Will someone please explain the floating chamber in a Rem 550-1 to me.

[presspuller]

I'm trying to get a 550-1 to extract the brass, to no avail yet, and the more I look at this thing the more I'm perplexed by it. Ok, it has a floating chamber, but it hardly moves at all, so I don't see what the big deal is.
What am I missing? The bolt seems to travel the same distance regardless what rounds are being used. Every size brass extends out the front of the floating chamber, so I don't see where that matters.
Help me out here.
Thanks.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

The chamber design was in order for it - a quite early .22 semi-auto rifle - to cycle the .22 short and to a lesser degree, the long in a full sized rifle.

The small movement of the recoiling chamber adds its mass to the cycling to help stimulate things.

Items to note:

Be certain that the interface between the recoiling chamber and the rifle chamber is clean allowing freedom of movement.
Look for possible ringing inside the recoiling chamber from previous considerable .22 short firing.
The chamber by design moves so little as to make one either wonder; *why bother* or *something must be wrong*.

Too, as with almost all .22 semis whether long or pistol, I assume up front that a failure to extract/eject is always an issue of a dirty firearm and a detail strip might be in order if it is not obvious what the hang-up is.

Todd.

 

[presspuller]

The chamber by design moves so little as to make one either wonder; *why bother* or *something must be wrong*.

Truer words have never been spoken.
I've made sure everything is clean, I've polished everything and it still won't pull the brass out after firing 4 rounds.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Can you show us a good photo of one of the fired cases?

I'm wondering if they are forming out at the forward edge of the recoil-chamber.

Todd.

 

[Riomouse911]

As was stated, the floating chamber gives the lower powered rounds some extra ooomph needed to cycle the action. (The Colt Ace .22 used a floating chamber to develop enough recoil force to cycle a metal slide on the full sized 1911 frame. ) Since there are parts that

There could be a few issues at play, including the possibility the cases are expanding at the mouth excessively. If you could post some clear closeup pics of a fired case or two and the chamber pieces it may help guide us towards finding a solution a bit more.

Stay safe.

 

[presspuller]

The ring that is about middle of the body is the front of the floating chamber. The space from there to the right to where the scuff marks start will slide freely in the floating chamber, the last part at the end is what is tight and will not let it extract.

 

[Blue68f100]

This makes me wonder if the floating chamber is fully seating forward. If there is powder residue in front of it (trapped) could explain the problem ejecting. Like Riomouse911 said a photo of a fired round may revel this.

 

[presspuller]

I have cleaned the corners out good with a dental pick, there's nothing there.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

That scuffing on the cases forward of the recoiling chamber make me think that needs some extra cleaning or maybe a light polish.

Is it an optical illusion that they (particularly 2nd from the top) look to have expanded where the scuffing is evident?

Todd.

 

[presspuller]

It's an optical illusion, I went back and looked at them after seeing the picture.

I have scrubbed it clean and polished it with a felt bob and polishing compound. I'm at my wits end.

 

[Blue68f100]

What I'm seeing is the front 1/3 looks to be a larger dia. If his is the case it's going to be hard to extract. Maybe someone shooting nothing but shorts and eroded the barrel part of the chamber. Your option may be to have the front part (barrel) sleeved. If you can find another sleeve may try expanding it to match the over sized part of the chamber. At least this way it should extract.