Walther P22 .22LR ADVICE!?

[USMCDK]

Hey all I bought my wife a Walther P22 back in November and we have yet to shoot it. So I was posting this to find out some of the in's and out's of the weapon.

For instance... Some .22lr's don't like certain ammo.

What ammo will this pistol love to digest???

How accurate is it??

What are some of the problems it has??

Life Span??

What doesn't the weapon like?? (I.E. wheather or how it's held and or loaded)

I looking forward to all of your ADVICE! and hopefully this thread shall stay peacful.

Thanks all.

DK!

 

[woad_yurt]

My friend's got one and we go shooting fairly often. Hypervelocity stuff has been jamless while regular old cheap-o bulk stuff hangs up enough to bother me.

 

[RIATAC45]

+1 on what woad said

CCI and Winchester super X are the only ammo that mine will shoot flawlessly, however the Winchester is terribly inaccurate.

 

[Urbana John]

Don't use "lead" bullets in mine,,,,,,,,,,copper coated JHP's will work better.

Great shooter, flawless,,,,but very to clean and PUT back together.

UJ

 

[the fool]

get about 20 different types of ammo and you might find one that the gun will shoot reliably

 

[USMCDK]

I have american eagle and then I have aguilla sub sonic. should I even shoot either out of the weapon. I don't want the thing to jam on my wife at the range or even worse when it counts the most when I am away and she need the protection.

 

[45Badger]

Bought one for my 9 year old. So far it eats just about everything. Best accuracy has been federal 550 round bulk pack (available at Wallyworld).

We have had some failures to fire with Rem Golden Bullets. When I ejected the rounds and inspected, they all had clean firing pin strikes. Loaded them all in next mag, and all went bang, every time. Seems like a bullet issue to me.

Given all the internet whining about these little guns, I guess I was lucky and got a good one. They are certainly not as accurate or probably as sturdy as my Ruger MK2s, but they are fun to shoot, and easily fit a small shooter's hand.

 

[MAKster]

CCI Mini Mags usually work well. Unfortunately they are triple the price of the bulk ammo.

 

[FieroCDSP]

The Remington bulk pak "golden bullets" work well in mine. Take a rag to wipe the copper dust off your hands with.

 

[bannockburn]

USMCDK

First, if your P22 came with that cool looking, but thoroughly useless barrel extension/fake compensator, get rid of it and buy the regular length barrel. The one on my sons P22 was always shooting loose, sometimes after fewer than 30 rounds. Secondly, avoid standard velocity lead ammo; way too many FTFs and FTEs. For some reason, his pistol also did not like any kind of Remington ammo, instead having a decided preference for CCI MiniMags (of course, the more expensive stuff). And third and last, don't expect any great accuracy from this gun, it's basically just a little plinker. The trigger is heavy and gritty, and the gun itself seems to have more functioning problems the dirtier it gets. If you're going to shoot it for any extended period of time, consider bringing along some sort of aerosol cleaner/solvent to keep things running.

 

[USMCDK]

you mean the thread cap kept coming off while firing?? I don't quite understand what you are saying. As for the remington ammo I was going to kinda avoid it until the last second. See if the other ammo shoots first and if not I will try others and find it nitch. Thank you though, but please still explain a lil better about what you mean by "shooting loose"

 

[FieroCDSP]

There is a truth to the issue with standard load ammo. It's because of the gun's extremely high amount of internal drag. The largest consumer of energy in the P22 is the hammer riding the bottom of the firing pin assembly. It is possible to hone the thing down to remove this drag, though it takes a lot of time and careful work with cutting stones. The gun will function fine with the stronger ammo, and polishing the firing pin assembly to a mirror finish seems to help also, as mine loves standard ammo. BU if you want it to work with the weaker ammos, you'll have to eliminate the drag. It's one of the steps recommended in the P22 Bible.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

It is surprisingly accurate and great for small hands. I had one for a while then sold it to my boss for his daughter. He told me they still shoot it. Great gun, no problems.

 

[FieroCDSP]

USMCDK: There have been numerous instances of the compensator on the 5" target models shooting off the end of the gun. There is also a possible link between the compensator and a few cracked slides. One of the things I recommend everyone do to the P22, pull the main assemly out of the frame and loc-tite the two phillips screws in with the non-permanent stuff. Those two screws, and the barrel nut, will start to walk loose if you don't loc-tite them.

