Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Ruger American rim fire FTE

Anybody have one that is having FTE issues? My 22wmr seems to not extract 50% of the time.
My assumption is that the extractor is garbage. I can’t seem to find anyone making machines extractors online.
I appreciate any help.

J,

It may not be the just extractor hook itself

Like many mid to lower priced rimfire bolt guns( like Savage m93s and Marlins) the Ruger American bolts have a wrap around flat spring style cartridge guide on the left side of the bolt opposite the primary extractor on the right Sometimes that spring is weak, Try bending the end of that cartridge guide inward a bit toward the center of the bolt face so that it puts a bit more pressure on the case head pushing it against the extractor hook.

That might do the trick.

I fought and fought with an american 22lr predator, ended up trading it, got more than I paid for it. Didn't want to go through everything to send it back to ruger.

Stuff like this is why I have a hard time getting fired up over another RAR. Seems many have great luck and get excellent performance, but many also have annoying issues like this that make them not worth the risk. My sole example, an HM2, worked perfectly, but the current ammo ain’t like it used to be, so down the road it went.

I know where there’s a NIB .22 mag now for $250, but won’t bite because I don’t want to “get involved” with issues, that and the price of ammo.

Spending a bit more will open up a lot of better options, safer anyway.

I've had good luck with my Predators in 308 and 223. But those use AI or AR mags. I've had issues with the standard 4 round Ruger magazines.

I had an American in 22 LR briefly. I had to work the bolt aggressively to get rounds to fully eject. They would extract, but not eject. Plus it was less accurate than a typical 10-22. I sold it and bought a Tikka T1x. The Tikka wasn't that much more expensive and is much better.

I mentioned that issue a couple of years ago, and got skewered over it. I personally know of five Ruger Americans, and every single one of them had extraction problems. If you check over on rimfirecentral.com, you'll read about several more that have the same issue, too. It's not rare, Ruger has replaced a gazillion extractors since the introduction of the American rimfires, and apparently it's still an issue.

A friend and I purchased Ruger American rifles in .17 HMR 4 years ago. They were ordered from the same dealer at the same time, and arrived in a single shipment. BOTH rifles had serious problems right out of the box. They failed to extract at least 90% of the time and also had feeding problems. We sent them back to Ruger, and they were junked and replaced with different rifles that have since functioned fine. My understanding is that the bolt face recesses for the cartridge heads did not line up properly with the chambers (or vice versa), making it impossible for them to feed and extract normally.

We both thought that the rifles had faulty extractors, but that was not the actual problem.

I purchased all 3 calibers of the RAR Predator models when Ruger first introduced them years ago from Whittakers.

The 22 WMR is one of my favorite magnums. It's accurate and I haven't had any issues with it. I was so happy with it, that I bought the 22 LR and 17 HMR.

When the other two arrived, I assumed they'd be similar to the WMR.

The 22 LR hates anything standard velocity and doesn't seem to like anything particularly well past 25 yards. Since it's threaded, I used to take it on the occasional squirrel hunt, but now that role gets filled by a Christensen Ranger.

The Christensen is finicky but it's also quite accurate...way more so than the RAR.

The 17 HMR was a huge disappointment. I could not get through a single magazine without having to pry at least half of the rounds out of the chamber. I was very happy to let that one go to someone who knew the problems but was sure he could fix them.

He sent it to Ruger 3 times before finally trading it away.

Whitakers had some deals on those things when I got mine, my 22lr predator was 240 with free shipping, plus my transfer of course. I made a couple bucks when I traded it off.

Ruger had a near flawless extractor on the 77/22s. Leave to those dumbfuggks to screw up something as simple as an extractor. 3 of my 4 American Rimfires can be fussy with extraction.

Do some checking on Rimfire Central.

It is common enough there are some fixes. I know the first thing to check is to take the bolt out and put in a cartridge and see if you can hold it up by the cartridge. If you can't there are some things that you can do to fix it if the bolt falls. Most of it is detailed over there. If it isn't a really rough chamber, it is probably related to the extractor.

One of our kids dad on our baseball team was talking to me about 17hmrs the other day, I told him to buy a tikka, he didn't listen, he found one in a Ruger American. It is going back to Ruger for feeding and light primer strike issues. He paid 480 for it, should have just bought the tikka. Ruger did tell him it would be a 9 day turn around, so hopefully it comes back fixed.

And, unlike the Tikkas (which do break and require service from Beretta USA) at LEAST Ruger will fix it promptly and on their dime.

Beretta will not.

I sent a beretta gold sporting back and had it replaced and back to me within 2 weeks.

Good for you.

How long ago was that? All I know is since COVID struck Beretta s lead times on service that they have to perform are MONTHS not weeks.

My own personal experience with Beretta USA CS has been 50/50 and the bad has been VERY bad.

NONE of their guns are inexpensive and IMHO their customer service should at least equal Ruger's- which it certainly does not.

God knows they get enough experience doing it.

Would rather pay $600-$800 for a reliable rifle (CZ) with a nice walnut stock than play the lottery for $400-$500 in hopes of getting a good RAR.