Walther P22 Opinions

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I have a Ruger MK I made in 1952 that's stone cold reliable. It's made entirely of Steel.

I also have a Browning Buckmark Camper that's been dropped, kicked, and serves as my main rimfire pistol during Bullesye matches. It's at least made out of Aluminum, you know something durable.

Ruger still makes variants of their MK III in all steel.
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The Ruger Mark X, the Colt Woodsman, the Browning Buck Mark, they don't cycle the whole slide the way a "real" semiauto does. Neither does a SW 22A, and most other 22's I can think of.

I have no trouble with my "potmetal" .22, it's a lot more fun than my 22A, and that's that.

Anybody wants to unload their "JUNK POTMETAL GUN" to a willing sucker, I'll pay $100 cash plus shipping for as many as are available.
 
The arguements about this gun being made of junk metal sound a whole lot like the arguements made about plastic guns when glock first came out.
It's a 22. it doesn't need the strength of a gun that fires a high presure round. Mine has been great once I worked through what rounds it did or did not like.
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Right, you don't need to worry about high-pressure rounds. The zinc-alloy slide is soft and easily worn. Walther didn't design parts or put in manufacturing steps that account for this. After about 600 rounds the sharp edges on the trigger bar ears made my slide look like this.
slide-1.jpg

I sent it to S&W, they said it was normal. I don't think "normal" should be this much wear this quickly with metal shavings showing regularly. I disassembled the pistol and polished it as shown in the "P22 Bible" (see the Walther forum on rimfirecentral). And stopped the wear. I also used loctite on internal screws into plastic (not gun polymer) parts. I've not seen any additional wear in a year and the pistol seems to want to stay together. I expect it to last thousands of rounds without trouble now. Too bad Walther didn't take a few extra steps in manufacture.

The P22 is not built to produce the accuracy you can get from a Ruger, Buck Mark or 22A. It is harder to shoot accurately. Still, it is a fun little gun to shoot and I've learned to shoot it with fair accuracy. I can see why a high percentage of P22 owners really like it. I just wouldn't want the P22 as my only .22 semi-auto.
 
greener,

Yow! That is some serious gouging, my friend!

S&W said that was normal?

The P22 that I had briefly and dumped quickly only had third of that wear (actually damage) which is exactly what caused me to bail in the first place.

As for the commentary regarding the polymer "issue", polymer is not normally used in parts subjected to metal contact with the exception of the rear rails of the XD series and the rails of the Ruger P-95 pistols. Even in these exceptions the much softer (than Zamak) polymer doesn't wear or gouge with the metal to polymer contact present in those designs anywhere near what the Zamak slide does in the P22.
 
greener: i noticed that too and spent a few minutes with a dremel and rounded off the trigger bar ears to fix that problem... that and the extractor spring stretch are all i've done to mine, and i'm at 12k and counting...
 
I quite like my P22. Occasionally it will fail to feed the second round in a full magazine of ten, but that doesn't much bother me for a plinker. And it's very accurate (for me) with Wally World federal bulk ammunition. At a "medium" rate of fire I can place 8/10 shots on an 8" plate at 25 yards, standing with a two hand grip. Lots of fun. :)
 
Greener,
that's the same kind of problem I had with my gun, which I sent back to Walther, and they replaced the slide and put in new trigger "ears". Mine had a manufacturing defect that looked like it had been banged with a hammer on the edge of the trigger ear, so it was scooping out zinc at an alarming pace. They replaced the slide and fixed the trigger, and I'm back in business... but my slide looked exactly like yours.

If they didn't fix it, I'd send it back and state that it's a manufacturing defect. That seemed to be the "magic words" in my case. I find it hard to believe that if they have this much trouble with those trigger mechanisms, that they don't offer a fix on them. I had absolutely great service from Walther. All it cost me was the gas to drive to the Fed Ex store.

WT
 
I can see why a high percentage of P22 owners really like it.
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The problem with that statement is that the P22 owners who really disliked the pistol are no longer P22 owners. The only ones left are the ones who like their pistol. The other problem too is that many people are not P22 owners because they've shot them enough to know they don't want them.

I've fired at least four different P22s, and they were all the same. Not reliable, pathetically inaccurate, horrible trigger, etc. etc. I've yet to see one that can make it through an entire mag without choking.

Implying that the P22 is a decent pistol because a "high percentage" of owners really like them is misleading. I'd actually say it is 50/50 at best.
 
There are better. I personally didn't like the song and dance associated with Ruger Mk IIIs' disassembly. If I want a great target pistol, I know I can get one of those. My P22 was chosen for a close-range plinker and for defensive practice, and for price. In those roles, it's served well.
I caught the trigger-bar ear gouging fairly quick, got the P22 Bible, and did a rounding and polishing job to the trigger bar, and polished the snot out of the gouged areas, giving both a mirror finish. I picked up a #6 polish in stick form from Lowes and used a Dremel buffer. I have yet to see any further wear, and the gun likes to run better dirty than clean :confused:.
Regardless, it's my intro gun for the few people I've taught since it has a good example of a DA/SA trigger in a conventional auto-loader style, making it a good lead-in for my larger calibers.
 
nwilliams:
I had one with the extended barrel and it was a disaster. The end piece that covered the barrel extension wouldn't stay in place and the gun had way too many feed issues. I love the look and feel of the P22, but I wouldn't buy another, that gun left a bad taste in my mouth.
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I agree, the P22 without the extension is fine for what it is, a plinker with the same feel as a larger pistol. Add the silly weight/extender on and you have a front sight that wiggles around and loosens up as you shoot, and three cheap allen-keyed bolts to strip out a little more every assembly.

