Range Report: P22

[TonyF]

I bought a .mil model (green) about two years and finally took it out for a test run last Saturday.

I was a bit concerned amid all the negative reports about this pistol with respect to reliability.

I fired 200 rounds of remington high velocity 40 gr solids.

I had a FTF on the second round of the first magazine.

An FTE at some point before I finished the first box of 50 rounds.

And a third malf that I induced by not letting the trigger completely forward to reset.

IMHO, two gun related malfs in the first 40 rounds isn't all that bad for a brand new pistol. It then ran for another 150 without incident except for the one hiccup I caused with the trigger.

The trigger isn't horrible as DA/SA's go but being a 1911 / glock guy it took a bit at reacquainting myself with the DA system. As such, I'm wondering if some of the negative press surrounding this pistol isn't due to operator error?

I'm sure they're ammo sensitive and that might be a factor but many .22 LR autoloaders can be. Mine seems to like the Rem 40 gr HV's.

[Agent Ronin]

Glad to hear you atleast had a positive experience with the P22. Mine had similar characteristics out of the box, mostly FTE's but once broken in its all good.

And i concur with the ammunition, 40gn. HV's seem to the be the best for the P22.

[dsx]

I'm also glad to hear that someone else has had a fairly good experience with one; Personally, I've sent 500-600 rounds down the pipe and have only ever had one failure to eject (it happened to my roommate during his first time ever shooting.. so it may be limp-wristing or something along those lines that caused it). I've fed it CCI Stingers exclusively.

Accuracy isnt the best, but its hella fun and thats what matters.

-Dan

[mercinarysniper]

Tony, When i got my P22 i checked over at http://www.rimfirecentral.com and read through quite a few posts. Personally, i've fired around 1000 rounds of CCI MiniMags with 0 problems. After switching rounds to Remington Gold Bullets (RGBs) i had a few problems. Obviously MiniMags are a bit on the expensive side, but they operate flawlessly (at least for me). What year was your P22 made? This also has something to do with the operation of the pistol. Mine is an 06 model (AG) on the barrel-AF is 05, AE is 04, and so on.. Hopefully you enjoyed your shooting and decide that the pistol is a keeper. It's definitely a fun little plinker.

Mike

[TonyF]

What year was your P22 made? This also has something to do with the operation of the pistol. Mine is an 06 model (AG) on the barrel-AF is 05, AE is 04, and so on.. Hopefully you enjoyed your shooting and decide that the pistol is a keeper. It's definitely a fun little plinker.

Mike

I'm certainly going to run another couple hundred rounds through it before I pass judgment but all indications are it's a keeper.

It's an AE. Is that good or bad?

[Wales]

AE is good as it's a newer datecode. Walther actually started listening to it's customers and began doing a lot of the fluff n buff work in the factory now. Most of the newer date code P22's work just as yours does - very well. Check out rimfirecentral for ideas on how to make your P22 rock! I did a few additional mods and have fired thousands of all kinds of cheap bulk .22 rounds and do not have problems.
~Wales

[Tomcat088]

I've ran thousands of rounds through my Walther P22 and I haven't had any problems at all. The main problems I had were when I had the old mags and they're be silly. I have the 5" compensated model, and it's pretty accurate, although it isn't a ruger mark, which is the benchmark for a .22 pistol. The only thing I've really had wrong with mine is there is starting to be a bit of slide wear from the slide release. I'm going to contact S&W about this and see if they can or will do anything about it. I doubt they'll give me a new pistol, and usually most companies won't mill a new slide just for you to match seriel numbers, so who knows. I think I just wore out the recoil spring the last magazine I shot in the pistol because it had quite a few cycling errors. Now for shooting a brick of federal bullets (550 count) around once a week, or at least every 2 weeks, for 2 years and I bought it used. I'd say the little gun is pretty reliable and tough.

[Holleta]

Sounds like you have a keeper Tony. I tried somewhere around 6 different types/brands of ammo with mine and had issues with all...even just racking the slide. Almost always FTF. If you fellas keep singing the praise on these I might be forced to give another one a try

[Tomcat088]

Hey Holleta, how long ago did you have one? My P22 came with 2 of the old mags, and they did that ALOT, it would nose down that first round and hang up on the feedramp. When I tried some of the other mags, or really tweaked the feedlips on the others, I stopped having this problem. I just know that mine works wonderful with the new mags, and all the newer ones that people get, seem to be running pretty smoothly. I do know that alot of people with the old ones had HELL, lol, so I know there's plenty of people that had the experience you did.

[Holleta]

Hey Tomcat,

That was back when they first came out (about 4 years ago?) maybe a little longer. Sounds like the same issues I had with both supllied mags. I got frustrated, sent it in for repair and traded it on something else without firing it post repair.