 

[The_woodsman]

DK, The P22 will outshoot it's lousy sights with decent ammo. Minimags work flawless in those guns. Be careful of the barrel screw at the end as sometimes they come loose. You might opt to use blue threadlocker for this application.

I sold mine because I didn't want to dick around trying to create decent sights for it. I couldn't adjust mine with the front post so that it would shoot point of aim at 25 yards. The posts inserts made it either too high or too low by something like 6" IIRC. That sucks from my standpoint as I expect a pistol like that to hold 3-4" groups hand held standing at that distance, and I'm not into having to compensate for sighting errors. That, and the front post seemed as wide as a mack truck. Any further than 10 yards and its angle is going to more than cover your target.

Good luck.

 

[Chem Geek]

We have had some failures to fire with Rem Golden Bullets. When I ejected the rounds and inspected, they all had clean firing pin strikes. Loaded them all in next mag, and all went bang, every time. Seems like a bullet issue to me.

I normally only shoot Golden Bullets through mine cause they're cheap and work well. On this last box though, I've had quite a few that needed another strike. They were all cleanly hit the first time too. Weird

Anyways, mine works great with a variety of stuff. I tend to shoot bulk stuff cause it's cheap enough to do what I want. I'm happy with the accuracy, the sights could be a little tighter, but when you get used to it, it's plenty accurate.

 

[evan price]

Over 6000 rounds of the cheapest .22 bulk ammo available through my P22, and I haven't even cleaned it in probably 3000 rounds. The one mag got so dirty it started having feed issues so I started using the second mag.
It goes to the range every trip.
If you retorque the barrel nut after the first couple mags through the gun it won't loosen up.
When I scrounge brass at the range I always find a handful of "dropsy" .22s people leave in the dirt. I had at one time 600 of them in a butter tub. I shoot them all in my P22, no matter how corroded or mangled they are- some you have to push the slide closed because the slug is all mushed up- they will fire as long as they are still viable rounds. I even shot some .22 shorts one at a time in the P22.
For the price point it's no Ruger Mark II in terms of accuracy but it's a light, small, fun gun that works like a "real" gun (slide moves, safety, etc).

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

I've shot over 4000 rounds in mine, trying 9 different kinds. All of them worked. I use mostly the Federal bulk .22 and CCI mini-mags.

I got it mainly because like evan price said, it works like a "real gun". It's shaped the same, same kind of safety, looks the same, same mag release, etc. Other .22s like the Ruger look like goofy 1950's comic book ray guns. I got the .22 to practice real shooting, and the P22 fits the bill, and it works great. I also use it to teach new shooters, as going from the P22 to my other "real" pistols feels and functions the same.

 

[USMCDK]

Well the Wife and I went shooting and we come to find out that...

Aguilla sub-sonic was not in it's digestive capability however... The american eagle rounds worked like a charm. We'll have to try some other ammo next time but so far at least we found something the wife can plink with and or defend the home with when I deploy to Iraq AGAIN!!!

 

[gazpacho]

Rimfirecentral.com - Walther Forum

Plenty of info here.

 

[USMCDK]

thank you it was helpful

 

[CJ]

Just had mine out yesterday for the first time in a while. I had originally broken it in with a variety of higher-velocity (maybe 150-200 rounds) and only had bulk with me (Federal and Winchester). They were shooting flawlessly and accurately even with the bulk.

Not sure how much of a difference it makes, but it was originally part of the California recall (Oops! We approved an assault weapon!) so the barrel bolt is permanently attached...this loosening bolt was actually the source of any problems I ever had, so overall, it wasn't an AWFUL change for my uses...just annoying.

 

[ksigtuck]

When I bought my P22 the salesman told me to never shoot cheap Federal ammo through it because I would have jamming problems. I bought a box of 50 Remington bullets that he suggested and maybe put 30 of them through it. The ammo would jam about every other bullet. I have since been buying boxes of 550 Federal bullets for around $10 a box and have never had the first problem with them. This gun eats this ammo amazingly.
Tuck

 

[CannonFodder]

CCI Mini Mags for your first 500-1000 rounds.

After that, bulk pack it. My P22 is coming up on three years old and still running like a champ... and it's been quite some time since I put Mini Mags through it.

 

[USMCDK]

so I should really break her in with some expencive rounds first you say like Mini mag high velocity then go back down to th cheap stuff and it should be okay???