Lother-Walther 22LR barrel install

Seems the head space has to much of a gap, 90% of my rounds were having light primer strikes.. Cocked the bolt again and it fires.. I was using multiple different brands Eley SK Norma and all had the same issue. I didn’t have this problem till barrel swap. Called LW and they want to check the barrel out, will be providing rma and shipping label to send back

B y r o n said:

I'm confused, you mention that the bolt had more resistance when closing but you were getting lite primer strikes. Without checking against headspace gage you won't know if the headspace is too tight or loose which might be excessive headspace.

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When I inquired with LW they said a go gauge was not required, the bolt closing having more resistance has me being over sensitive to it since this was my first barrel install..

The barrel has been sent back to LW to check out, will update once I hear back from them..

J_D said:

Not LW but I had a Lilja I needed to reshim from .043 down to .041 to get it to extract properly.

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I doubt shimming would have helped the light primer strike issue

Initially I was going to get a Lilja barrel instead, like I wanted and not try to save 130.00 - 465.00 for the Lilja vs 335.00 for the LW.. Lead time was about the same for both barrels. Let's see how soon they get back to me with their findings, I will provide an update when they do.

J_D said:

I haven't really heard of many light strikes on this platform. No issues prior to the barrel swap?

The proof carbon was a direct fit and no issues at all.

I am waiting on a Desert Precision custom drop in, as those looked very promising on video.

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I did when I upgraded to a Timney trigger, a call to them resolved the issue - it was due to some triggers being shipped with a lighter spring, they sent a new one with a heavier spring and no issues since - I didn't even have an issue with the stock trigger and to rule out the possibility of the ammo being an issue - I shot several different brands SK, Eley, Norma, Wolf and the number of light primer strikes were about the same with all of them except for the Norma Match - it was about 40% of the time. I doubt it's me being a dumb ass with the barrel install, there were no special instructions and I inquired about that prior to purchasing just to be sure.

I just received an update from LW on my barrel:

"Upon initial inspection I noticed the chamber was tight and was not extracting correctly. I adjusted headspace and polished the chamber. After doing this I then checked bullet extraction with 4 different types of ammo Lapua, SK, Eley and Federal to ensure that everything worked the way it should."

Waiting for the barrel to be shipped back to me and see how it does.

J_D said:

That's great news.

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Yeah it is, at least I now know I wasn't imagining shit..

adubeau said:

Yeah it is, at least I now know I wasn't imagining shit..

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I received my barrel yesterday, installed and took it to the local indoor range, I had 2 failed to extract and maybe about 10 light primer strikes out of 150 rounds.. Else everything else was great - the light primer strikes were on Ely Match (5), SK match (4) and Eley Target (1). Groups were much better than the factory 16.5 in at 25yds - Will not be able to get to a 50yd + range till the weekend to see if the longer range accuracy improved. I was thinking of installing the +10 firing pin spring to see I that would help with the light primer strikes, any comments?

littlesister said:

What did you set your headspacing at? .043 is a good start.

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It's a drop in barrel there is no shims for head spacing required, I have asked LW about this and they said no need to... ETA: I would have to call up Lilja and get a set of shims for 50.00.. the shims will increase the head space not reduce it thus compounding the Fail to Fire.. I am going to pull the bolt apart and give a good cleaning and go from there.

littlesister said:

I doubt you'll be able to correct this problem yourself. Sounds like the barrel tenon was machined a bit short. Off course shims won't correct this. only make it worse. CZs machining tolerances arn't held to the same standards as some higher priced receivers. The drop in barrels I've dealt with for CZs were machined a bit long and included a shim kit for proper headspacing. I would not modify the bolt to correct a barrel problem.

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After much thought I am not going too, I will give the bolt a good cleaning.. It was recommended on RF central to remove the barrel, loosen the magwell screws, reinstall the barrel and tighten the mag well screws.. I did this so will see what happens

I followed some advice on rimfire central, torqued the grub screws too 30in/lb. No issues with fail to fire or extractions during nrl22 match, hopefully it’s good togo