Romanian Model 1969 .22 Trainer-Feed Issues

**dearborndevil** · September 5th, 2008, 12:57 PM

Does anyone out there have experience with the cheap .22 Romanian training rifles that were imported about 5-10 years ago. I was at a show, and snapped one up for the unbelievably cheap price. It's got pretty nice sights for a .22. But it doesn't feed worth a damn.

I've tried different brands of ammo, bullet weights, etc. I tried taking apart the mag and cleaning it. Nothing seems to help. I may try one of the newly manufactured Triple K mags.

Any suggestions?

**deth502** · September 5th, 2008, 04:30 PM

hard to tell without seeing, or a more detailed explanation of the problem, but the first thing to look at if you are having trouble feeding from diffrent mags would be the feed ramp.

**phill** · September 5th, 2008, 05:02 PM

We had one for a while and finally gave up. I think that there is a design flaw in the rifle or mag. Two trips to a very good gunsmith produced about 90% reliablity. Neat rifle but everybody seems to have some feed problem. Also maybe a difference in the ammo?

**wizzegun** · September 6th, 2008, 06:08 PM

post your question here. http://surplusrifleforum.com/viewforum.php?f=17 They should be able to help.

**dearborndevil** · March 31st, 2009, 01:02 AM

I finally got around to taking the rifle apart, and checking for any magazine feed issues. As it turns out, I didn't find any problems with the feed ramp or magazine. BUT....

What I did find, was a bit of a surprise. The way this rifle feeds, the cartridge head snaps out of the magazine, and under the extractor, moving at an slight angle as it does so. However, the firing pin keeps protruding too far from the bolt head, to let the extractor grab the cartridge head.

Later on, when I have time, I plan to clean out any crud from the firing pin channel, and polish up the firing pin, any surfaces it may drag on, and the bolt face. Hopefully, this should make for smoother feeding.

**dearborndevil** · April 4th, 2009, 01:48 AM

Eureka!!!!

I took the bolt apart today, and thoroughly cleaned all the carbon build up off with Gumout. After a bit of light oil, the firing pin now moves as it should-and my feeding problems have vasnished.

I have a hunch that many of the feed problems being blamed on the magazine for this rifle are actually due to the bolt's sensitivity to crud.

**shagg** · June 8th, 2011, 06:03 PM

Hello all, im new to this forum. I actually joined just to chime in on this thread. The m1969 romanian feed issues actually stem from the rocker that you move to remove the bolt. They generally act up only in colder weather, below about 40 deg. f. The rocker maintains friction against the firing pin to hold it rearward, allowing the shell to slide upwards into the extractor. You can usuallt install a stiffer spring and it helps a lot.
If you want to test this theory, when you are having feed issues try this.
hold pressure on the front of the bolt release rocker (amplifying spring tension) and work the bolt. It should feed fine. If this works then you have proof that this is the problem. Mine still acts up in very cold weather, even with a stiffer spring. When it does, i generally just rest my finger on the rocker as im working the bolt. Be it known that i shoot left handed so my finger is right next to it.