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G22 problems SOLVED (just remove the stupid springs)

40K views 34 replies 20 participants last post by  Bubbanew 
#1 ·
Bought the G22 a little while ago because im a fan of the bullpup design. On the first firing it performed flawlessly, and really impressed me. went through 500 rounds or so with no problems at all, in fact i was impressed with its accuracy and performance. I ran into problems when i field stripped it to clean it:

There were many loose parts that just seemed to fly off the gun when it was dissasembled, and in the confusion, im pretty sure i put the bolt latch spring in wrong. I assume this because when i go to fire it again 2 things happened:

1: on the final round the bolt locked to the rear. fine, only it wouldnt go back forward. AT ALL. the only way i could get the bolt to go forward again was to dissasemble it. If your not familiar with the G22, there is no bolt release button, you have to pull the charging back and let it ride forward.

2: the magazine would no longer seat properly, you really had to slam that sucker in there for it to lock.

I went high and to the right. I was seconds away from smashing the stupid thing and leaving it at the range, but i heard walther had excellent customer service, so i figured id give it a shot.

Called walther, they send me a useless but detailed diagram of the gun. Ok fine then, its smash time. Then i think to myself: if you have to reach around and pull the bolt back anyway to send the bolt home, wtf is the point of having a lockback function at all? in fact, it seems to be causing a huge problem. Why dont i just take the whole freaking spring out and not worry about it?

so thats what i did. I took the spring out (noticed it was bent really bad too) and just as im reassemballing it i realize the other spring they tell you not to lose (magazine latch spring or something like that) somehow fell off. THESE 2 STUPID SPRINGS ARE THE CAUSE OF 90% OF THE COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE G22. you think walther would just fix it but thats not the point. the point is i put it all back together without either spring inside the gun, and the thing works flawlessly. and i mean FLAWLESSLY.

All of a sudden the magazines are seating perfectly, the bolt locks to the rear on the final shot, and rides back home when you slap in a new magazine. In fact it works exactly the same as it did when i first got it.

Maybe they do something necessary that i dont know about, and maybe theres someone out there who knows more about it, but for right now they seem completely useless.

Went through another box of federal (500 rounds or so) and everything worked great and i couldnt be happier.
 
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#2 ·
Hate those springs

I purchased a used G22 a few weeks ago. It was in as new condition with the cloth carrying case and a reddot sight. I tried using CCI mini-mags and they didn't seem to feed or eject properly. I also tried Federal Game Shoks and they worked fine. I took the rifle home and decided to try to clean it. Of course you know what happens then. LOL. There go the two little springs. I took it apart at least 8 times and I couldn't get the slide stop spring in no matter how hard I tried. Of course, after a while of getting very frustrated, I lost both springs. Finally I put the gun back together without the two springs. It seems to function normally, but I haven't taken it to the range to check it out. I read your article about leaving out the springs, and that is why I decided to try the same. Thanks for posting this article. Walther never seems to have any parts for the G22. They say they come from Germany and that is why it takes so long. However, if they are a necessary item, then they should have enough on hand and also to reorder before they run low. Of course, Walther suggested NOT using the rifle without all the springs.
 
#27 ·
The little coil spring in the front and the V shaped flat spring in the rear on the right side of the receiver. To prevent loss put a quarter size neodymium magnet on top of receiver to catch them when you separate the upper from the lower receiver halves.
 
#4 ·
I have had a G22 since they first hi the market. I don't shoot it a lot, but it has been very reliable. It is not my most accurate .22 rifle but a fun rifle to shoot and draws a crown at the range.

Since this thread is concerning the Springs, yep you can lose one in a heart beat and this is the one thing I don't like about the rifle. Otherwise she is fun. After the first cleaning, I saw which springs I could lose and bought 2 sets of spares. Problem solved.
 
