.22 Snubbie Recomendation??

Status
Not open for further replies.
W

waynesan

Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2004
Messages
141
Location
TN
A friend of mine, along with his wife just got their handgun carry permits. This was a major milestone for them to cross and I still can't believe she joined him to get her permit as well, as she has never been "gun friendly" before now. Don't know what happened but something changed her mind.

Anyway, she is adamant that she only wants a short barrel .22 to carry. She wants light, short, no recoil, quiet as possible. So for now it looks like a .22 snubbie is on her wish list.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a .22 snubbie? I am not familiar with any and don't know what to recommend. I am hoping that she, like so many of us, will start out small and work her way up over time. ( It's almost inevitable.);)

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
S&W has a Model 317 which holds 8 rounds. Even though a .22 Snubby isn't known for having a good trigger this one isn't bad. http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/...angId=-1&parent_category_rn=15704&isFirearm=Y

Taurus has serveral offering in .22 LR which hold 9 rounds.
http://www.taurususa.com/products/gunselector-results.cfm?page=6

Charter Arms has their .22 LR Pathfinder but it holds only 6 rounds.
http://www.charterfirearms.com/products/Charter_Pathfinder.html

IMO the S&W offering is the best choice even though a .22 isn't the best SD weapon, I guess it's better than nothing.
 
The only one I can think of is the Taurus M94. I don't have any experience with it so I can't comment on the quality.
 
ArchAngelCD, I like the looks of that S&W but the Taurus link doesn't give me any .22 snubs. I had already gone to Taurus' website and couldn't find any .22 snubs. I had seen Taurus snubs on auction sites and thought they may have quit making them. Thanks for the feedback.
 
That Taurus link gave you page six of their small pistols. In the middle of the page there are a few in Blue and on the bottom of the page there are 2 more snubs in .22 LR. Here are the links...
http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?id=382&category=Revolver
http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?id=383&category=Revolver
http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?id=386&category=Revolver
http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?id=387&category=Revolver

Those links came directly off the link I provided above.
 
You're welcome... I know what you mean, the S&W is a great little revolver but the price is anything but little. The Taurus will cost you a lot less and it's a good revolver too.
 
I'm started my five year old with a .22 revolver, yet I hate .22lr revolvers. Why fart around with loading and extracting brass and putting up with A heavy DA trigger to ensure A reliable hit on rim fire ammo.
Plenty of nice small 22 pistols that work better and are easy to shoot.
Beretta is first on my short list. On any potential pistol, check out trigger pull (light and crisp) and easy to use sights. Don't forget cost of magazines on what ever you buy.
Available holsters if used as A carry gun? Many firearms in this size, don't have slide locks. The tip up design is A very nice feature if you opt for A pistol.
 
My girlfriend carries a Taurus 941 .22WMR snubnose. I would suggest finding a .22 magnum revolver rather than a 22lr. The recoil from the 941 revolver is almost non exsistant, and offers much better stopping power than an lr, it also carries 8 rounds, compared to the 5 in my snubbies. I'm trying to get my girlfriend to move up to a PPK, but she loves her wheelie.
 
The problem you may find is that small, lightweight rimfire revolvers often come with very heavy DA triggers to ensure reliable ignition -- and if you try to improve the pull with lighter springs or what have you, reliability may go out the window.

If she really won't look at anything else, that's what you'll have to go with. I don't have enough experience with the current .22 snubbies to recommend one. I recall Gun Tests did a comparison of these guns recently; panned the S&W 317s (bad sight picture, they said) and recommended the slightly heavier 9-shot Ultra-Lite Taurus, which they found more accurate and shootable. Opinions on Gun Tests vary.

The .22 Magnum is an interesting option that I also don't know much about. You lose a ton of velocity in a short barrel and it's very loud. But there are those who insist that .22 Mag penetrates markedly better than .22 LR even from a snubby, and recommend it. Jeff Quinn at Gunblast.com did a piece on a Taurus .22 Mag snubby that took this view. Notice that he too complains about the heavy trigger:

http://www.gunblast.com/Taurus-941Ultralite.htm

Looked at rationally, I suspect a little .22 autoloader (Beretta? Bersa/Firestorm?) will make a better weapon for most people.

I love my .22 revolver, earplug -- but it's a full-sized, steel-frame 10-shot S&W K-frame. Less of hassle to load and shoot when you don't have to thumb rounds into magazines. Don't even have to worry about saving the brass with a .22 -- just push the ejector rod, deposit brass in trash, and reload.

It has a nice trigger. It's not cheap and it's not lightweight.
 
