Thinking about buying this gun for basic cheap range fun. I really like the look of it but I wanted some feedback on how it performs.

Thinking about buying this gun for basic cheap range fun. I really like the look of it but I wanted some feedback on how it performs.

 

Personally I don't like it. Feels like junk in the hand. Very small pistol too. It does look cool though. I think there are way better .22 pistols out there. A Ruger MK series or even a Browning Buckmark are proven performers.

 

Some of the newer 1911 style .22's are nice but haven't shot any of them yet.

I've shot it before - it's small but nice. Not as ammo picky as some semi autos.

I have fallene for the walther p 22 not just once but twice. I might fall again sometime in the near future. I love the ambi design and the size. What I did not like it was the pickey ammo sensitive naturejust and the finicky safety. I really did not like that when the safety was engaged you could still pull the trigger and have the hammer fall. This sometimes confused new shooters into thinking ammo was bad. Also take down is horrible. Or actually putting the damn thing back together is horrible. It could be reasonably accurate and it was fun to shoot. I will probably buy another someday.... but I'll hate myself afterwards.

On other forums, people are quick to badmouth the P22, but personally, I (and my girlfriend mroe so) thoroughly enjoy mine.

 

Even though my girlfriend shoots it more than I do, I still have fun with it every now and then and it is one of my guns that has stayed in my collection since the beginning.

 

Although I have fairly large hands, somehow it still is ergonomically comfortable for me and it really is a hoot to fool around with. The sights aren't great but aren't bad at the same time. Sure, a MKIII or Buckmark may be more accurate at 25yds but hey, if I can easily bust midi clays at 15-20yds with my P22, I think that's plenty for me! Mine has not been ammo picky whatsoever (knock on wood) but I only use Minimags and Federal because they have proven to be good .22 rounds for pistols as well as my .22 rifles. Safety I have no problem with either. I can't say the slide-mounted safety is my favorite position for a safety, not at all, but for the infrequent use the safety gets used, it does the job. My girlfriend uses the safety a lot more than I do when we practice drills together, I like to teach her to get in the habit of safety off - shoot - safety on..etc.

 

In terms of disassembly, it is super easy. Re-assembly may be a little bit more frustrating (although not difficult), but I do not believe it is anything close to 'horrible' as Axeman stated. It takes a couple tries and that's it, nothing to complain about, at least for me.

 

All in all, it is a super fun pistol and I like that is actually looks good. It isn't a Ruger Mark ___ or Neos or Buckmark that are nice, don't get me wrong, but they all just look really funny. I can't say I can stomach their appearances or designs. Mine shoots great and I have no problem, as stated before, hitting clays or other targets out to 15-20yds or so. And anyone who says 'oh, but what about 25 or 30 yds...can you shoot tight groupings at those distances?' Frankly, I could care less. It's a friggin .22 pistol, I'm not trying to get 1.5in groupings with a 3.4in barrel .22 pistol that is technically the size of a pocket gun! I (along with my girlfriend) go out to the range to enjoy plinking with the P22 and have fun with it, which we do!

 

Edit: the only thing I don't really like about it is the mag safety. If you drop the mag, you can not fire the round in the chamber, the hammer will not drop. I've heard you can remove this, but for right now, it's unnecessary to do that for just range plinking.

I have one and it shoots minimag and bulk pack federal ammo fine. It's well made and have no problems with it. It's not a precision shooter, but is a great plinker and fun gun.

Horrible gun. Has a minimum of 5 design flaws straight from factory. Feels like a POS. Unless you are 5 years old, it's way too small. Highly inaccurate.

 

If you want a great plinker, get a Sig Mosquito. Excellent build (not quite P220, but made very well,) is the size of a service pistol, same grip angle as most service pistols, and is EXTREMELY reliable. I have put 1500 rounds through mine without cleaning, and have never had an issue. I use CCI mini mags.

I have one and really like it, but I am also picking up a GSG 1911 next month, I think having a bunch of 22's is great, cheap to shoot, and fantastic for children to learn on and for adults to practice with and not cost a fortune to shoot.

 

Now as some have said and I'll add a few things, some like the looks, some don't but I will say it's not a junk gun at all. I shoots well, eats just about any ammo you feed it in it's stock configuration and with a few real easy modifications that I think anyone should be able to do, it will be even more reliable and more forgiving to some cheap crappy ammo to boot.

