Smith & Wesson Victory Fixes

Smith & Wesson introduced the SW22 Victory self-loading rimfire pistol a few years ago. This is a versatile, optics-ready, and quite useful firearm that has been successful for Smith & Wesson. An obvious competitor to Ruger’s Standard Model, the SW22 Victory has proven successful and seems widely used. This is a huge market. Everyone needs a quality 22 Long Rifle handgun for stress reduction, plinking, target shooting, and small game hunting among other necessities of life that this pistol ably serves.

Such pistols are far from useless for emergency use as well. The Victory has been widely accepted and found its way into practically every niche a 22 Long Rifle handgun fits. The Smith & Wesson Victory is useful for pest control and also in introducing new shooters to the It is nagged by problems common to .22 caliber self-loading pistols. handgun. Smith & Wesson went after one of the few drawbacks of the Ruger Standard Model in the design of the Victory. The Standard Model is a bit difficult to disassemble.

While Ruger has addressed this issue in the newest generations, the SW22 Victory is simple to disassemble with an Allen wrench that comes with the gun. To disassemble, remove the magazine, rack the bolt, and check the chamber is empty. Turn the takedown screw out with the supplied Allen wrench. After the screw is turned out a few turns, the receiver can be lifted off the frame. The bolt can then be lifted out of the receiver. Nothing to it!

To go further, another screw at the base of the pistol barrel holds the barrel in place. Loosen this screw and the barrel may be lifted out, making barrel changes quite simple. There are fully adjustable rear sights, fiber optic sight inserts, and a rail for mounting optics. By removing the rear sight the supplied Picatinny rail may be installed to mount op-

Access and changing of the extractor is easy. tics. The grips, safety, and trigger action are well designed and well suited for all around utility. The pistol incorporates an adjustable trigger stop. Volquartsen (Volquartsen.com, offers not only barrels but other aftermarket parts for the pistol for modifications to better serve individual shooters. The pistol has proven accurate enough, however, some shooters have a nagging list of problems in maintaining reliability.

There are a couple of concerns that I have addressed. Some correspondents have noted that they were able to get reliability in the high ninety percentile but continued to experience nagging failures. A common occurrence with .22 caliber firearms is ammunition problems as rimfire ammunition is often dirty. A full powder burn isn’t possible in a pistol barrel when most ammunition is designed to fully burn the powder in a rifle barrel. Some loads are much better than others.

In my experience CCI Mini Mag in all types (including Segmented, RNL, and Hollow Point) is a gold standard for convincing pistols to work. Winchester Super X 37 grain and Fiocchi’s High Velocity loads are also useful. Many years ago my grandfather recommended Remington Golden Bullet, another good choice. Some types just don’t make it. When I began this feature the work was simpler as we were not in the middle of an ammunition shortage. I obtained plenty and added more as the testing went along.

I found that the loads listed above gave good results as well as the Remington 40 grain Golden Bullet and plain old Remington Thunderbolt. Just the same, I never hit better reliability than anyone else in my initial assessment. Around ninety to ninety five per cent at best was the standard. As the ammunition supply dwindled I found the work more important. I had to get it right without unlimited ammunition. Here is the procedure. First, be certain the pistol is completely clean and degreased.

That is always a good start. Then be certain the pistol is properly tightened. This means a lot when you have a pistol with two screws that are keeping both the barrel and the frame-toreceiver fit locked in tight. Lubricate the bearing surfaces. Using first principles, simply look over the bolt and identify the parts that meet as the pistol operates. There should be a few wear marks or shiny spots. No need to use excess lubrication but use enough.

With good ammunition, a tight lock up and proper lubrication we are well on the way to reliable function. Another problem with the Victory is that occasionally the bolt will not fully lock up, stopping on the last 0.025-0.035 of travel. I was able to examine one such pistol (not mine, which did not have this problem). The owner sent it back to Smith & Wesson and after a three week stay (very reasonable in this time and times) the pistol was returned with anew bolt. So, a factory fix is there for some problems.

The pistol extractor is important. It does more than extract the spent cartridge case; it also leads the cartridge into the pistol chamber. Volquartsen offers the Exact Edge Extractor for the Victory. At only $18.50, the VCSWEE extractor is a fairly inexpensive addition to this pistol. When there is no apparent single fix, this extractor is well worth adding. Prior to this I cleaned the extractor, extractor plunger and spring, and all around the extractor area.

Filing a bit off the factory extractor to make it sharper may help. Also, look at a fired cartridge case as it is pulled from the chamber and try to see what is going on. It isn’t difficult to plug a spent case back into the chamber and try this a few times. Bending the extractor in or out is darned hard on such a small part, so simply replacing the extractor may be the better bet. Replacing the extractor assembly is very easy. There is a retainer on the bolt assembly that will be pressed to the rear of the bolt.

This allows removing the extractor with a simple tool such as a small pick. Don’t let the extractor spring fly loose; mine did not fly loose as it was not under pressure as the extractor was moved out. Changing this inexpensive part should aid function. A note on bending the extractor. The old rule is to bend out for less pressure, in for more pressure. You’ll have to determine if an extractor is supplying too much tension or too little during the feed cycle.

This can work but may prove too difficult to get right with such a small part when you are able to order a replacement for very little change.

Fix List Cures for the SW22 were to clean the firearm properly and then degrease, inspect the chamber for burrs, be certain the barrel screw was tightened completely, check the frame-mounted takedown screw was properly tightened, The author stocked up before ammunition availability became problematic. changing the extractor assembly for an aftermarket upgrade, and only using top-grade ammunition proven to function well in other self-loading 22 LR pistols.

Ammo selection included CCI Mini Mag, Winchester Super X, Remington Golden Bullet, and Fiocchi High Speed have proven reliable. Bullet weight should be 37 to 40 grains. Properly lubricate the firearm. Here is a good trick. While at first it seems odd, I have tried this on several occasions with excellent results in numerous .22 caliber pistols. Some time ago I worked with the original Colt 22 cal. Conversion Unit. A problem with function was common.

For a fix, I carefully coated the floating chamber with STP Oil Treatment, an automobile engine additive. This worked perfectly. So, I took a leap and coated the bolt of the SW22 Victory with STP Oil Treatment as well. It is difficult to say which step did the most good or which solved the problem but I suspect the STP had a positive effect as it has done so on several other firearms. The addition of the high end Volquartsen extractor also had a positive effect.

The pistol has now went through a fast two hundred sixty rounds as quickly as I could load the three magazines on hand and fire. The individual steps were simple enough and inexpensive. The most expensive and difficult part, as it turned out, was obtaining all the ammunition used in testing. AG