.22 pistol practice

[Big Tool]

I picked up a Walther P22 the other day. 3.5barrel model. My wife liked the way it looked and felt more than the ruger so It came home with P22 instead of the MKIII.

ONce i got home I started reading up on the little pistol and found alot of bad talk . Lots were saying it was very cheaply made and had lots of trouble with jamming. I started second guessing my purchase, but was still hopeful it would be a winner.

I've had 3 bricks of cheapo .22 ammo in my closet for a while and decided to bring all three to test, and see what would feed most reliably.

Ammo was
Remington Bulk. Pretty much flawless. One dud rd. One fired on the DA trigger pull.

Winchester bulk. I had a good bit of problems with these bullets. They didn't chamber good for some reason. they were definitely shootable, but had about 1-2 hangups per magazine. They were not marked high velocity and were solid lead instead of HP like the other two.

Federal Bulk. Stuff was great in the P22. No problems or malfunctions.

I probably burnt up 500rds in one session, mainly shooting the Remington and Federal. Wasn't testing for accuracy. Forgot targets, so i was shooting at a 8.5x11 piece of paper.

I was basically just testing to see how it would hold up to continious firing. Wife reloaded while I shot. She shot it alittle also.

I had a few problems at first, but after about 50rds and using the right ammo it was flawless.

I used to have a ruger mkII but my BIL lost it for me during Katrina. "That's what in laws are for"

It was technically the first pitol I ever had and I shot it alottttt, but it always felt like you were shooting a match 22 pistol. The Walther on the other hand feels just like a slightly smaller version of my XD.

Definitely been a great little gun so far. Sure is great to be able to shoot 500rds of ammo for 15bucks and not have you're hands sore from recoil.

Due to the small size it would also make for a good shtf weapon imo. I was shooting at a empty can of 2stroke mixing oil "about the size of a rabbitt's head" and wasn't having any trouble hitting it at 15yards. Ammo is cheap to stock up on and easy to carry lots of it.

[billy]

it sounds like fun.
i dont have a .22 pistol.....
woe is me!
mebbe i should fix that?

[samuel]

AHummm,you should always be shooting at small targets and if you had a sheet of paper you could have put spots on it somehow to shoot at.Really,you can do it anyway you want.I am not trying to tell you how to do it,but to me,if you aren't trying for precision shooting,you are teaching yourself a bad habit of not really caring if you hit.Also,to me,it is more fun to shoot,and more enjoyable,if I have a purpose,other than just shooting.Plaese don't get mad at me,I am only trying to help you get better with a firearm and enjoy shooting more.These times when it seems like it makes no difference whether we actually hit something are the perfect times to practice trigger pull,stance,steadiness,sight alignment,etc,etc.Small targets/groups are the way to tell if it's working. sam.

[stalebiscuit]

Originally Posted by billy

it sounds like fun.
i dont have a .22 pistol.....
woe is me!
mebbe i should fix that?

you should

my favorite is the arminius 9 shot target revolver

NEF makes one just like it to, both are great, accurate and cheap guns

[KW Gary M]

Been looking at a .22 for my next handgun too. I always looked at them as "Baby Guns" but the more I read on here the more I think I stand corrected. Plus, they seem fun. Isn't any hobby supposed to be fun?

[Windwalker]

+1 Gary.

Big Tool, sounds like you did great on the new gun. Have fun.

[SwedeSteve]

I've read nothing but bad on the P22. I fired one a little bit ago, and I really liked it a lot !! This particular one had the laser on it, and the owner said it shot flawlessly right from the start. He was shooting Lapua ammo.

[jashoffa]

I had a P22 for a while. What I found was that it performed best with high velocity ammo with some sort of jacket or coating on the bullet. the all let ones seemed too soft and hung up on the feel ramp or something. Remington and Federal both worked okay as you have stated. The gun is fun to shoot. Mine had problem with ejecting brass in all directions, ussually back at your face or head.

After having the P22 for a while I got a Sig Mosquito (people say bad things about them too) I really liked that gun better for the feel and resemblance to a full sized Sig. It is more picky with ammo and at this point (because I haven't shot it much) it only shoots CCI Mini-mags reliably. I have read that after the gun is broken in it will shoot the bulk stuff better, but I am not there yet. This does add some cost to shooting the .22 but it is still much cheaper than shooting my center fire handguns.

Back to the P22, after getting the mosquito I was going to keep the P22 around for kids and new shooters to use but after having a couple of my friends kids try out the P22 they got nervous when the casings were ejected at them. I decided to violate my personal policy and sell the gun as I didn't feel I had a use for it any more. I have since read that Walther has a fix for this problem and will do it free of charge if asked about it.

My wife also liked the P22 and was a little upset when I sold it.

