22LR MeltDown

There really is a 22LR Machine Gun.

Wonder how long you have to shoot before it melts?
Youtube shooting sensation IV8888 has a strange little CMMG .22 caliber machine gun. Dressed up in safety gear he and his team are ready to see how long and how hot this .22LR machine gun can run.
Watch Iraqveteran8888 load up mags and try it out. See the video below.


Here’s what Iraqveteran8888 is shooting
22 CMMG upper
4 inch barrel
KG made Swarm – all Titanium can

Firing from stick magazines and drum magazines also this little .22 caliber machine gun shreds a 55 gallon metal drum. Check out the heat signature off this weapon and suppressor during the test.

Shot after shot tear into the target with malfunctions starting to mound up as the gritty .22 ammunition leaves more and more fouling.

After almost 2,200 rounds this little CMMG .22 machine gun is really dirty and sluggish but survived without damages.

Video Transcription
Welcome back everybody, this is Eric here with Iraq Veteran 8888, today we’re gonna be doing something kinda outlandish; we’re gonna be doing a meltdown video for you today. This little rig here is kinda silly, it looks like something that almost belongs in a Kurt Russel movie. I couldn’t get Snake Plissken to come out and shoot this for you today, so you’re just going to have to settle for lonely old me, I guess.

But we’ve got a CMMG 22 upper here with a 4 inch barrel, we’ve got a KG made Swarm, this is an all-titanium can. So we’re gonna be shooting full auto until this gun fails. We’ve gotten some speculation from folks about how long this thing’s gonna last, so leave your comments below, let the world know how long you think this little guy’s gonna last. We’ve got a whole bunch of Black Dog magazines here, loaded up with some Federal auto match, we’re gonna be shooting through it. Got it topped off with a little ACOG which of course, in typical meltdown fashion, we’re not gonna use. The one thing that I am gonna mention that we have changed is the standard CMMG firing pin. We’ve ran this gun at full auto a good bit, and it’ll break after around 1300 rounds. We had Ray machine us a special firing pin for this gun, so I just want that caveat out there, that we did change it up just a little bit to give us a little bit more longevity in this rig here.

As far as I know, this is gonna be a new record for the amount of full-auto 22 that’s been fired in one sitting. I can’t find any references to anybody running this much 22 ammo. If we end up running the amount of rounds that I think this gun’s gonna run, we’re setting a world record today. Also, there’s never been this much 22 ammo at one time put through a suppressor. So we’re kinda torture-testing the suppressor, we’re seeing how long the 22 can run, so no telling what’s gonna happen, we’re just gonna go for it. We have no idea how this is gonna go.

We’re just gonna do it.

Alright. Here we go. I’ve got some drums, got some 25-round shot mags, 50-round drums, and we’ve got a couple of 32s. Gonna go for it.

[Shooting]

I’m gonna have some guys back here loading some mags for me.

[Shooting]

[laughter]

[Shooting]

It’s like a woodpecker.

[Shooting]

Alright, we’re running 5 sticks and a drum, so here’s a drum.
[Shooting]

Alright, looks like it didn’t pick up like the last three or four rounds. Try that.

[Shooting]

There we go. Oh yeah, she’s skanky(?). Gonna keep going.

And hey guys, if any of these mags are short when I’m sending ’em to you, let me know.

[Shooting]

I’m not really looking at ’em, I’m just shooting.

[Shooting]

Ah she uh, flipped up a bit.

[Shooting]

It’s like a labratory of destruction.

[Shooting]

YEAH.

[Shooting]

It’s like a pack of angry hornets.

[Shooting]

Poisonous angry hornets, chad!

[Shooting]

Look at this thing just running!

[Shooting]

Dude! She won’t die!

[Shooting]

Thank you chad. Uh-oh! Alright. We’re getting some malfunctions here. Ok, I want to make note of something, guys. This is one of the black dog mags, marked Kel-Tec, I don’t know if this is an older magazine, perhaps, but I just wanna make a note of that. it is a different magazine.

“Put it to the side?”

Yep, put it to the side.

[Shooting]

And have that guys lee go juice on tap. (???)

[Shooting]

Dude that can is hot! We’ll take a temperature reading in just a moment. Uh-oh.

[Shooting]

That chamber’s getting a little crusty.

