A buddy of mine bought a GSG FireFly .22LR pistol for his wife. They were unable to get it to work reliably, with about a 30% failure to eject. He asked me to take a look at it, so I tore down, cleaned it, lubricated it and went to the range with 7 different kinds of ammo. No bueno! 30% failure rate continued. Different magazines tried with the same results. I went online and read some reviews and all of the reviewers experienced the same issue. And nobody had any fixes for it. Do any of you have any suggestions that a non-gunsmith could try to resolve the problem? Thanks.

Did it fail to extract? Or specifically what is the failure mode?

Throw it in the pond.

Think these and the sig version (made by same people) only work with mini mags to cycle the side. I have a GSG 1911 and it will eat any ammo I put in it besides the CCI Quiet.

I have the same pistol GSG 1911 and it's a keeper, will run anything you put in it.

+1

If it don’t work it should be a bye bye.

Nothing wrong with a little challenge, just need some patience and the desire to tinker.
I had a gsg mp5 clone in 22lr and it wouldn’t even shoot the cci mini mags.
I took and pulled the bolt apart and sharpened the extractor claw and changed the angle on it just slightly.
I also polished everything I could and de-burred everything. I had it running through federal bulk box after a couple hours of tweaks.

Best of all when I sold it, I knew I wasn’t boning the next guy.

They are mass produced and pretty cheap. I even believe they say premium ammo only in their manual.

See if anyone makes a pack of different weighted recoil springs for it. If so try them all and see what works best.

I would be interested to know if you were using 36 gr. or 40 gr. .22lr.
I had an original German made Walthers TPH that would fail to extract with 36 gr. Mini Mags but would work flawlessly with any other 40 gr. round. The lighter round didn’t create enough pressure to extract and eject the spent cartridge.

Jim, I tried 40, 36, and a couple of other weight bullets without success.

It fails to extract; the casing hangs up, never leaving the breach. Stove pipe.

Throwing a buddy's pistol in a pond is not really a viable option for me. Only he can make that call!

Thanks for your suggestions.

In that case I would disassemble it and make sure the breach is smooth with no defects or packing grease in it and pay some attention to the extractor with a very fine file. I don’t know if manufacturers still use cosmoline when shipping overseas, but that could be a factor.

This is what mine did, reshape the extractor claw and polish and deburr everything. Clean the barrel real well and perhaps use some isso paste in the chamber to polish it a bit. (Don’t get crazy and don’t use drills).

The extractor tuning will get you going I bet.

Lots of extractor tuning threads on rimfire central, one of the best is the one for the 10/22.. lots of pics.

Thanks, TAB!

Mine will eat anything you put in it.