Great story; I can remember growing up in the 50's and early 60's with my Remington Model 12 and shooting everything I could; I too don't remember misfires from that rifle; today it hangs in my office as a reminder of those days.
My grandfather grew-up in south Texas in the time of Pancho Villa. Mexicans couldn't own guns but they could buy ammunition. A TEXICANO ranch hand would trade grandpa four .22 shorts for one dead rabbit.
I have my grandpa's first gun, a Springfield 1936 Meteor. Hadn't been fired in 50-60 years. I cleaned it up, popped one and gave the grass one to the hip. Shoots beautifully. I have only had a handful of misfires with .22s, and most of those came from my high school days when we were re-springing Remingtons for multi bursts. You could empty a 20-round banana mag purty darn quick until it jambed. It was more like 3-4 shots with one pull. That was back in the days when you could buy a hellfire kit from a catalog without getting arrested.