[Big Tool]

Originally Posted by samuel

AHummm,you should always be shooting at small targets and if you had a sheet of paper you could have put spots on it somehow to shoot at.Really,you can do it anyway you want.I am not trying to tell you how to do it,but to me,if you aren't trying for precision shooting,you are teaching yourself a bad habit of not really caring if you hit.Also,to me,it is more fun to shoot,and more enjoyable,if I have a purpose,other than just shooting.Plaese don't get mad at me,I am only trying to help you get better with a firearm and enjoy shooting more.These times when it seems like it makes no difference whether we actually hit something are the perfect times to practice trigger pull,stance,steadiness,sight alignment,etc,etc.Small targets/groups are the way to tell if it's working. sam.

I had a pen drawn center dot that wasn't too visible, but basically aiming for dead center of the paper. All the shots landed in what would have been the size of a very skinny persons chest cavity. Not quiet precision shooting, but I was mixing around with many different techniques.

The main purpose of my shooting was practicing on form, and just testing the reliability of the pistol.

I went and put another 300rds through it early this morning. I was shooting the remington exclusively and only had two duds.

I spent a good bit of time bouncing a little oil bottle around. It was a pretty tough target to hit especiall when it was on it's side. About 1" of area to shoot. Again not precision shooting, wasn't trying to make tiny groups, just make the little bottle jump around. It's all fun.

[Big Tool]

Originally Posted by SwedeSteve

I've read nothing but bad on the P22. I fired one a little bit ago, and I really liked it a lot !! This particular one had the laser on it, and the owner said it shot flawlessly right from the start. He was shooting Lapua ammo.

Yeah I was worried after reading up on them, but mine is going on about 800rds now and has been flawless with jacketed ammo. Still haven't cleaned it either, and it actually runs better now with the higher rd count and no cleaning.

It's been just as reliable as my Ruger 22 so far. Hope it keeps going as smooth.

[Big Tool]

Originally Posted by billy

it sounds like fun.
i dont have a .22 pistol.....
woe is me!
mebbe i should fix that?

Do it Billy!!! I just think of all the money I save in ammo would easily pay for the gun...right

[lorcin25]

Rule of thumb: Don't purchase without researching first. Easy to make mistakes like that.

[SoDakHunter]

Originally Posted by billy

it sounds like fun.
i dont have a .22 pistol.....
woe is me!
mebbe i should fix that?

I thought you had, as dale gribble would say "literally oodles of guns." Go get one billy.

[Big Tool]

Originally Posted by lorcin25

Rule of thumb: Don't purchase without researching first. Easy to make mistakes like that.

I usually abide by that rule, but if I had based my buying on reading junk on the web I wouldn't have even considered the P22. Actually glad I didn't read too much into this one.

[samuel]

BT:Thats the way,what you posted about a sheet of paper,I thought you might be wasting some good training time.Should have known better.Have fun. sam.

[squirrelbaster]

the only bad thngs ive ever heard about the p22 is that it can be picky about ammo, but if yours like federal ammo then i think you hit the jackpot! federal is about as cheap as ammo gets. i have never heard that it was cheaply made, i dont think thats true.

[KW Gary M]

Got my plan set to go to the gun show in Miami on Sunday. Might have to pick up a .22 to play with.

[Big Tool]

Well I finally decided to break down the walther for a good cleanin.

Yikes that sure was a dissapointment. First of all the slide release tabs are plastic and are a bi$@$ to pull down.

Once the slide was off I noticed a pretty bad wear mark on the slide rail.

I cleaned it all up and started to reassemble. That's where the real PITA began. The recoil spring/guide rod is nearly impossible to align properly to put it back together. I finally had to take my cleaning rod and use it to pproperly align the recoil spring. It was trying to bend every which way the whole time. The spring itself is also made of a twisted metal wire material which looks pretty lousy.

I've probably put 900rds through it in the past week or so and no problems other than ammo related stuff so I can't gripe too much. After cleaning and reassembly I took it out and did some plinking. Not a single problem.

Walther has made a great little gun but I wish they would had thought about the design alittle morfe for cleaning. Still

[Big Tool]

Well I finally decided to break down the walther for a good cleanin.

Yikes that sure was a dissapointment. First of all the slide release tabs are plastic and are a bi$@$ to pull down.

Once the slide was off I noticed a pretty bad wear mark on the slide rail.

I cleaned it all up and started to reassemble. That's where the real PITA began. The recoil spring/guide rod is nearly impossible to align properly to put it back together. I finally had to take my cleaning rod and use it to pproperly align the recoil spring. It was trying to bend every which way the whole time. The spring itself is also made of a twisted metal wire material which looks pretty lousy.

I've probably put 900rds through it in the past week or so and no problems other than ammo related stuff so I can't gripe too much. After cleaning and reassembly I took it out and did some plinking. Not a single problem.

Walther has made a great little gun but I wish they would had thought about the design alittle morfe for cleaning. Still very pleased just mildly annoyed by cleaning.

[NRAJOE]

Originally Posted by billy

it sounds like fun.
i dont have a .22 pistol.....
woe is me!
mebbe i should fix that?

Yes you should...

I got a S&W 22A and a Ruger MkI...too much fun and cheap to shoot.

Next is probably a SIG Mosquito....