P22

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Petrovich
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P22

Post by Petrovich »

Finally gave in and bought a P22 today.

Oldest daughter wants me to start teaching her to drive.

"Okay, says I. If you get serious about learning to shoot; I'll get serious about teaching you to drive"....am I evil or what? Hehehehehehhehehehehe

She still refuses to shoot a centerfire complaining they are too loud. This is in spite of the fact I make her wear hearing protection. :?

Well, that's all the excuse I needed!!! Woooo Hoooooo

The Ruger and the Browning are plinkers,I reasoned. I want something that simulates a real, honest to goodness combat pistol in .22LR.

Upon inspection the P22 is what I've been expecting. Literally,a scaled down combat pistol. Nicely done, too.

Range report to follow!!

http://www.waffenworld.de/images/fsa25259p22.jpg
Castle
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Post by Castle »

The P22 can be ammo sensitive. The inexpensive Remington Golden .22 ammo seems to function well, as does Winchester SuperX.

Fobus makes a holster for the gun.

Make sure you keep the barrel bushing tight.

Tod.
Petrovich
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Post by Petrovich »

Castle wrote:The P22 can be ammo sensitive. The inexpensive Remington Golden .22 ammo seems to function well, as does Winchester SuperX.

Fobus makes a holster for the gun.

Make sure you keep the barrel bushing tight.

Tod.
I had read on here another poster mentioned the ammo thing. I have a couple bricks of winchester.

The barrel bushing is a stroke of genius. I didn't notice that feature until I bought this one. Yes, I can see how you'd want that puppy snug...accuracy would go in the toilet in a big hurry. If it worked loose enough I suppose damage to the gun would result.
Buckshot
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Post by Buckshot »

P4G,

You said:

"She still refuses to shoot a centerfire complaining they are too loud. This is in spite of the fact I make her wear hearing protection."

She might be very sensitive to muzzle blast or she might even be getting bone conduction that is bothering her.

Have you had her try both muffs and plugs at the same time? I have seen this help several people, most of them women.

Buckshot
Petrovich
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Post by Petrovich »

Buckshot wrote:P4G,

You said:

"She still refuses to shoot a centerfire complaining they are too loud. This is in spite of the fact I make her wear hearing protection."

She might be very sensitive to muzzle blast or she might even be getting bone conduction that is bothering her.

Have you had her try both muffs and plugs at the same time? I have seen this help several people, most of them women.

Buckshot
It's worth a try. Personally, I just think she's just trying to be a pain in daddy's butt. Teenagers... :roll:
Petrovich
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Post by Petrovich »

Well, I've spent half the night reading every chat forum I can find where folks are commenting on the P22.

In addition to keeping the barrel tightly secured, as pointed out on this forum, I found out some other neat facts.

Most of the feeding problems were caused by the magazines. This has been corrected and the magazines now have an 'A' stamped on them to designate the new and improved versions. Seems the followers and the springs were slightly modified so if yers are older you can prolly get replacements free from Smith and Wesson.

There were other issues as well. The slide might not stay open after the last shot, or could stay open unexpectedly. The safety could also work loose and gradually migrate to the safe position during firing. Apparently these have been corrected also. An 'N' preceding the serial number, supposedly, occurs in the models produced after these fixes.
Petrovich
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Post by Petrovich »

Sorry for the triple post!!!

Just took that puppy apart and gave it the ol' hosedown with solvent blow the snot out with compressed air treatment. Takedown was a bit more challenging than I figured. The takedown lever is difficult to disengage for one thing.

Immediately noticeable is the guts of this thing are almost identical to centerfire pistols...only smaller. 22 pistols seem to have their own architecture unique to them...consider the buckmark and the ruger. This little walther is unlike any of those in that it is virtually identical to a centerfire pistol in architecture only smaller.....kinda neat.

The gun ate a box of winchester wildcats without a single misfeed or misfire.....50 pulls of the trigger yielded 50 bullets down range. I didn't go to any trouble to set up a paper target, but picking out little spots to shoot at indicated that I can probably expect accuracy as good as any other .22 pistol.

The little gun jumps a bit with each shot. This is good because as a trainer it will give a bit more realism.

Fit and finish are very acceptable. It's a production gun so there are limits of course, but it compares very favorably.