 

As mentions the safety, not anything you can really do here but just get used to it and after a few times it becomes second nature and a non-issue. However as far as the hammer dropping with the safety, well that I don't see you being able to change but it does afford you the ability to dry fire the gun without moving the firring pin, some may see that as a plus.

 

The crappy plastic key to lock the gun, well if you never lock it you will never know it there, plus you can just remove the locking system completely.

 

As far as the Magazine safety, I hated that, I want to be able to shoot it and then show the RO that it's unloaded and then I have to drop the hammer prior to bagging it or putting it back in the holster when shotting a match. The way it comes from the factory you have to insert an empty magazine to do this.

 

Now to what you can do to make it better act like a real gun and more reliable as well as making it more forgiving to cheap ammo.

 

Modifications you can do:

 

Blend the feed ramp and polish: this is easy to do but a lot of the suggestions are to use a dremmel to remove a little material, while you will find people recommending the dremmel bit # 9910, I like to do this by hand with a fine polishing stone, but to each there own, it does help and it's a very very small amount of material you want to remove anyway and them polish. This process can take you from 15 minutes to 2 hours depending on how fast or slow you go.

 

Now the big one I would do first, get rid of the stupid magazine safety, this is a process of removing 3 parts, 1 plastic part and the other 2 are 2 springs but it will look like a single part but they are a spring inside of spring, Also while you are there, might as well remove the stupid gun lock that is a total of 2 parts. The time to do both of these should be 5 to 10 minutes, maybe 15 your first time but after you do one it's real easy. the only thing that can take you longer is being you have the gun that far apart, you might want to do a real detailed cleaning. The only note when doing these mods, be very careful of the positioning of the sear spring, you don't need to change anything, it's you just don't want it to pop out of it's position.

 

All in all it's a great little gun, fun and cheap to shoot as well as reliable and if there is a hiccup, as I said a few mods and your even that much better.

 

If anyone has not seen the mods and wants the info on how to do them or help in person and your around the OBRPC I'd be more than happy to help ya out.

 

Harry

I have one and it shoots minimag and bulk pack federal ammo fine. It's well made and have no problems with it. It's not a precision shooter, but is a great plinker and fun gun.

 

Sigman puts it best with that post. I tend to blab when I post (see above post by RecessedFilter, paragraphs and paragraphs) just to basically say what he said.

 

Horrible gun. Has a minimum of 5 design flaws straight from factory. Feels like a POS. Unless you are 5 years old, it's way too small. Highly inaccurate. If you want a great plinker, get a Sig Mosquito. Excellent build (not quite P220, but made very well,) is the size of a service pistol, same grip angle as most service pistols, and is EXTREMELY reliable. I have put 1500 rounds through mine without cleaning, and have never had an issue. I use CCI mini mags.

 

Have you ever even owned a P22? Sounds like you haven't or maybe you should work on your shooting.

 

Myself, as well as most P22 owners on forums, do find it fairly accurate (maybe not as accurate as a Buckmark or something but I wouldn't go as far as inaccurate), and it's the size of a subcompact. It's a little small but I wouldn't say that is a down side to it. My P22 probably has 6-8k rounds through it and I haven't had any problems (no jams, no fte, nothing)

 

The Sig Mosquito isn't bad but I had a bad experience with one. Never owned it but my close friend did and he had to send it back to the factory twice because it kept on jamming. He might have gotten a lemon though. It was fun to shoot yet I didn't find it much more accurate than the P22.

I have heard bad things about the mosquito as well. Then again someone will always complain about something.

 

Again, I won't say it's a bad gun, it's just not for me. In my opinion you will get more bang for you buck with something else is all.

I've heard more bad things about the mosquito than the P22. The Mosquito is more ammo picky.

I have one also. I like the gun, but it's picky with ammo. I also bought a GSG 1911-22. Much nicer gun and feeds anything.

 

Not really the same style gun obviously.

I have one. I use cci mini-mags, never had any problems. But now im looking for the new s&w m&p22. From what i hear its the same size as the full size 9mm.

It's a little late, but I'll drop my $0.02 in.