In this era of ever higher ammo costs a .22 will allow her ALOT of range time to get profecient with her little snub...because we all know its about bullet placement ESPECIALLY with a .22! I think charter 2000 makes a little .22.

My ffl transfer dealer just bought his wife the charter undercoverette in .32 H&R mag...she is recoil shy and she enjoys shooting it. Maybe you can suggest that!

Also if you think the .22 is just a stepping stone tell him to find an old H&R 922 or 929 with the 2.5" barrel. they are decent guns for less than $100!
 
Thanks for the responses ya'll. I think I'll tell my buddy to go to this thread and read everything for himself. I'm sure he'll get a lot to think about.
 
A .22 is better than nothing. Perhaps if she gets started with this, she'll want to start carrying a more significant pistol...

That said, while a quality firearm is important, so is the ammo. While she can target shoot with anything to get the feel for her pistol (the $1/box Federal or Winchester or Remington comes to mind), for carry she needs to load that sucker with the best stuff she can find.

I would suggest CCI Mini-Mag (which is not "magnum," FYI) or CCI Stinger. Both are readily available (read: Wal-Mart, Academy, etc.) and are very reasonably priced to also allow plenty of target practice.

I would second the idea to try to find a .22 mag. It costs more, ammo-wise, but it does pack a bit more of a punch. SInce she's already starting out small, any bump in performance will be a help.

Good pistol + good ammo = .22 as a decent (not great) choice.
 
32 mag? There are still SW 432 and 431s around and Charter Arms has a new snubbie.

That's a milder recoiling gun.

If one had the bucks, there are snubby SW 63s and 651s for sale once in awhile.

Now that SW is making a long barrel 63, maybe a snubby will follow.
 
The best thing you can do for her is to try to convince her that a 22 is not going to protect her effectively...However, I do agree with the revolver concept...But not a 22Mag, the only advantage of it being that the noise may scare the BG...A minimun of a 38 Spl will save her life...A 22 probably won't...She'd be better off carrying pepper spray than a 22.
 
Just posted these S&W AirLite pictures in the 642 club but will post them here as well. MY wife shoots both of these on a regular basis. She likes the .22 Magnum more than the .22LR. FWIW, She does not like the double action trigger pull of either revolver. We also have a Taurus M94 (4" barrel) that has a stiff trigger pull as well. The Taurus is stainless steel and weighs considerably more.


Here is S&W's 317-2 AirLite, .22LR
317-2.JPG


And here is S&W's 351PD AirLite, .22 WMR (Magnum).
351PD.JPG


The Taurus M94
M94.JPG



My wife's regular CCW is a Sig P232.
 
I would suggest CCI Mini-Mag (which is not "magnum," FYI) or CCI Stinger. Both are readily available (read: Wal-Mart, Academy, etc.) and are very reasonably priced to also allow plenty of target practice.
Click to expand...
While I can agree with Mini-Mags for practice I don't agree they are good for carry. I don't agree with Stingers for carry either because even though they are very high velocity rounds they have only a 32 gr projectile.

The Mini-Mag is rated 1260 fps w/127 ft/lbs of energy with a 36 gr bullet.
The Stinger is rated 1640 fps w/191 ft/lbs of energy with a 32 gr bullet.
The Velocitor is rated 1435 fps w/183 ft/lbs of energy with a 40 gr bullet.

I would suggest CCI Velocitor rounds which as you can see from the numbers above are slower than the Stingers but much faster than the Mini-Mag rounds, have almost the energy of the Stingers but the fire a heavier 40 gr bullet. If you are going to carry a .22LR revolver loading it with Velocitor ammo is probably your best choice, IMO of course.
 
I shot a 317 once and really liked it. If you could swing the price, they're nice. I would look for a used sp101 as well, you might get lucky. I own a model 34 and it's really cool, too.
 
Saw an old High Standard .22 revolver with a 2 inch barrel at a local gun show. Wasn't bad at all. And cheep. $200. But I have a Smith 63 .22 2 inch snub already.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

S
  • Locked
Taurus Judge for a little lady?
2
Replies
30
Views
5K
Daizee
D
J
  • Locked
38/357 Snubby Advice
Replies
18
Views
975
redman900
R
D
  • Locked
Wife Wants a Revolvers
Replies
20
Views
1K
sm
S
T
  • Locked
newish 38
Replies
1
Views
433
Sharps Shooter
S
G
  • Locked
Pink Taurus Grips?
Replies
3
Views
581
lee n. field
L
Back
Top