Walther P22

I just returned from a trip to the FFL, had a P22 in my hand, and decided to think about it. Glad I did. ANd I am glad I read this post; very timely. I think I will go Ruger/Browning.

Are these things really that bad?

POS is the only thing that comes to my mind.

You are much better off investing the same coin in a .22 conversion kit from Advantage, CZ, Beretta or whomever makes one for whatever pistol you happen to have...

My P22 gave me problems for the first 1000 rounds. I've tried all types of ammo in it and have forund the CCI Stingers, Velocitors, and mini mags works as well as the Remington 525 bulk packs.

Stay away from the Federal loads. The appear to be loaded rather light and do not reliabily cycle the P22.

Since I've found a load that works in mine I've been pretty happy with it.

"gvass, what is it exactly that gas-alarm guns are used for?....
When fired, does anything besides noise come out the barrels at all?
If not, then why do people buy them?"

First of all: this is what you can have in most European countries for selfdefence.

The gas(-alarm) guns do operate with blank cartridges which contain CN, CS or OC (pepper) irritants.
The quantity of the irritant is quite high (80 mg CS or 120 mg OC), it is about equal with an _entire_ flask of normal tear gas spray.

Therefore, within 2-4 meters it is a very good stopper against unarmed attackers. Plus the psichologycal effect of the loud bang, muzzle flash.

And you can easily double tap again and again if needed.

The minus: it is self-dangerous in wind.

I got a P22 in July.
For the first 1100 rounds, I was telling everybody to buy one.
Big mistake!
At first the gun would shoot any ammo, and was quite accurate.

Then, the problems started:
1. First round would fire, slide would cycle, shell eject, but not pick up round #2.
2. After about 8 rounds, the gun would put itself on "safe".
3. Frequent light strikes, where a second pull of the trigger would fire the round.

Oh, and somebody posted that the guns have a lifetime warranty.
Wrong! It is one year.
I've sold mine since, but you can download the manual and see for yourself.

On the plus side, S&W paid shipping both ways, and got the gun back to me in two weeks.
Ony fired 100 rounds, but it was ammo sensitive after that.

I told a friend about it's problems, and made him a good deal on it.

FWIW, I tried out a P22 last weekend. I liked the feel of it in my hands, and the trigger was OK by me, but the thing wouldn't group to save it's own buttocks.

Normally, with decent .22 handgun, I can put 10 rds through a quarter @ 10 yards. (a 50 center on a bad day) but this beasty was all over the map.

When I braced my hand on the bench, to see if maybe it was me, I got it to group within maybe 6 inches @ 10 yards.

I shot the rest of my ammo, locked the slide back, and returned it to the counter, holding it as if it were a dead mouse.

I CANT BELIEVE they'd sell something that innaccurate, and really want to believe it's a QA glitch.

What's everyone elses accuracy experience been with the p22?

-The couple people I have ended up next to at the range recently who were shooting badly also. They both were using targets about 14 inches across, one was around 10 yds and the other maybe out to 15, and both were all over. Why this was I don't know, they didn't offer me a chance to shoot it and I didn't ask..... Maybe next time I'll ask if I can put a couple mags through it while they try mine--I only gots two .22 pistols -- a red-dotted MkII g'vt target and an IZH35M. (ya think they'll notice any difference?)
......
Although I must admit though I'm no longer real curious--it could have been sweet but until S&W puts better slide rails on it and goes with a steel (or maybe harder aluminum) slide, I won't even consider buying one.
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My P22 likes the hotter stuff. When I purchased the gun, I bought a brick of american Easgle High Velocity a box of Velocitors. It just wouldn't run with the Am Eagle - lots and lots of FTE's, some FTF/ go into battery. After about 250 rnds, I tried the Velocitors - ran like a champ, fired all 50 without a hitch.

