ERMA LA 22 ?

team roper ozzy

I inherited one of these..but have had nothing but problems with feed..went to dump it at a local gun shop and the guy refused to consider a buy due to the feed issue's he has had in the past with these.. the pos sold for 54 bucks new..so this is a last call to see if any brand of ammo might just feed if anybody knows of any..of if you have one and corrected the feed issue i would like to know how..thanks Ozzy

rufe-snow

I have worked on a couple of them. They are very ammo and magazine sensitive. Many of the parts are made of pot metal/Zinc diecastings which also doesn't help. You might try CCI mini-mag solids just loading 5 rounds in the mag at first. One of the ones I worked on had a bad mag that would only work if it was partially loaded. The feeding angle from the mag to the barrel is so extreme that HP or flat nose bullets have a tendency to jamb.

team roper ozzy

thanks Rufe..i will give it a try out and see what happens..thanks for the reply[:D]

Alan Rushing

Rufe right on, with your experiences. Have had several and found the same pointers repeatedly ... do not "fill" the mag completely. And each that I had ate CCI best of all the stuff that I had tried through them.

I figured that with the mag. it has to do with the force and speed that the top round is presented (perhaps having to do with the speed of the "memory"of the spring extending).

Tied to that is how quickly the bolt cycles from the expended round, etc. When CCI's did not work for me ... I cannibalized for odd parts if needed.

daybreak2350ad

"Mega-dittos" on the unreliable feeding/jamming problem with the Erma KGP-69 (.22LR) models. I had the long-tube ET-22 Naval copy with 11.5" barrel, which theoretically would increase the back pressure slightly during recoil to give the action a little more ummph.

Ammo: Yes, high-vel types with solid round nose bullet most likely will work best. As with any automatic, keeping it clean usually increases reliable feeding as well. Since most .22LR ammo has wax lubed bullets, chamber throat and feed ramp area can get gummed up with repeated firing, so clean the gun including chamber and bore to minimize jams.

Tip: Lightly oiling the .22 rounds may also improve feeding and cycling (lay 10 rounds or so on a rag on a flat surface, apply one small drop on every 2-3 casings, fold rag over and then roll them to get light oil coating. Use a light-weight gun oil or 3-in-1 type oil. Don't use penetrating lubricants like WD-40 etc. (BTW, especially never on center-fire ammo due to possibility of these lubricants actually penetrating around and on inside to the primer which can cause it not to fire).

Magazine: Interior, spring and follower must be clean and slide freely; lubricate lightly if necessary. Magazine lips: The feed angle is of course critical as it should guide the bullet tip into the chamber without scraping on the chamber edge (throat area) and possibly shaving lead off the bullet. However, attempting to bend the magazine lips to adjust feed angle and/or point of cartridge release is a very tricky business and it might make matters worse before (and if) you get any improvement -- not really something for the amateur.

True Erma Jam Story: "I knew a young fella once" who, while riding in the passenger seat of his girlfriend's 69 Camaro as they cruised the rural countryside around Iowa City on a hot summer day, was doing a little "plinking" out the window with a long-barrel ET-22 and it jammed in typical fashion--cartridge halfway into the chamber and breach block denting the top of the casing. He pointed the muzzle down towards the floor, pulled the toggle back and gently released it since sometimes the cartridge could be chambered this way. Unfortunately on this occasion, however, the lower edge of the breach block hit the rim of the rim-fire cartridge and it fired without being fully chambered. "They say" that even though the .22LR is a relatively dinky little round, it still makes a helluva bang when fired inside a car, and that the passengers were very relieved that the warm liquid running down onto their feet was not blood but only anti-freeze running out the hole that the bullet made through the heater core. 'Course that was years ago...

The moral of the story: If you're going to shoot your Erma .22, get good at clearing a jam without a misfire and always, always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.