 

My G17 was a little "too much" for my wife, so she picked out the P22 because of the size of it and the way it felt in her hand (they didn't have one in the store for her to shoot to try). She ran about 80-100 rounds through it and liked it. She's not a very "dexterous" person, so the mag release for her was an issue.

 

I've started taking it to the range when I go, and it is a fun little gun to shoot. For me, the mag release is fine. I had shot Federal rounds through it as well as CCI Mini Mags, and I'm going to stick with the CCI just because they are cleaner. I had one non-fire with the Federal stuff, none with CCI. The safety on it is a bit different. The trigger still is allowed to travel, and the hammer still goes forward, but it's stopped from making contact with the primer. Took me one or two times to notice this was happening and that the rounds were actually fine. I've got about 1000 rounds through it now, and it is a nice fun gun. It's not as accurate as my old Ruger Standard, but it's pretty close. (Could also be me, since I've got larger hands and I'm still learning how to consistently grip the P22)

 

--Brian

Thinking about buying this gun for basic cheap range fun. I really like the look of it but I wanted some feedback on how it performs.

 

Where are you located? If you're by me I'll let you try mine. I usually shoot at the Bullethole (until RTSP opens that is )

 

I have found it will shoot minimags all day without a problem. Mine does not like hollowpoints so federal bulk 36 GR HP is out for me. However it will shoot Blazer lead round nose just fine so if you shoot outside it's a non-issue. I don't know if they have corrected the issue, but there are several "fixes" out there if you're handy with a Dremel. I am not so I haven't messed with it.

 

I don' t like the sights since they are combat sights. There is a lot of room between the rear sights when you line them up with the front. Hi viz makes a fiber optic post which I think I'm going to order. Taking it apart is slightly challenging if you don't read the directions. Some models come with a lock built into the gun on the frame. Throw that key out. If you lock that thing and manage to get the slide to lock back like I did you have to take it completely apart. Sear assembly and all.

 

Other than the mentioned above it's a great gun. It's light so it has a little more recoil than my S&W 22A. I think this adds to the fun factor. I enjoy doing double taps with it =p. When we can finally carry in NJ it's going to be a back-up to my backup.

My friend owned one. It jammed constantly. Then it was recalled by Walther. They drilled a hole in the slide and installed a pin. He said it looked very sloppy, like it was done in your garage. The gun never worked right. Rays (RIP) gave him a refund. There are so many great .22's out there (Ruger or a Buckmark, why go with a hit-or-miss gun. I just picked up a Bersa Thunder. Once I clean it, I'll get a range review posted.

 

PS: MY Buckmark shoots everything, including Golden Bullets.

I think most 22s look god awful ugly. I don't plan to carry, competition or use it for self defense so I wanted something cheap to shoot but looks nice. I think im gonna just use my m9 for the range gun and buy a .45 for when I feel froggy. Aside from the cheap cost I have no urge to own a .22

I think most 22s look god awful ugly. I don't plan to carry, competition or use it for self defense so I wanted something cheap to shoot but looks nice. I think im gonna just use my m9 for the range gun and buy a .45 for when I feel froggy. Aside from the cheap cost I have no urge to own a .22

 

The GSG-1911 is for you. I run Federal Bulk .22lr through mine and get maybe 8-10 light strikes out of a box of 525. Never had a failure with minimags.

The GSG-1911 is for you. I run Federal Bulk .22lr through mine and get maybe 8-10 light strikes out of a box of 525. Never had a failure with minimags.

 

Is it just a .22 or is it a .45 with a conversion?

Is it just a .22 or is it a .45 with a conversion?

 

.22 only. I got mine for 300 bucks used.

.22 only. I got mine for 300 bucks used.

 

thats not a bad price at all. Do you know if there is a .22 conversion for the rock island .45? (im fairly new to the gun game) That would be best case scenario for me I guess

thats not a bad price at all. Do you know if there is a .22 conversion for the rock island .45? (im fairly new to the gun game) That would be best case scenario for me I guess

 

From what I understand, the .22lr 1911 conversions are very very picky on ammo, and usually cost the same as buying the GSG. I would recommend just getting the GSG.

From what I understand, the .22lr 1911 conversions are very very picky on ammo, and usually cost the same as buying the GSG. I would recommend just getting the GSG.

 

ok thanks for the info! They do look pretty sweet.