Taking this as a clue, I traded back the remainder of the Am Eagle for some PMC Zappers and picked up some Remington Vipers, CCI Mini Mags, and Winchester SuperX HP's to try also. I took 100 of eact to the range yesterday. The gun functioned flawlessly with the PMC, Winchester, and CCI, , but only so-so with the Remington (2-3 FTF/go into battery, about half a dozen FTE's). Accuracy was decent with all (all within 3-4"@ 7 yards, most within 2-3") with the Winchester, CCI, and PMC shooting to POA, Remington a little low/right. The trigger was OK out-of-the-box, and has improved with use. I have the short (3.4") barreled verrsion.

All 'n all, it's a fun little gun, just have to feed it right. HTH.

Most of you think that gas-alarm pistol use only blank cartridges. I live in a country where is nearly impossible to get a legal handgun. But the law allows me to get gas-alarm pistol, only if I'm >18 years. Now I have 3 gas-signal pistols, one of them is full-auto Beretta 93 replica. Gas-alarm pistols use a large choise of ammo....blank cartridges, just for making noise. Flash-defence, very useful when somebody attacks you midnight. And the most usefull ammo for this kind pistols- gas cartridges! There are 3 kinds gases P.V. , C.S. and C.N. in different concentrations in each "bullet". When you shoot the attacker whit a gas ammo, he will fall on the ground and will be unactive for about 10-15 min. He will cry, vomit, he won't see, and after 15 min. he will be OK Gas-signal pistols are very usefull unletal weapons for self-defence. The law allows you to use gas-signal pistol almost everywhere, anytime, anyhow. In other countries there is very special, universal calliber for gas-signal pistols- 10 X 22T, called stop-bullet, 5.45 rubber ball. Usefull nonletal bullet.

i got a p22 the other day and shot it for the first time yesterday. it's alot of fun. you can feel free to blow lots of ammo on it cause its cheap. with my other guns i dont want to was ammo doing things like rapid fire but with this i can do whatever. another great aspect of the p22 is it's so lightweight, it feels alot more like a significant caliber gun than most 22s, so its great for training. I also feel like the price was so low for this gun, i can put it through more abuse.

its a great practice gun but it likes to eat premium ammo.

i have put thousand upon thousands of 22 rounds through my p22... over 50,000 for sure.

it loves the cci mini mags for like the first 500 or so rounds, after that, it will eat pretty much anything in my opinion, remington bulk, federal, etc.. I also loved shooting velocitors, and stingers through it.

i raved and raved on my p22 until on day it kept jamming on me, and i wondered what was up, i took it home to clean, and it had and still has a small crack in the front of the slide below the front sight. I still need to send it back to smith and wesson.

When i get resettle in new mex or az, I will eventually send it to them, and get a new slide. It was a very reliable pistol pretty accurate, I have the 3 inch bbl and 5. the fake compensator got annoying to remove all the time, and I went through three of them because I kept stripping out the screw that holds it on the barrel straight.

here is a pic of it.

Yeah I am not sure about quality issues, I shot many rounds through mine without a problem, maybe I just got a good one fun little gun

Hmmm, holy thread resurrection batman!....

Update: the Walthers and Mosquitos have improved in general functionality, but not in engineering much. They're still zinc, and I still don't have one. The best option for a fullsize-style 22 pistol is (still) a fullsize conversion.
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Also--the P22 is made by S&W, but [it is my understanding that] it doesn't have the S&W lifetime warranty that S&W guns do, it only has a one-year warranty.
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well, as it happens i dusted off my p-22 last weekend to take a young fella shooting.

it was only the second or third time in ages since i pulld it out of the safe.

i loaded it up at the range, and the darn thing didn't fire. i ended up renting a .22 for the session.

this is very strange - i'm wondering if i re-assembled it incorrectly, or the dang thing just broke?

-slob

My Walther P22 works pretty good, and I am pretty happy with it. Occasionally the slide won't lock back on last round, also will not fire sometimes if the slide does not lock into position and it is pretty accurate. One word of caution: wear long sleeves when shooting it because you might get some powder burns on your arms as I have experienced. The Walther P22 is imported by S&W but made in Germany, at least mine is anyway. The only real complaint I have is that the spring in front of the safety lever will work it's way out a little upon firing.