Uh, this is another one of the kel-tec marked magazines. For the purposes of this test, chad, pull all the kel-tec magazines. Alright. Oh wait, we’re not in drum territory yet. We’re about to be, though.

[Shooting]

I believe the newer mags have metal feed lips chad, is that correct?

“That is.”

Ok, good deal.

[Shooting]

Ooh yeah, boy she is getting hot. Ok, we’re going to take a very quick temperature reading guys. The suppressor is 222 degrees. The barrel… 301 degrees. The chamber… 149 degrees. The upper receiver, 161 degrees. The barrel nut… 275 degrees. We’re gonna continue the test. Nope, not runnin’ bad. I am gonna give her just a little bit of lube, she’s lookin’ a little silly here. Alright. We’re gonna continue the test.

[Shooting]

I guarentee old Snake Plissken in Escape from New York woulda liked to have this.

[Shooting]

You know when you’ve got a hoard of ninjas coming after you.

[Shooting]

Are we sure this is not rigged chad? This thing’s running awfully good.

[Shooting]

Ok now we’re on the 32-round magazines, these are also Black Dog magazines.

[Shooting]

“This is silly.”

It is, man, you might wanna load some drums.

Had a couple malfunctions so far, but guys, it’s a 22. I mean all in all it’s running pretty good!

Uh-oh. I spoke too soon.

[Shooting]

It is crazy it’s stringing those shots like three feet to the right now.

[Shooting]

Uh-oh, well that sounded weird. It’s doing that weird thing again!

And guys, we do have a chamber brush on standby just in case we wanna swab the chamber on this thing.

And all in all it’s not runnin’ terrible!

[Shooting]

Alright there’s your drum.

Yeah it’s starting to give some weird, weird issues here. For sure.

You have any idea how many rounds we’re in, chad?

“Nope.”

Alright, the chamber’s kinda got some fallout in it. I think what we’re probably gonna have to do if we wanna keep running this thing, yeah, it’s not feedin’. Yeah. Failure to feed. Tell you what, we’re just gonna try another mag. Make sure it’s not the mag. Alright, this is another black dog mag, this is a Kel-Tec magazine, let’s try it. Here we go.
[Shooting]

We’ve definitely seen a decrease in reliability this far in. Which, uh. I’m just gonna keep runnin’ it until we have some kinda weird failure.

[Shooting]

Yeah she’s definitely getting sluggish chad. But I mean to be fair.

[Shooting]

Yeah at this point we just have rounds that are failing to go in to battery. I think it’s safe to say that’s about performance expectation we can just about look at. Yeah. I dunno man. [Shooting] I would venture to say at this point that reliability has suffered to the point where– at this point it probably needs a cleaning, but we haven’t popped an extractor, we haven’t broke a firing pin, and we’ve had a few minor issues, but nothing that wouldn’t be indicative of a rimfire gun. This thing sure is skanky, we’re gonna go ahead and try this drum.

[Shooting]

Alright, I’ll tell you what we’re gonna do.

They’re gonna keep topping off magazines– Alright that bolt is actually sticking a little bit.

The bolt is… 70 degrees. The chamber is… 70 degrees. The barrel is… 225 degrees. The barrel nut is 230, the can is… 237 degrees. We’re gonna work as quickly as we can, we’re gonna scrub the chamber, we might have some fallout in the chamber, some carbon buildup, we’re gonna quickly scrub the barrel, and keep goin’.

OK, roughly two minutes have elapsed. We went ahead and pulled the gun apart and scrubbed the chamber. Really nothing abnormal other than being really really nasty. We’re gonna continue the test. The gun hasn’t really like, technically died yet, so we’re gonna keep going. Hopefully the chamber cleared it up.

[Shooting]

Oh I can definitely tell that thing’s running a lot smoother. I think that chamber just began to get a little nasty.

[Shooting]

Uh-oh.

[Shooting]

Ammo’s running pretty good.

[Shooting]

Who says shooting can’t be an olympic sport? Well it is technically I guess.

[Shooting]

Alright.

[Shooting]

My favorite part.

[Shooting]

Oh those drums, man.

[Shooting]

Alright I don’t know who’s setting these mags here but we’re doing them five at a time, so try not to get me confused.