#5 ·
I bought a second hand G22. Nice gun. But... tried to clean it... I now can only fire one shot and then I need to reload. But most of the time the one bullet gets stuck. I need to remove the magazine and try again. The bullets are not correctly positioned in front of the barrel. A few times the bullet exploded in the gun... I think a magazine problem: iot doesn't "feed" the rounds properly.
I want to try the "trick" with the springs. Which springs exactly? I guess not the small/almost invisible one? Is it possible to upload a jpg? Thanks.

Pim
 
#6 ·
Love my G22

I bought my G about 7 years ago. Been thru alot with it. Early years had a few issue's. Haven't lost springs at all. But i'm gonna try going without them. I've learned different rounds absolutely won't fire at all. Even had to send it into Walther for repair which after it got goin was a pretty quick turn on the repair. And got a case out of it. They repaired a broken pin inside the receiver. It was inside where you would have to remove the 2 or 3 phillips screws. The G22 is really a not very well engineered rifle, just looking at the guts of the receiver is dissapointing. But it's accurate, fun and my favorite weapon. I seem to think mine has evolved a little on handling the rounds for the good. But on my firing of the last round of the magazine the bolt never stays open.
 
#7 ·
G22 should be taken apart in clear bag only-take no chances to loose any spring.
Gun is built very well and when clean should fire.
Problem is ammo- this is not Glock 17 nor AK 47.
22LR ammo production due to to the market is out of control.
If you don't mind it, would you report ammo that goes through.
Jake, who is technical support guy for Smiths recommends sub- sonic.
Tell me...
 
#13 ·
They are located on each side of the magazine well, towards the top. They'll be exposed and/or fall out when you remove the two pins and separate the system from the breech housing.

The magazine safety (the one with the small round spring) shouldn't cause any real problems; the biggest problem being losing its spring. It's the bolt catch and its flat v-shaped spring that seem to cause people the most grief.
 
#14 ·
Tested Rounds

First off all, not being able to find .22lr ammo is bull****. Shot the last of my Federal copper hollow points 2 trips ago. Was forced to buy the Blazer 40gram lead round nose rounds. Couldn't go a clip without 2 jams. So bad put G away after about 8 clips.

Went out again about 2 weeks ago with the same Blazer rounds and no idea or plan of what to do. Started with the Blazers again and after half a clip it jammed again. Crap. My buddy let me shoot use his Winchester copper hallow points and absolutely no problems. Mixed in a clip of the Blazers and once again it jammed. Fired the copper hallows and not one jam. Buddy also had a different lead round nose rounds and those also jammed just like the Blazers. I was so excited to figure out my problem being the rounds. Going into it I had strong suspicion's that I needed the copper hollow points. Now need to find some damn rounds.

What the hell is REALLY going on in that we can't even find .22lr. Comon man.
 
#15 ·
Springs and other problems

I've found that the only ammo that at one point historically was a reasonable price and consistently shot was 40grain win superX so I've stuck with it for the last 7 years and have never had a problem.

Can I remove the magazine safety pin all together? What does it prevent? Everything seems to function the same without it. I have kept my slide stop without a spring for about 5 yrs and finally lost the spring to the mag safety while cleaning it today.
 
#18 ·
Thanks Adrianw - I'll have to get into the gun again and look, but IIRC, #52 was gone already when I bought the gun used - I took it apart when I swapped the gun from left-handed to right-handed following a YouTube video, but I didn't re-assemble it with the parts diagram picture in front of me - so I didn't know it was missing.

I had a heck of a time with #53 - FINALLY got it in correctly, but I think I'm gonna take it out when I clean the gun.

The other thing I have to do is oil it better - some of the other 22LRs I have prefer to run almost dry - this G22 appears to need more lubrication.

