Since I bought my SU-22, I have been having problems with 'failure to feed' and 'failure to eject' rounds. I load the magazines with 20 rounds and have yet to go through the 20 rounds without a problem. I have tried various differnt types of ammo - Remington, Winchester, CCI and Federal but have not found a solution. I have shot maybe 500 or 600 rounds through the SU-22. Kel-Tec's manual says not to take the bolt apart because of the springs are under tension or something like that. I'm thinking that the bolt just need a good cleaning.
If KT says DONT take it apart, I wouldn,t! I don't have a SU-22...yet, so I'm not sure how different the internals are. I would PM ktwm or give KT a call and ask to speak to a gunsmith about this, maybe he has some ideas. Make sure you give KT as much info as you can and see what they say. Please keep us informed about this, maybe we need to add some mods to the stickies. I assume that the rifle has been cleaned and lubed throughly before and after shooting, correct? Good luck. BamX2
In an off-list email, ktwm told me that I could take the bolt apart if I wanted to but be sure to Loctite the screws again when reassembling it. I assume that advice would apply equally to you as it does to me, and hopefully ktwm wouldn't mind me posting his comment in a public venue. I haven't disassembled the bolt on my SU-22, but looking at the exploded diagram it doesn't look too bad. There are a couple of springs, strangely labeled as 384 FRONT SIGHT DETENT PIN SPRING. Otherwise, it looks like a left and right bolt half held together by two screws, a firing pin, and extractor and an extractor axis. I've read that it's possible to have a slight misalignment between the two bolt halves. Not sure, but that might be something to check? If you are inclined to tear into it and start messing around with it, you might try polishing the Feed Ramp, part number 704 in the exploded diagram. I've shot cheap Federal bulk pack (maroon box) from Mal*Wart and it shoots well. Maybe three per box of 525, I have a round with no primer at all. I've tried cheap Remington Golden Bullets, also from Mal*Wart. They jam very consistently. I think it's the roll crimp that captures the bullet but allows it to rotate and bend a bit to make banana shaped rounds. I was at Sportsman's Warehouse the night before last and I bought some inexpensive Blazer bulk pack and some fairly inexpensive Federal Champion (light blue box), both in 525 round bulk packed boxes. The Blazer ($14) was cheaper than any of the Mal*Wart ammo, and the Federal Champion ($18) was a few dollars more than the two bulk pack ammo boxes from Mal*Wart. I'm going to try them in the SU-22 and post the results. Both look good, at least from a casual inspection.
You shouldn't need to take the bolt totally apart. you can remove the extractor and firingpin without takeing it totally apart. (you do have to remove the rear bolt screw and partiall drift out the extractor axis, but you do not need to loosen the front screw) definatelly check to make sure the bolt screws are tight if you are having extraction problems. Also check to see if the extractor hook looks good, make sure it's not sticking, and check if the extractor can hold an empty case by itself. feeding problems could be the little feedramp cut in the barrel itself, but some ammo is known to cause feeding problems (Rem golden bullets). Best bet is to call customer service, You might be able to get a replacement bolt assembly sent to you with a return envelope for the old bolt assembly. This should fix the Extraction/Ejection issues, but may or may not address the feeding issues.
Thanks to everyone for the advise. I had read a previous thread about using the Remington rounds, so I bought the Federal (Marron Box) rounds. I was surprised when I was still having proplems when I used the CCI ammo. The CCI rounds are a few times the price of the Federal. Anyway, I'll give the bolt and extractor a good look and if I can't find anything I'll call Kel-Tec.
