Looking for a GOOD .22 pistol

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My impression is that the Buckmark is more comfortable to hold, but I shoot a little better with the Ruger. Either of them are great.

I always think about buying a conversion, but for the price a new 22 pistol always sounds more attractive.
 
I had a Buckmark ended up selling it and getting a Ruger MKII. Not sure why, both are great guns. BUT, what I shoot the most and have the most fun with, is a Walther P22. It is fun and accurate.
 
Save your nickels (all right, your $10 bills) and treat yourself to a Smith & Wesson Model 41, the finest target pistol made in America. If you prefer a revolver, as others have said, the K22 Masterpiece is damn hard to beat for overall quality, precision, and value.
 
WOW Lot's to select from...

I didn't realize there were so many options. Thank you all for the great feedback. I am going to llok for a Mark II or III, and see if I cannot get a hold on one of the Browning's.

You guys have some great pics! Thanks a bunch!
 
The Walther P22 is plinking accurate with the five inch barrel- I put 10 rounds into 1.5 inchs at 10 metres with my first magazine full. The one I tried was perfectly reliable for 100 rounds but a friend has had so many jams he no longer brings it to the range. Very small grip well suited to small hands.

The Browning Buckmark is my all time favourite .22 auto, twenty years ago I shot one for the first time, I put ten rounds into a group I could cover with the ball of my thumb at twenty five metres with one, I've never beaten that group. The grip angle, sights and controls are all well located for my hand.

The Ruger MK II I had was perfectly reliable, I could never figure out how to dismantle it so I just cleaned the chamber with cotton tips and it was perfectly reliable. The trigger was quite heavy for a target gun and the grip angle never suited my hand. The safety catch was so stiff it took two hands to operate it. As I only used it as a range gun this wasn't an issue. Traded it towards a S&W 617

The Ruger 22-45 was also perfectly reliable, same safety catch issue, trigger was slightly better, front sight kept working loose and there was some movement between the grip and the reciever. Group sizes were slightly worse than the MKII.

S&W2206 was a perfectly reliable, lightweight and fun gun to shoot. grip was quite slim and well suited to small hands. Now discontinued.

S&W 617 six inch six shot full underlug revolver. Has had a problem with the built in safety lock refusing to disengage, it's too barrel heavy for me and I can't get used to the wide target trigger. Although a very well made gun I haven't warmed to it.

Beretta 92 practise kit: A .22 conversion unit for the Beretta 92, it includes a plastic ten shot magazine, an aluminium slide, steel barrel and recoil spring assembly. Fitted with target sights it is a fine tool for training and plinking, but not as accurate as a proper .22 pistol.

Ruger Single Six convertible revolver in .22 long rifle and .22 magnum. Most accurate .22 I have owned, it felt great it my hand and was great for training new shooters. The slow loading and ejecting cycle along with manually cocking the hammer each time allowed for a more methodic style of shooting. Wish I still had it.

Of the lot I would recommend the Buckmark first as it has a better trigger & safety than the Rugers, with the Single Six second and the Ruger MKII third.
 
Well, I love my ruger Bearcat, but my brother's Single Six is a dream to shoot. Only downside is its size and weight...It'll wear your arm out if you shoot like I do. (500-1500 rounds per session. Long time to hold up that much metal.)
 
I bought my girlfriend a Walther P22 and she never shot it. I shoot it all the time. I love it alot. It is awesome and I think it is a great little gun.
 
I think the Ruger MKII/MKIII set the standard for current production .22 pistols, but there are many that are also great.
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Truer words have never been spoken. I can think of 5 or 6 really good .22 pistols of the top of my head. I happen to greatly prefer Ruger's, and specifically MkII's, but it would be foolish to suggest that there aren't other perfectly satisfactory .22's out there.

Let your wife pick what she wants, and you will be fine. I am no expert, but here is a list of pistols that I consider to be excellent choices in no particular order (except for #1, lol):

Ruger (duh)
Browning Buckmark
Beretta NEOS
Beretta 87 (VERY nice pistol, but a little expensive)
S&W 22
SIG (Hammerli) Trailside
Colt Woodsman

And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head and restricted to autos!

My wife wants to do some shooting and needs a good .22 pistol but I have no experience with this small caliber.
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Also, whats up with you? I am just gonna be blunt and say that you need to hop on the .22 train yourself, dude. Really, there is no substitute for the fun a .22 pistol can give you. I can honestly say that I think every shooter should have a .22 pistol (or revolver) regardless of manufacturer. Really, if I had to boil it down to just one handgun (and thank god I don't), a .22 would be it.
 
