I've got this SR22 still giving me "issues". It has a SS barrel. Went to the range and ran about 3-400 rounds through it. I'm shooting Remington Thunderbolt .22 LR ammo. Admittedly not the cleanest shooting ammo available - but might qualify for the dirtiest! This thing is hitting all over the place. I have a laser on it. Put the laser on the bull's-eye. It "might" hit the bull's-eye, it might hit 4" low, it may go high left or low right. It is so off that at times I can not even tell where, or if, I hit the target at all. I'm not a marksman by any means but I also have a FNS-9C w/laser and if I take my time I can obliterate the bull's-eye @ 7yds. Had two of the range hands shoot it as well, one is the resident gunsmith. To sum up their comments - "holy shit - this thing is all over the place". Gunsmith checked the rifling and said it thought it was just about shot out. "Maybe, got a soft barrel from the factory?" I dunno. Another thing the gunsmith, initially, was that it looked like I had hit the end of the barrel with a cleaning rod and dinged it up.
To me - when I cleaned the barrel the rifling look pretty good. So last time at the range I let the gunsmith look at the barrel before I ever put a round through it. It was CLEAN. He said rifling still looked a weak to him. But I asked him about the dinged up barrel. Once I cleaned it it was gone. I could see any flaw in the end of the barrel and neither could the gunsmith. What's happening is the lead is dragging out of the barrel, sticking to the rifling to the point that when I tried to clean it I could not get a .22 patch/jag to go through the barrel. Ended up putting it in Hoppe's bore cleaner in a plastic zip-lock and running it through the ultra-sonic cleaner. That helped some but I actually had to hammer a .223 bore brush through it then I when I pulled the brush back out of the barrel a flattened piece of lead came out with the brush. My original question "Is this normal?" centers on this bit of information. Is it normal for lead to stick to the barrel/rifling such that you can't even get a jag to go through? Or to have lead dragging out of the barrel that's visible? Is the stainless steel barrel, in part, a reason for lead sticking so bad?
I'm getting it cleaned up now and intend to contact Ruger next week about sending it back for warranty work but just wanted to run this by the folks here to see what their opinion is?
To me - when I cleaned the barrel the rifling look pretty good. So last time at the range I let the gunsmith look at the barrel before I ever put a round through it. It was CLEAN. He said rifling still looked a weak to him. But I asked him about the dinged up barrel. Once I cleaned it it was gone. I could see any flaw in the end of the barrel and neither could the gunsmith. What's happening is the lead is dragging out of the barrel, sticking to the rifling to the point that when I tried to clean it I could not get a .22 patch/jag to go through the barrel. Ended up putting it in Hoppe's bore cleaner in a plastic zip-lock and running it through the ultra-sonic cleaner. That helped some but I actually had to hammer a .223 bore brush through it then I when I pulled the brush back out of the barrel a flattened piece of lead came out with the brush. My original question "Is this normal?" centers on this bit of information. Is it normal for lead to stick to the barrel/rifling such that you can't even get a jag to go through? Or to have lead dragging out of the barrel that's visible? Is the stainless steel barrel, in part, a reason for lead sticking so bad?
I'm getting it cleaned up now and intend to contact Ruger next week about sending it back for warranty work but just wanted to run this by the folks here to see what their opinion is?