I'd say it's well worth the street price which is from 250 to 275 bucks.
CurtInOhio
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Post by CurtInOhio »

When my wife as going to get a target gun, the p22 was her choice... now she's decided having something in the house that isn't a good defense gun isn't worth the money... I just with the p22 came in a p380! She loves the way it feels, though... she tried a couple 380s out last weekend, then picked up the p22, and hated the 380s after that.
Curt M
Petrovich
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Post by Petrovich »

CurtInOhio wrote:When my wife as going to get a target gun, the p22 was her choice... now she's decided having something in the house that isn't a good defense gun isn't worth the money... I just with the p22 came in a p380! She loves the way it feels, though... she tried a couple 380s out last weekend, then picked up the p22, and hated the 380s after that.
I was thinking the same thing......380 would be nice in that P22. On the other hand, there are other .380's that would beat it in terms of carry features.

Well, since I'm on the subject I'll give P4G's highly unorthodox range report.

I shot about a brick of ammo in the thing yesterday and I had a load of fun. NO MISFEEDS. There were about a half dozen instances where the case was on it's way out of the port when the returning slide literally caught the case in mid air and it was suspended horizontally between the edges of the ejection port and the breechface. I have never seen that before and it only occurred with the lower powered winchester wildcats.

I shot a bunch of wildcats....about 3 boxes of colibri high power stuff and a box of winchester express.

I repeat......NO MISFEEDS IN ALL THAT FIRING......NOT ONE SINGLE MISFEED. Offhand I'd say that problem has been fixed.

I also broke out the Ruger 45/22 and the buckmark.

Sitting on my back porch and picking out everything from dogpiles to little rocks in the driveway I tested the accuracy. I can say with absolute certainity that the accuracy of the P22 is equal to the other two pistols I just mentioned.

Something else occurred I'd never seen before. I have never seen before is leading in a .22LR. The P22 did acquire lead in the muzzle end of the bore with the winchester wildcats. A few rounds of coibri or express got it out, however.

The P22 was extremely pleasant to shoot. Compared to the weight of the buckmark and the Ruger (both heavy barrels) it was a pleasant change of pace.

Recoil is present and to such a degree that the kinetic behavior of the P22 mimics a centerfire pistol. It's just to a much lesser degree. Again....this is a wonderful change of pace from the ruger and browning.

My daughter even commented on the 'fun' she was having with the P22. Now that IS wierd.

AFter 500 rounds or so the little pistol is smoothing out nicely...particularly the slide. The DA trigger pull is becoming much nicer too. The pistol's DA trigger pull stacked badly. Speaking of the trigger, it is a very robust design. The linkages are bilateral and reminded me of the 1911 trigger group.

Complaints???? I don't have any complaints as such, but I am not real impressed with the take down lever. It is plastic and just kinda 'clips' to the frame....I can't describe it accurately. It is also difficult to disengage and it looks like something what will wear out, but I've been wrong about that kind of stuff before. Also, the safety has a bit of a wiggle I wish it didn't have. At the same time, it is an extremely simple design for a safety and it may outlast the gun....who knows. My other complaint is that the gun does not eject cases with enough force to suit me. Again, this was more of a problem with the wildcats, but all the ammo didn't eject far enough to suit me with all the ammo I used. It did, in some cases, fall down on top of your arms which isn't a problem but it is distracting.

Putting the thing back together after field stripping is a challenge at first. They include a small plasic rod with the pistol that you must use to get the slide spring back in place. Since I'm on this subject, the owners manual does a very inadequate job of explaining the procedure.
Last edited by Petrovich on Thu Sep 08, 2005 7:33 am, edited 3 times in total.
CurtInOhio
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Post by CurtInOhio »

CurtInOhio wrote:... I just with the p22 came in a p380! ...
What the heck did I say???? I love reading posts that I put up while doing 17 other things... then have no idea what I was even trying to type at the time.
Curt M
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Post by TunnelRat »

Petrofergov wrote:I was thinking the same thing......380 would be nice in that P22.
Yeah, but it takes a lot of effort to mash a .380 into that little bitty .22 chamber... 8)
P4G wrote:I shot a bunch of wildcats....about 3 boxes of colibri high power stuff and a box of winchester express.

