Iver Johnson/Erma Werke

Had a chance to finally shoot a new to me IJ made by West Germany's Erma Werke. A LGS had a few of these last summer new in the box and I picked one up, figuring it'd be a fun shooter...and it was, especially during these cold New England winter days!  And thanks to those who built and maintain the m1carbinesinc page, it was very useful in helping decide to get this!

How many rounds did you put through it? Any stoppages?

have you replaced your recoil spring by any chance? Sometimes when a magazine is fully loaded, that first or top round is harder to strip off and sometimes if a recoil spring is lacking just a little bit, it might not have enough strength to send that first round home. A cheap thing to swap out to see if it fixes the finicky first round problem. My son has an AR that if you use a 30-round magazine and load all 30 in it, rack it back, it doesn't have the strength to strip that top round off because of the magazine spring pressure being so tight, causing failures to feed on the first round because the  buffer spring lacked the strength. Unload one round and make it 29 round magazine and it loads all 29 just fine. changed his buffer spring out to a new one, now it will strip all 30 out of a fully loaded 30 round magazine with no failures to feed.hth

I personally would not go and change any parts on it until I had several hundred rounds through it. Semi auto .22s can be finicky especially when new and may need a bit of a "break-in". 

Hi, These 22lr Carbines are a hoot to enjoy. Some advice for you on these rifles (I have two of them).   

1. I would not recommend shooting "high velocity" type ammunition in it. These guns have identified weaknesses, all of which are discussed on the info pages. I would highly suggest you become very familiar to these aspects. Not that you cant shoot high velocity, you can, but will impact negatively your gun over time doing so, as well documented. Shooting standard velocity good quality ammunition through it will ensure a longer service life.

2. Many 22lr semi automatic rifles are "ammo finicky", they perform very well with one or two brands/type of 22 ammo, and other brands constantly provide endless trouble. Buy a few boxes of different brand quality ammo and see if a different brand works better. I have older semiauto 22's that will only function with one brand/type of ammo flawlessly, but will not feed any other.

3. GOOD LUCK & ENJOY

Cheers, JB

thirtyround wrote: Hi, These 22lr Carbines are a hoot to enjoy. Some advice for you on these rifles (I have two of them).    1. I would not recommend shooting "high velocity" type ammunition in it. These guns have identified weaknesses, all of which are discussed on the info pages. I would highly suggest you become very familiar to these aspects. Not that you cant shoot high velocity, you can, but will impact negatively your gun over time doing so, as well documented. Shooting standard velocity good quality ammunition through it will ensure a longer service life. 2. Many 22lr semi automatic rifles are "ammo finicky", they perform very well with one or two brands/type of 22 ammo, and other brands constantly provide endless trouble. Buy a few boxes of different brand quality ammo and see if a different brand works better. I have older semiauto 22's that will only function with one brand/type of ammo flawlessly, but will not feed any other. 3. GOOD LUCK & ENJOY Cheers, JB