I'm a Ruger guy, as anyone who's read more than a couple of my posts can tell you. I've got four of them now, a MK II "standard" and a MK III 22/45 with a 4" bull barrel, and a BSA red dot sight. There isn't a dimes worth of difference in the MK II and the MK III unless you happen to enjoy making mountains out of molehills. If you want a Ruger, get the one you can get the best price on that has the features you (or more importantly SHE wants). If it's just for fun shooting, it's hard to beat the fixed sight standard model.

I've also got a Single Six, and a Bearcat. Great guns too. Slower to load and unload, but that does keep you shooting longer. The Bearcat is just fun to shoot and a delight to carry around in the field. I've got it on my hip right now as a matter of fact.

Another one I don't think anyone has mentioned is the Bersa Firestorm 22. My wife got one when she first started shooting and that is a neat little gun. It's a little fussy about ammo, but with CCI mini mags it runs like a sewing machine. Other people have said their's shoot anything. Spare mags for it are sort of expensive, but nice to have.

To tell you the truth, I haven't seen a 22 pistol put out by a major manufacturer that I don't like. The Browning or Smith&Wesson I wouldn't hesitate to buy.
 
These are 2 of the best. S&W 35-1 and a Colt Woodsman
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I've got an almost identical Woodsman (mine has an aftermarket Micro sight) and a Colt Officer's Model Target.

Pity the generation that comes after us. They'll be stuck with all this modern junk and think it's quality.;)
 
(Sigh) Depends on what you mean by "good".

There's a lot to be said for the S&W Model 17, particularly for a novice.

The Ruger/Buckmark fight? I would not spend good money on either.

IF you can find one, the Baikal Izh-35 is a superb pistol - a $1000 gun for $500.

I'd take an older High Standard over a S&W Model 41...and neither at full retail. It's a bad price point, since for a few hundred more you can get into a GOOD gun like a Pardini. A lot of people whine about the price of the top-end European guns, but they are a LOT more fun to shoot.
 
Buckmark. No question. best value, most comfortable, reliable, and if you get the buckmark rifle, you share mags. I'd like to see the ruger MKIII and 10/22 share mags.
 
I have to agree...

High Standard is the bee's knees! That being said, I just bought a Ruger Mk II (short tapered barrel, fixed sights) for plinking fun. Apparently, the military grip H.S. guns have a problem w/ hi-vel ammo, and it's basically impossible to find std. vel down here in SW Florida! (That, and I've wanted one since I was a kid!!) I've only handled a Neos, but I liked it quite a bit.
 
Depends a great deal on hand size. If she has really small hands, the S&W 34 or 63 is a great gun. These J frame 22 revolvers have tiny grips.

34s.jpg


I am partial to the S&W 41 for an auto, but it is expensive and the factory grips are large. But it shoots like nothing else unless you step up to a Pardini, Benelli or similar target gun. And fit and finish are imcomparable.

sw41.jpg
 
Unless you want an interesting looking but rather expensive paperweight (or model boat anchor) avoid the Sig Mosquito. It is POSitively the most unreliable, jam-prone, FTF, bad triggered .22 pistol I have ever had the misfortune to own. Maybe others have had better experiences.
 
I just bought a NIB MKIII 22/45 Tuesday and I bought some Remingtion Green Box and some Federal to try and break the pistol in properly and am just wondering what ammo you used for yours. Any mods or advice would be greatly appreciated.
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My MK II's liked the high velocity stuff when new. CCI Minimags work well. Clean the pistol well, then put a few hundred rounds of high velocity, then try some standard velocity of different brands. In all my .22's CCI seems to always function. For plinking, the Federal Bulk pack works well in my Rugers also.
 
The Buckmark and the Ruger are probably the best for the price. I like the Colt Woodsman and Colt Officers Model Match in .22 lr also but they're a couple hundred dollars more used than the Browning or Ruger are new.
 
I have been looking for a quality DA .22 revolver for quite a while. The S&W 17s I've seen are either worn out and abused or priced so high I wouldn't want to shoot it. I looked hard at a new 617 but I just don't like the looks of the lock and it's over $600 to boot. Finally found a Dan Wesson with 6 & 8 inch barrels on Gunbroker and it should arrive mid-week. My Dad had one years ago and it was one of the finest shooting pistols I'd ever tried. A good .22 (or 2, or 3) is a joy to have, especially with the high ammo prices today...
 
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