I repeat......NO MISFEEDS IN ALL THAT FIRING......NOT ONE SINGLE MISFEED. Offhand I'd say that problem has been fixed.
That is indeed good news. The P22 is a nice looking firearm. It's too bad that it has been such a bad shooter. Previously I had only heard bad reports about it. I am happy to hear that the feeding problem appears to be resolved.
P4G wrote:My daughter even commented on the 'fun' she was having with the P22. Now that IS wierd.
Wait'll she finds out what it can do to street lights.... :?
TunnelRat

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Petrovich
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Post by Petrovich »

I will also add that the P22 did not acqure crud like the buckmark and the Ruger. I won't say it's 'self cleaning' :D but I only cleaned the gun twice. Before I fired it, and again about halfway through the brick of ammo. It didn't need it, but I cleaned it anyway just because it is so new. The crud doesn't accumulate as badly in the action as the ruger and browning.
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Post by haspelbein »

Petrofergov wrote: [...]

Complaints???? I don't have any complaints as such, but I am not real impressed with the take down lever. It is plastic and just kinda 'clips' to the frame....I can't describe it accurately. It is also difficult to disengage and it looks like something what will wear out, but I've been wrong about that kind of stuff before. Also, the safety has a bit of a wiggle I wish it didn't have. At the same time, it is an extremely simple design for a safety and it may outlast the gun....who knows. My other complaint is that the gun does not eject cases with enough force to suit me. Again, this was more of a problem with the wildcats, but all the ammo didn't eject far enough to suit me with all the ammo I used. It did, in some cases, fall down on top of your arms which isn't a problem but it is distracting.
Just wait until the take down lever wears over time. I'm used to shoot my semiauto firearms with both thumbs relatively high up against the frame, and it is very easy to engage unintentionally. I once ended up with with slide halfway off the frame and at an angle. (My wife has the target version, so the slide cannot launch itself onto the range.)

I hope that you do not have the target version, as the faux compensator is badly designed and tends to move after extensive firing.

Other than that, the gun is not as ammo sensitive as we first thought. Even the cheap Wally-World Federal brick works just fine, and my wife likes to go through half of one at a time.
Putting the thing back together after field stripping is a challenge at first. They include a small plasic rod with the pistol that you must use to get the slide spring back in place. Since I'm on this subject, the owners manual does a very inadequate job of explaining the procedure.
The plastic rod didn't come with my gun. It is a little bit tricky to get the slide on, but not too hard.

And yes, the gun is very easy to clean. The feed ramp gets downright nasty, but that is about it, even though some crud tends to accumulate unter the trigger bar.
"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmund Freud, "General Introduction to Psychoanalysis"
Rob-Black99RT
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I just picked up a P22 yesterday...

Post by Rob-Black99RT »

Just picked up a P22 yesterday and have only ran 2 mags through it for function checks.... First mag of Thunderbolts ran without a hitch, but the next mag of CCI MiniMags ended up with two rounds diving into the feedramp, requiring a tap/rack to get it going again.

Also, neither one of the mags locked the slide back on the last round. It will lock back the slide when I manually pull the slide back on an empty mag, but it didn't do it while firing. After I got home I racked the slide a hundred or two times to smooth things out and it eliminated a bit of the "gritty-ness" in the slide operation, but I still don't know how this will affect the slide locking when shooting it. Anybody else had that happen on a new P22?

Thanks.

:roll:

ETA: Well, I feel like an idiot.... been sitting here for an hour or so, working the slide in between reading/working on stuff, still trying to figure out why the slide didn't lock back, going through my hand position while shooting, etc, and realized my thumb was barely touching the slide lock lever... So, insert mag, kept thumb in same position, and what do ya know.... the slide won't lock back. Moved thumb down, slide locks... I hold my G30 the same way and never have a problem, but I guess the springs in the mags of the P22 aren't nearly as strong as the mag springs of the G30... Hopefully that's my only "duh" moment for the day....
Last edited by Rob-Black99RT on Fri Sep 09, 2005 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
- Rob
G30
Petrovich
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Post by Petrovich »

haspelbein wrote:

Just wait until the take down lever wears over time. I'm used to shoot my semiauto firearms with both thumbs relatively high up against the frame, and it is very easy to engage unintentionally. I once ended up with with slide halfway off the frame and at an angle. (My wife has the target version, so the slide cannot launch itself onto the range.)

I hope that you do not have the target version, as the faux compensator is badly designed and tends to move after extensive firing.

.
Good thing about the take down lever...it should be easy to replace and it can't possibly cost much....maybe even get it for free if you call the armory.

As for the compensator....I thought that was a completely superflous accessory. I think it's on there just for looks.
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