“Yes boss!”

[Shooting]

Not really have much barrel left, do we?

[Shooting]

It’s like a pinball machine!

[Shooting]

I don’t think we’re gonna be able to generate enough heat to kill this thing, chad. I think we’re just waiting on something to break at this point.

[Shooting]

Yeah it’s doing that sluggish thing again, chad.

I think that that– maybe our recoil spring and everything is just getting weak. ‘Cuz it does– it feels very sluggish.

[Shooting]

I don’t know at what point we could definitively call it until something breaks.

[Shooting]

“You might’ve put a little too much go juice on there.”

Oh come on.

[Shooting]

Well at least this is one of our cheaper meltdowns.

[Shooting]

That sounded strange…

[Shooting]

“It’s certainly the quietest.”

Yeah I’ll tell you what, how ’bout some in the dirt?

[Shooting]

It’s like a woodpecker. Here’s a woodpecker that’s gotta run an endurance race. [Shooting, quick stop] Whelp, I ate my words there. [Laughter]

[Shooting]

Pretty quiet.

[Shooting]

There’s gonna be either a lot of really happy people, or really mad people, or a lot of pissed off Reuger 10-22 fans.

[Shooting]

Oh yeah, it’s doing the same thing. I think that chamber is just getting a lot of fallout in it.

[Shooting]

Yeah, it’s doing the same thing. Basically it’s doing what it took a lot of rounds to do before, but it just didn’t take as long this time.

[Shooting]

I mean you gotta think though, at this point, I mean, we have fought off multiple motorcycle gangs of bears.

[Shooting]

I mean if we’ve still got a motorcycle gang of bears on top of this we’re doing something wrong at this point.

[Shooting]

Didn’t run all of that drum. Hm. Well, keep going. Uh-oh.

[Shooting]

Definitely starting to get those rimfire finnicky issues that you get out of rimfires. It definitely took a while for it to happen, though!

[Shooting]

Yeah it’s doing the same thing. Failure to feed. Failure to feed.

[Shooting]

Failure to feed. Yeah it’s– that chamber is really skanky, chad. I think at this point what this video has really become is just a matter of really how long a 22– yeah she’s done– how long a 22 can go without being cleaned. I think that’s what this really comes down to. I’m gonna try one more drum just for the heck of it, see if it’ll run it.

[Shooting]

Huh.

[Shooting]

Hell give me another drum.

[Shooting]

Well that’s a partial drum. Well there’s all of that drum. I’m gonna try some 32s. I don’t think we can get this thing hot enough to kill it.

[Shooting]

Pretty much at this point of the video, I’m gonna call it.

Alright guys, that was a pretty interesting result that we got out of the little CMMG 22 there, um, you know, it’s crazy. It ran a ridiculous amount of rounds, we allowed the gun to cool down, we pulled it apart, we got the KGMade suppressor apart, I mean, there’s a little bit of lead buildup here and there and there’s definitely some leading on the baffles itself, but overall, I mean, the suppressor came apart relatively simple. We had to kinda beat it with a rod a little bit to get it apart, but that’s to be expected. So you’ve probably wondered how many rounds the gun ended up going. Well it’s kind of an estimate, because we just had to review the footage. It went 2,178 rounds, and that’s kind of an estimate. We factored in some of the stoppages as well, removing those from the count, so almost 2200 rounds, that’s almost seven bricks of federal auto-match. So I mean, just to put it in perspective, all these empty boxes.

Man we just put an amount of ammo through this gun that your average person probably wouldn’t do in an entire year. Now granted, some of us shoot a lot, but the gun’s pretty filthy. I mean you look at the lower, it is just caked in a nice layer of carbon, the upper is definitely skanky, it’s got a whole bunch of nasty stuff in the upper. The barrel– we can’t really see anything that’s terribly wrong with the barrel itself, I mean I think what it really comes down to is just a maintenance thing. The gun just needs a really good cleaning, and I think it’d probably run just fine. I really thing that if the gun hadn’t have gotten like, really gummed up with all the nasty from all the ammo, I think it would’ve just kept going and kept going. I don’t think that the 22 longrifle cartredge generates enough heat to really cause a heat issue.