Every time we take MrsBFD's P22 to the range, after each 100 rounds or so it requires snugging up the extension, which requires two sizes of allen key.
 
Oh, Good Grief -

I've yet to see one that can make it through an entire mag without choking.
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Okay, here's two:

P22-Both300.jpg

And no, they're not the same. One is mine, the other is my wife's. Both will shoot all day long without a glitch.
 
atblis said:
I've fired at least four different P22s, and they were all the same. Not reliable, pathetically inaccurate, horrible trigger, etc. etc. I've yet to see one that can make it through an entire mag without choking.

Implying that the P22 is a decent pistol because a "high percentage" of owners really like them is misleading. I'd actually say it is 50/50 at best.
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So, when you say that because you've seen 4 that don't work, and therefore they're junk, that's not at all misleading?
 
Not to pile on, but this is is just too much:

I've yet to see one that can make it through an entire mag without choking.
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I have 700+ rounds through mine now, and have yet to have a single ftf, fte, jam, or malfunction of any kind.

A close friend has one he purchased a couple of weeks after I bought mine, and he has 300+ rounds through his with again zero malfunctions.

So there's two more.

For the life of me I cannot understand the level of hatred this fun (and economical) little range toy seems to inspire in some folks.
 
I had the same issue with slide ware.

What I did was smooth it out with some emery cloth after cleaning. after two or three range sessions, it doesn't do it anymore, and the slide no longer rubs.

7K rounds through it in the last year and a half. I shot it in a PPC league for kicks, and actually got a passable score. no failures.

Of that 7K rounds, iv had a few bad primers. not the guns fault. The trigger is pretty mushy, but with some practice you can hold a respectable group. At first, it took me 20 rounds to hit a 12 gauge hull @ 10 yards! Now i can hit it every shot.
 
I had no issues with my P22 feeding and firing either Remington bulk .22s, CCI Mini-Mags, or CCI Stingers. Today, though, I bought a box of Federal .22s... yuck. Big mistake. The P22 hated those cartridges, and it seemed like I had a ton of bad cartridges even running in my S&W 34. I don't know what to think. I'm going to pick up some Remingtons in the next couple of days and hopefully see if the P22 will keep trucking. If not, off to trade she goes...
 
the problem with the federal value pack is there's weak rounds in there. you can tell when you hit them when the bullet just coughs up out of the barrel and the slide barely moves. probably 1 in 20 or 1 in 30 are like that. sucks for anything semi auto. but for practice, it's fine. helps you practice clearing jams lol.
 
Haha

So, when you say that because you've seen 4 that don't work, and therefore they're junk, that's not at all misleading?
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Couple that with the inferior construction materials, and yes P22= Junk. No doubt in my mind.

Assuming that the four P22s I've shot did all function perfectly they still wouldn't compare to the other 22 pistols I possess or have shot.
Buckmark v. P22 Buckmark was more accurate, more reliable, better trigger.
MK II v. P22 MK II was more accurate and had a better trigger.
Trailside v. P22 Trailside was more accurate and had a better trigger.
Model 41 v. P22 Model 41 was more accurate and had a better trigger.
CZ Kadet v. P22 Kadet was more accurate and had a better trigger.

I'll grant you that the model 41 comparison is a bit much.

Do you see a pattern?
 
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Interesting to see those that are fans don't have any problems whatsoever. What's the difference between those and the one I had?
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Not knowing anything about the one you had, I could be wrong - but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't come down to when yours was manufactured.

The owner of my local toy store tells me that the first generations of the P22 were questionable at best. There was a flat out design flaw with the early mags that practically guaranteed them to be jam-o-matics. Also there were quality control issues with the fit and finish of some of the internal parts.

Evidently - and my own overwhelmingly positive experience tends to bear this out - those issues have been resolved.
 
Interesting to see those that are fans don't have any problems whatsoever. What's the difference between those and the one I had?
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Hard to say, not surprisingly. Like the Mosquito, P22s can be very ammo picky. Some will happily eat everything you feed 'em, a very few run reliably only with CCIs, and many more, like mine, will shoot a whole bulk pack of Remington Golden Bullets without a misfire not attributable to a bad primer. (Notice I said Golden Bullets. Flee from Thunderbolts, no matter what gun you're shooting. They''ll turn your gun into a lead-lined smoothbore in nothing flat.)

The early models did have some problems, and The P22 Bible was created to help owners cope with those. $&W paid attention and improved later models. Still, it doesn't hurt to give one a little tlc fluff 'n' buff before taking it to the range. In particular, the P22 Bible shows how to massage the trigger bar ears to prevent gouging the frame. One of the guys at Rimfire Central has something like 20,000 rounds through his.
 
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