see it - and the slight drag on the slide caused various kinds of FTF. Stoning the burr off fixed things right up.
2)Extractors can work or not work based on really small geometry changes. I note that Volquartsen et al are making M&P 22 extractors. That was sometimes an easy fix for Ruger MKII's.
3)I've seen something - lead maybe - gradually build up in the chambers, even though they looked like bright steel. A good chore-boy scrub never hurts.
4)Is it a dry fire safe design? A little chamber peening can slow things down and cause problems. Do the cartridges plunk in and out of the barrel w/o drag?
5)Any excessive interference between the bottom of the slide and the top cartridge? Drag there (magazine too high? mag lips letting cartridge set too high?) can slow things down.
6)More a problem for FTF than FTE, but sharp edges on the chamber etc can cause problems. The tiiiiiniest bit of edge breaking w/ a fine cratex bob can help.
7)Many of the bullseye types would put a drop of CLP on the top round in each mag, just to prevent any dry powder fouling during the course of a match.
ETA: we were almost all running SV ammo, which probably contributed to the general finickiness of things.
Didn't realize that Federal made two different versions of the blue box 40gr Champion. Apparently there's a 1080fps SV and a 1250fps HV...I'm using the HV version.
Federal blue box 40 grain champion ammo is pretty crappy ammo. I gave away a brick and a half with disclosure because of all the problems I had with it. Some of the rounds were under powered while others didn't fire at all. This was in all my 22s. If you want to get good bulk ammo that runs try 40 grain cci blazer. It is basicly mini mags that aren't copper plated. It's reasonably priced and goes bang consistently. No under powered rounds either. I shoot steel challenge with these. Remington thunderbolts are pretty reliable too but the are dirtier. Good luck with your M&P.
OK, I got my gun back from S&W after a little over 3 weeks time. They said they "repaired the barrel" and test fired 3 mags.
So, next day I took it to the range and fired 120 rounds with zero "fail to extract" problems that I had been having before I returned it. Hurray !!!
I fired 40 rounds of the same garbage Federal 40 grain ammo that I used before I sent it to S&W and had a 50% fail to extract rate that required me to poke the spent casing out with a stick in the barrel. First mag I had one "fail to fee" but the round fired and ejected.
Then I fired 40 rounds of Aguila 40 grain super extra and had absolutely ZERO failures or problems of any kind.
Then I fired 40 more of the Federal 40 grain and in one magazine I had two instances of "fail to fee" but the gun did fire and eject the casing. Just re-rack and go again.
So, I am totally satisfied with the results and the service received from S&W. I will reserve final judgement until I get the chance to shoot it for about 500 more rounds, but so far I am very optimistic. I can't really tell exactly what the did to the barrel, but they did polish the feed ramp and that is obvious. I was not having feed problems so not sure why they did that but I'm OK with it.
So, send yours back with some details of numbers of rounds and number and type of problems with the Federal. Hopefully they will be able to get it repaired and make you happy.
Good luck !
The red mist has dissipated somewhat...I'm going to pick up some different rounds and make another trip to the range before I send it back.
Another (self-induced) issue I discovered that occurred...in my frustration to extract the empty cases from the chamber, I was tapping (at the end of the session, it was more like beating) the rear of the locked-back slide on the shooting bench. I noticed when I got home that I ultimately bent the slide lock tab on the last beating, which would not allow the slide to go forward. {Doh!}
I've tapped it back down close to flat...looks like I'll have to remove it to get it back totally flat.