S&W M&P .22 leading problem

[digdug74]

Hey all,

I'm beginning to gather that this is probably a known problem from what I'm reading on other forums but figured I'd throw it out here and see what the hive thinks.

I picked up a S&W M&P .22 pistol some months ago on something of a whim. First trip to the range, I ran about 100 rounds of Remington Thunderbolt lead ammo through it. Around the 100 round mark I seemed to be getting a lot of backpressure during firing and the rounds were going all over the place. Eventually, they started keyholing. The guy in the lane next to me said I'd probably just leaded up the barrel with the cheap ammo and I figured that was all it was and called it a day. Earlier today, though, I finally got around to cleaning the pistol and found I was pulling out finger nail thick slivers of lead from the barrel. It seemed to have really built up around the muzzle. It must have taken 25 passed with various bore brushes to get it all out.

From what I'm reading on the S&W forum, it seems like there may have been a manufacturing issue with these barrels -- something about the crown. Is this correct? And if so, should I bother sending the gun back to S&W? I was wondering if a few hundred rounds of copper FMJs down the pipe might just as well smooth out the barrel?

Thoughts?

Thanks.

[JackRydden224]

Shoot more LRN, you get more leading and have to clean more frequently.

Shoot more CPLRN, you get less leading and have to clean less frequently.

Really should expect a good 200 - 1000 rounds to break-in first to begin with.

The problem is not the pistol.

The problem is ___________ .

I'll let you fill in the blank.

=8-)

You know your stuff. You got my respect sir rabbit

[IntoForever]

I ran thunderbolt through my pistol and 3 others (donated ammo) and 2 firearms completely leaded to the point of keyholes at 7 yards and the third was leaded enough to be off by 1" at 7 yards. Before I even read the ammo type, I thought of my issue with that ammo. Did you experience large smoke clouds when shooting that trash?

['ol shooter]

They are called "Thunderturds" for good reason. I ran a several hundred rounds of Win HV and Blazers through mine, and it was clean as a whistle. I was very pleased.

[Ricky-Ray]

It's the ammo. I have put at least several thousand rounds thru mine already and if I shoot copper ammo there's very little barrel cleaning needed. If it's lead it requires a few more passes.

[digdug74]

Thanks for responses. I pretty much knew the ammo was crap but still wouldn't have expected that much leading. I mainly only brought this up because some guys over on the S&W forum were saying S&W had a bad run of M&Ps where they failed to properly crown the barrels and it was causing severe leading at the muzzle. A number of guys sent their guns back to Smith who in turn replaced the barrels.

I think I'll just try to stick with FMJ in my gun for a while and see how that goes. I always hate the hassle associated with sending guns back to the factory.