Thread: Can you wear out a .22 rimfire rifle ??

I have a great little Norinco JW15 A that cost the huge sum of $220 with a Burris scope. It's been a little ripper with accuracy many hundreds of dollars above it's purchase price.
The bore is off centre and the quality and workmanship leave a lot to be desired but it shoots very well.

However after two years and over 15.000 rounds I have noticed the odd extraction issue and wonder if the accuracy maybe dropping off a little.

Question is what is the life expectancy of a low end .22 ?
I have worn out a Stirling .22 with the bolt flogging out.
i brought the Norinco used and have no idea of past use or round count.

I thought it may have lasted longer but may be not ?

your using soft lead bullets at low velocity so i would expect a barrel to last several lifetimes if of good quality, cheap materials, poor workmanship & design then not so long . . . . improper cleaning or neglect i suspect has killed most .22s

Rimfire accuracy is pretty dependent on headspace, and its possible that on firearm with some parts indifferently heat treated or hardened that the headspace has increased somewhat - much more likely (but less well understood) than wearing a .22 RF barrel out

Old man has a voere semi that he reckons has probably had over 100,000 rounds through it, he had it when I was a kid and it's done many years on pest work and it still shoots like it always has

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Old man has a voere semi that he reckons has probably had over 100,000 rounds through it, he had it when I was a kid and it's done many years on pest work and it still shoots like it always has

Same with my unique, 40 plus years old, multiple owners still as accurate as ever. Mind you neither it or the voere were cheap .22s.
Barrel life of the unique was claimed in the booklet to be in excess of 150,000 rounds and shooting lead projectiles the wear would be minimal. I think that would apply to most barrels on .22s.
Its the moving bits that would wear out first.

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Old man has a voere semi that he reckons has probably had over 100,000 rounds through it, he had it when I was a kid and it's done many years on pest work and it still shoots like it always has

Same with my unique, 40 plus years old, multiple owners still as accurate as ever. Mind you neither it or the voere were cheap .22s.
Barrel life of the unique was claimed in the booklet to be in excess of 150,000 rounds and shooting lead projectiles the wear would be minimal. I think that would apply to most barrels on .22s.
Its the moving bits that would wear out first.

It's a nice rifle alright and hopefully I will one day get my greasy mitts on it, fires from an open bolt, I remember dad telling me when I was a young fella that it's the same principal as a sten smg when he was explaining how it works

Rusting in the barrel or bulging it from firing with water down the barrel are about the only ways to kill a .22RF barrel.

you could try this @viper . . . . made a big difference with my old Sterling and a small improvement with a mates Norinco

take a brand new, sharp drill bit and carefully hand cut a new crown . .. or go mad and give the job to a gunsmith

Cheers for the answers guys, I am sure it will come right and it is very occasionally. I think the fault more got me thinking about life span of a .22.
I also have a Unique and it does feel like it will last forever, amazing rifle.

This has happened to mine, solution is to clean the chamber out with a bronze brush. It's just suffering a wax build up in the chamber and the recesses for the extractor claws. Just use a bit of petrol and she'll be good for another 2-3000 rounds.

I have a TOZ17 with well over 100000 rounds thru it. Clean everything but the bore . Clean the bore only when accuracy falls off. (1000 plus )

The steel in the JW15 is quite tough and should last a lifetime with normal shooting. The extraction problem could be due to a slight rounding off of the extractor edge, easily corrected with good needle files (taking care to sharpen the edge without removing much metal). Stirling .22's do wear out because the steel used is soft free-cutting steel. This is not a strength issue but the soft steel just wears easily. Over-cleaning wears out more rifle than shooting does.

Get a gevarm, youll never have to worry about an extractor ever again cos they dont have one.

Originally Posted by viper

Cheers for the answers guys, I am sure it will come right and it is very occasionally. I think the fault more got me thinking about life span of a .22.
I also have a Unique and it does feel like it will last forever, amazing rifle.

Pretty crappy trigger though.