Thanks
 
#21 ·
Walther G22

HI
Yeah it is a real pain in the ass to clean, but i guess all bullpup designs will probably be the same irrespective of who makes them.
Getting spares for this little rifle is another matter, I lost the extractor out of mine a while back, the pin that holds it in snapped and the extractor shot out into oblivion with the spent brass. Lots of phone calls later to different dealers I finally found one who could get said part from Walther in Germany. Three months later it has finally arrived. Bummer. Hopefully I will have it up and running again in the next few days.
Have a good weekend.
AdrianW
PS what ammo do you run in yours. I use CCI standard velocity in mine and they run fine when it was working LOL
 
#22 ·
When I shot mine this past weekend, I used a variety of 22LR just to see what'd work and what wouldn't - the CCI Stingers seemed to work OK, but the to be honest I didn't notice much of a difference with any ammo - I had some FTEs, but now that I'm getting comfy with the gun, I'll pay better attention to the chamber area and give the mechanism's moving parts some more lube than I did before I went out last weekend.

LOL, I had a heck of a time getting that pin in for the extractor when I switched the gun from left to right - it was really a PITA - I think I'm gonna order another pin and extractor now, just in case - what other parts would you suggest would be good to have on hand?
 
#23 ·
Walther G22

HI Buddy
I would get as many parts as you can ,especially those two tiny springs plus an extractor, ejector plate, firing pin, and any of the little roll pins that hold some of the parts together. Since this rifle has been discontinued it is a real bugger to get parts. I hope you have better luck getting parts in the US, than I have in the UK.

Put my rifle back together Monday evening cycled the action and the bloody thing would not cock, took it apart again and on further investigation found that the pin that holds the hammer strut to the hammer was broken. When I finally get it sorted I will let you ,if it shoots like it did. I love shooting this little rifle, nearly as much as I like shooting my lever action rifles.
AdrianW
 
#24 ·
I took the G22 to the range today, gave it plenty of CLP, and found out that it didn't like Remington Thunderbolt (40 grain, lead round nose bullet, 1255 FPS) at all - most of the problems with these rounds were failure to eject completely - every third round or so. BUT, the gun loved the CCI Stingers (32 grain, copper plated hollow point bullet, 1640 FPS) - the Stingers ran 100% - not even a single jam!

With all the CPL I used, now I gotta clean the gun, but I am glad that I found out that it it runs so reliabibly with the Stingers.
 
#25 ·
Revisiting G22 issues

CCI Stinger reliability is actually really depends from gun to gun. Mine hates them!

What I have found during my 1 year G22 experience:
- do not have to clean mechanics for 500rnds
- Can not use any hard cleaning tools inside the bolt ramp
- Use dry lubricant or use as less oil as possible
- Extractor front side polishing is a must
- Bolt rails polishing is a must. Bolt top should be polished to be as smooth as possible or it scratches be aluminum box top, therefore with time moves badly in those self dug scratch rails
- Bolt catcher simply destroys the aluminum frame so better get rig of this feature
- Mag safety spring (nr.52 on scheme) can be replaced with spark stone spring from the BIC lighter. 5 rounds cut is enough. But you need to find as small diameter spring as possible or mag safety wont function and therefore with badly mounted mag, you will experience jams and double fed rounds
- The shell ammo case rail in front of the mag should be polished.
- Bolt return springs are crap! Replace them with the aftermarket ones if possible
- polish the bolt spring rods and you will have less feeding issues cause less friction on bolt return
 
#28 ·
Revisiting G22 issues

CCI Stinger reliability is actually really depends from gun to gun. Mine hates them!

