As an update, I still have the 4.5" Target 422 on layaway. The more that I thought about the pristine 6" Field 422 the more that I knew that I'd have to grab it. Today I brought it home. I walked into the shop, pointed at it, and said "I'll take it". I have to admit that I've visited it a few times since I first saw it to see if it was still there. While filling out my 4473 I asked the shop owner about the previous owner.
It was the exact same account as I had been told before by a shop employee. A widow came in and sold it. Her husband had owned it and had fired it a few times and put it away in a drawer. She didn't want it on the house. I know, it sounds like the little old lady who only drove the car to church and to market, but by the looks of this gun I have no doubt that its true and would have no reason to doubt this shop as they are stand-up guys. It came with no box and one mag. There was one tiny scratch on the aluminum frame and a little Birchwood Casey Alumium Black took care of that. How could I pass this one up?
The trigger is actually darn nice. It's light with just a tiny bit of creep before a crisp break. It's smooth with no grittiness. While I have kept dry firing to a dead minimum using a spent casing, I'm 100% satisfied. The gun looks to be very high quality, something that my former P22 seemed to be lacking.
I have now been told by numerous shops, as well as the one that I bought the 422 from, that these guns locally are pretty much unobtanium. Three shops told me that they hadn't seen one in at least a couple of years. If this is a gun on your list I would get one sooner than later.
With my P22, despite having put a lot of rounds through it, realibility only approached an acceptable level with hot (and more expensive) ammo. In this respect, is the 422 picky about ammo in terms of reliability?