In fact when KG Made- kind of heat treats these– not really heat treats, but when they like, they’ll do kind of a hear bluing in a way, and they’ll get a nice blue or kinda purple color out of these things, and when they do that they actually heat these suppressors up even hotter than what we were able to get this with full-auto 22 just back-to-back there. So, we’ve got a little bit of an exchange of heat that caused the temperature to change a little bit, and cause that little bit of discoloration, but not any more than what they would do at the factory, so that’s pretty interesting.

The suppressor held up, the gun held up, the optic held up, the gun held up. So oddly enough, I think what this video really proves is that it’s really just a maintenance thing. Once your 22s get so gummed up full of carbon and lead buildup, your suppressors are gonna get a little bit heavier because they’re gonna get leading. In fact the only definitive strip of lead I was able to pull out of the suppressor is just this little sliver of lead buildup right here. So not a terribly large amount of lead buildup, so that’s really cool, to know that your can can pretty much go the distance. So it proved that suppressors are definitely overbuilt, and good quality, and can last a long time, and it proved that a 22 conversion can really take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.

I mean this is way more ammo than any average person would ever put through a gun in one sitting, and I would venture to say that this is actually a world record. I don’t think this much 22 ammo has been put through any gun in as quick of amount of time as we just did, ever. So there’s our record to beat, 2178 rounds, and that’s the most ammo that’s been put through a 22 suppressor in the shortest amount of time as well. So I think that’s the most rounds put through a suppressor and the most rounds put through a 22 of any type.

We’re gonna call it that, because I can’t find anybody that’s ever done this amount of rounds like this. So, hopefully you guys learned something in this video, but I tell you what. Just to make sure that I’m right, ok, we’re gonna clean this gun, really god, right now, I’ve got five drums loaded up right here, so the way we’re gonna test it: We’re gonna clean the gun, put the suppressor back together, and if it runs all five drums without a malfunction, then we can pretty much surmise that the gun itself is good to go and that it just got too dirty. And that we couldn’t get it hot enough to kill it, and we couldn’t put enough rounds through it to kill it without it getting too dirty to stop running. So maybe the fact that it got too dirty was kinda the failsafe that caused the gun to not kill itself.

One other thing that we are gonna check that we did not check yet, we’re gonna check the recoil spring to see if it’s gotten short or long, or if it’s caused any weird changes in geometry due to being wore out. Because right now this upper’s got about 7,000 rounds on it, total. Chad’s been running the mess outta this thing, so we’re gonna see if the springs wore out. We are gonna replace the recoil spring with a fresh recoil spring, we’re gonna continue on the existing fire pin, and we’re gonna run it. Let’s do it.

Alright, so as a test, what we’re gonna do here, is run five drums, and if it runs all five drums without stopping, then we can pretty much surmise it was a maintenance issue, and as long as the gun’s kept clean, it’ll in theory go about as long as you want it to. So. We’re just gonna go for it here.

[Shooting]

Alright we’ve got a stoppage. Stovepipe. We’re gonna keep going.

[Shooting]

Might’ve choked up the firing pin.

[Shooting]

Stovepipe. Well we’ve already debunked the test, but we’ll see if it’ll run the rest of these.

[Shooting]

Well that ran! Might’ve just been a fluke. Maybe we just had an issue with our drum.

[Shooting]

[laughing] Ran that!

[Shooting]

Kept on drummin’ along there. All in all not bad. Definitely increased reliability after cleaning it. 22s tend to be a bit finnicky with this kind of stuff, and what’s interesting is we put a lot of heat through this gun just through those five drums there. -Grab that temperature gauge for me, if you don’t mind- We’ll see how hot we got that suppressor just in that amount of time.

The suppressor’s 304 degrees. So even throughout running those 25-shot mags, intermittantly throughout the video, those five drums got it hotter than we did through the entire video. So that’s a pretty interesting result. 309 degrees. 334 degrees toward the end of the barrel. So. Pretty crazy.

Well guys, we really appreciate you watching today’s video, we’ve had a ton of fun making it. Thank you very much for the support, we’ve always got tons of things going on, more meltdowns on the way, we’ll come up with some other crazy things. We do have some other meltdowns planned. If you haven’t subscribed yet, consider subscribing. Stay tuned, more on the way.

Sources: Iraqveteran8888 Youtube, Eric Nestor