I am quite impressed with my P22. I bought it brand spanking new two months ago and went crazy at the shooting range. I got the bulk Federal ammo at Wally World and put about 2,500 rounds through it to this day.
Only once in a while I will get a dud bullet (about 3 per 550 round box, not bad) and the last time i shot it, i got powder burn by my left eye and man did it hurt. i am going to be cautious the next few times i go out and see if this problem continues, hopefully it wont. But so far it hasn`t jammed or anything like that considering all I have shot through it was bulk ammo.

I would highly recommend

Safety Glasses. There are few things less dangerous than semi auto pistols.

Mine's been good. It fits the hand well and is, of course, very tacti-cool looking.

Comes in a nice hard case with storage for mags and cleaning junk. I have the short barreled version in black. It's... capable of at least hitting the barn door, but it won't drive any tacks into it. The three inch version is good for minute-of-paper-plate at any range .22 is useful out of a three inch barrel; I hear the five inch version actually isn't much of an improvement. More than capable of minute-of-soda-can at 25 yards, beyond is iffy.

I like the fact that it's DA/SA, just like my usual carry piece, so it makes for good training. It also has a working slide stop, drop free mags, the whole nine yards.

Mine has had NO ammo difficulties whatsoever. Stingers, subsonics, Federal bulk packs, Remmington bulk packs, down the range they all go.

My only other gripe is that it throws brass absolutely everywhere. Up, back, left, right, it doesn't matter. Expect to be finding spent .22 casings in every pocket, crease, and cuff in the clothing you take to the range.

I love my P22. I does prefer CCI Mini-Mags over bulk .22. I don't mind - so do I.

It's decently accurate, cheap to feed, and lots of fun. I like to introduce people to shooting with it - they love how easy it is to shoot, and I love having new shooting buddies.

Overall, a good buy. Great ergonomics. It's just plain fun.

I got mine back in 2005 and have taken pretty scrupulous care of it - a bare minimum of any hiccups, and only one failure to fire in 3000 rounds.

Give it a shot.

P22

I own 3 P22's and the only problem is it takes hot ammo. My question is has anyone cut a couple of coils of the spring? I have done this on 45's in the past so I could shoot mild reloads and it worked great. I am going to buy a couple of spare springs and try it out. All of mine shoot one hole. If there is an accuracy problem I would look at having the barrel checked out and try other brands of ammo.

DougCxx said:

They come with a lifetime warranty but the question is how that may end up being handled in the future--as it is, S&W is trading new guns for worn-out ones because one of the parts that wear out is also the serial-number bearing pieces


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This is incorrect information, the p22 only has a 1 year warranty. We had a p22 slide brake 2 weeks ago and hit a customer in the face . Smith/Walther USA wants $50 to replace the slide .

Mine has over 12,000 rounds through it now. It only jams when really dirty (like 2000 rounds with no cleaning) and only misfires on crappy bulk rounds that lack priming compound all around the rim. Other than that, it works every time

In general, I like mine. It fires near 100% with CCI Mini-Mags and Stingers. It's ammo pickyness is its least desireable asset. Reassembly is a little tricky. Otherwise, its a fun gun for practice. If I want reliabilty with cheap ammo I take my Ruger Mark II to the range.

Run a search on this forum. It'll tell you a lot. Run a search on the RimfireCentral Forum (particularly the Sticky on the P22 Bible). It will tell you even more, and perhaps enough to make a decision. But keep in mind that the P22 is not a Walther firearm. It's a Umarex gun, and Umarex is an airsoft company, which truly ought to tell you enough to make an educated decision. If you want a decent .22 caliber firearm, look to Ruger or Browning; steer clear of anything that uses pot metal in its construction, IMO.