Henry Rifle Forums

Spent a pleasant hour on a pleasant day at MDC Parma Woods range today. It's been a month since I last shot my SGC .22LR, and it was plain 'ole fun once again.

OK. Sent 70 rounds downrange -- 60 rounds of Winchester M-22 40gr CP-RN, and 10 rounds of Remington Golden Bullet HV, 40gr PLRN. Finished a brick of the M-22s today, and will work with the Golden Bullets for a while now. I'm posting only my first target, a 6" splash mounted at 25 yards. Shot 22 rounds with 17 splashes, cardboard grabbed 2 rounds at 6 o'clock, 1 round at about 4 or 5 o'clock, and 1 round at 3 o'clock.

I'm pretty certain I know why one of my rounds missed completely and ended up in the berm. For a change it wasn't my shooting. It was about the 3rd or 4th round I shot, and I thought I was shooting black powder .22LR ammo (if they make such a caliber)!!!! A very large puff of black smoke came flying out of the ejection port, and I could feel the heat of it run across my face. Practically no smoke out of the muzzle....all back at me! It was one of the M-22 rounds. Yowza, what a surprise, and also scared the wazoo out of me.

Of course, I quit shooting right there to check things out. Emptied the magazine tube, and the remaining rounds were all intact and looked fine. Also closely looked over the receiver, carrier, bolt, etc. Nothing looked amiss. So I reloaded, held my breath, shot, and no probs for the rest of the range time....thankfully! So I've now shot a "black powder" round --- cool.

Interesting first-time experience. I was glad I didn't remain distracted, and actually shot this first target quite well. Here are the POI results, sans the one in black powder. Thanks for checking this out.

Take care....PT7

Same thing happened to me once. At the range there is a little bucket labeled "misfires." From time to time I sort through it and pull out the .22 LR rounds that haven't been fired and I shoot them.

One day, one of them fired normally, but when I opened the bolt of my rifle, smoke poured out that smelled to high heaven. The lifter on my magazine was covered in soot. I shined a light down my bore and it was filthy. Don't know where it came from, but someone had put a black powder round in the misfire bin.

Here is my Black Powder 22 pistol with loading tools .

PT7 wrote: It was one of the M-22 rounds. Yowza, what a surprise, and also scared the wazoo out of me.

Thankfully it didn't turn out to be anything serious, PT, and your comment made me smile. I think I would have felt exactly the same way.

It wasn't from a recalled batch was it?

Probably just misloaded. There were some recalled M-22's.

22LR was originally a black powder round! That's why the bores are trash on so many antique 22's.

Squatch wrote:Probably just misloaded. There were some recalled M-22's.

22LR was originally a black powder round! That's why the bores are trash on so many antique 22's.

The black powder didn't ruin barrels . The shooter ruin the barrel buy not cleaning the barrel after shooting black powder them . Modern smokeless ammo in soft antique barrels will ruin a barrel faster then black powder if cleaned correctly .

Maybe I should have said that Black powder, corrosive primers, and bad maintenance ruined the barrels. Modern guns and loads are a bit more resistant to bad gun care.

Fact is I've found very few early 20th century 22's with decent barrels. One of mine is being relined now.

Squatch wrote:Maybe I should have said that Black powder, corrosive primers, and bad maintenance ruined the barrels. Modern guns and loads are a bit more resistant to bad gun care.

Fact is I've found very few early 20th century 22's with decent barrels. One of mine is being relined now.

I agree you it is very hard to find old gun with a good barrels . ... More barrel have been ruin from improper use of a cleaning rod or the lacking of cleaning after shooting corrosive primers and or Black powder .

P.S. nice target

I have a ton of Enfields that have only shot corrosive ammo and most are in excellent condition. It was a court martial offense to have a pitted bore and if you were issued a pitted or rusted bore it was stamped.

Nicely done PT7. I love your range reports.