As a child, I bought one of the first .22 semi-automatic rifles, the Winchester .22 semi automatic.  It tested my patience, a jamming machine, but it taught me some basic tricks for preventing jamming in any .22 semi-automatic.

Jamming in .22 semi-automatics

Any .22 requires some basic knowledge of the internals, especially with the propensity of all .22 semi-automatic guns to jam.  The ammo has a low mussle velocity, and the low recoil means that the bullets may not always have enough force to eject and re-load the next round.

With even the world's best .22 target guns, high-powered ammo counts, and jamming is a huge problem with any .22 semi-automatic gun. 

We chose the Ruger Mark III as our best .22 target pistol and wasted a full day diagnosing a horrible jamming problem, but it was quickly fixed by moving to a higher-grain bullet. 

We got the Remington golden bullet, 40 grain, and she performed flawlessly, a joyous pistol with remarkable accuracy at 25 yards.

Before you get it right, the Ruger Mark III is a jamming machine

Things to try to fix jamming in .22 rifles and pistols:

• Stronger Bullets - Higher grain Ammo can make all the difference - Try 40 grain ammo, and avoid flathead or hollow-point bullets.

• Tweak the magazine - Adjusting g the height of the top of the magazine and the top flanges can change the way the bullets feed and extract.

• Cleaning - Clean guns hit clean shots

Things never to try to fix a jamming problem

• Excessive lubrication - Never spray WD-40 into the chamber, or use excessive oil.  Small semi-automatic like to be dry.

• Jackleg gunsmiths - Semi automatic are hard to field strip, and some take specialized tools.  You are always better off sending the gun to the manufacturer for tweaking our jamming issues.

Also, see my notes on fixing Ruger .22 Mark III Jamming