What I have found during my 1 year G22 experience:
  • do not have to clean mechanics for 500rnds
  • Can not use any hard cleaning tools inside the bolt ramp
  • Use dry lubricant or use as less oil as possible
  • Extractor front side polishing is a must
  • Bolt rails polishing is a must. Bolt top should be polished to be as smooth as possible or it scratches be aluminum box top, therefore with time moves badly in those self dug scratch rails
  • Bolt catcher simply destroys the aluminum frame so better get rig of this feature
  • Mag safety spring (nr.52 on scheme) can be replaced with spark stone spring from the BIC lighter. 5 rounds cut is enough. But you need to find as small diameter spring as possible or mag safety wont function and therefore with badly mounted mag, you will experience jams and double fed rounds
  • The shell ammo case rail in front of the mag should be polished.
  • Bolt return springs are crap! Replace them with the aftermarket ones if possible
  • polish the bolt spring rods and you will have less feeding issues cause less friction on bolt return
 
#26 ·
I know this is an old thread ive owned a g22 for 5+ years its had a lot of use and nothing has gone wrong with mine it seems most problems arise from incorrect assembly ive fixed a few and that's the most common problem ive seen I run mine with a little bit of dry lube and that's it I use cci standard vel ammo in mine and never had a problem the trigger is quite mushy from factory I fixed that and the other thing I do is bend a 22cal mop at one end in a L shape so you can fit it in through the ejection port and clean the chamber and that seems to keep mine running its the most accurate semi ive owned
 
#30 ·
Here is my experience with my G22 which I was about ready to turn into a fence post. I took the advice of one of the suggestions on this forum and took mine apart and polished anything that moved. I polished the feed ramp to a mirror shine and inside the receiver where the bolt glides. All in all I spent about 4 hours cleaning and polishing. I took it out to the range for a function test and It wouldn't feed or eject. I was absolutely ticked off at the time wasted trying to get this little beast to run. I took it back to the bench and what I was noticing when trying to cycle live ammo was the bullet getting shaved from the barrel. Ok. So I took my dremel grinder with the steepest cone and throated the barrel ever so slightly and polished it. Kinda like you do to a .45 barrel for feeding wadcutters. I also adjusted the magazines to strip pretty much horizontal instead of tipping up. Finally I did some preventative work on the receiver where those darn little springs live that everyone loses. I took superglue and glued the spring into its hole in the receiver. It won't fall out now. On the magazine safety spring, I set it in place and glued it into place as well. Now I don't have to worry about the springs. Back to the cause of the no feed no eject issue. Well dumb me had put the ejector in upside down where the ejector was forward instead of the rear. So I flipped over and put it back into its proper orientation. One last thing I did was take some hvac foil tape and cut off some small pieces and taped the ejector down so it wouldn't fall out when you pull the receiver apart and also taped on both pin hole locations to keep the receiver pins in place. Well the moment of truth came this afternoon. I grabbed 4 boxes of ammo cheap thunderbolts, federal hi-speed, cci std velocity, and sellier & belloit std velocity. I loaded 5rds of each. After the first pull of the trigger I was expecting a stovepipe jam. It didn't happen, it fed and ejected. I spent the magazine and all went well. So I loaded up 5rds of each of the other flavors and the little G22 went from beast to alot of fun. My final magazine I loaded 10rds and tried a rapid fire run. I fired as fast as I could and it didn't miss a beat. I think I am finally going to like this little rifle. One last thing and its about oil. I oiled the bolt with a small amount of Rem Oil. The rest of the bearing surfaces I used dry silicone. Surprisingly the cleanup was very easy I didn't have nearly as much fouling to clean as when I used Rem OIl or other oils I have around. I have been frustrated for over a year trying to get this thing to run. Well I finally think its fixed. Consumer tip for the springs. I measured my original spring (which I lost afterwards) and ordered 10 from a company I found on Amazon for like $3 for 10. They are stronger than the original and I expect will launch like a rocket if it gets loose. The magazine safety spring I attempted to make one out of some wire spring material I had laying around. I discovered I'm not that good at bending wire. So that is the reason I glued the spring into place. I doesnt' really do any hard work and by gluing it in place it actually works better. If anyone wants to buy a spring that is the correct length and diameter and has a little more strength, let me know and I will dig up my Amazon order and give you the part number I ordered. Tip when you take your receiver apart get some blue masking tape and cover magazine safety and magazine catch. Also I keep a big magnet nearby.
 
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