Smith and Wesson 22A?

[bhk]

A local dealer is selling these, on sale, for less than $200. Anyone have any experiences, good or bad, with them? I have had Rugers and a Smith 41, but have no experience with this model. I think my son, in his 20s, needs a good .22 auto for Christmas and I am in the hunt.

 

[REAPER4206969]

I have ~21,000rds. through mine with no problems other than common rimfire stoppages. Excellent pistol with a no BS warranty.

 

[ABTOMAT]

They're not terrible high quality (frame is zinc or something) but they're reliable and generally well-liked. The plastic buffer needs frequent replacement.

 

[MrWesson]

I like mine just fine and its very accurate. Its the best .22 pistol you will find for 200 new thats for sure(next best Beretta neos around 250). I should also mention that I couldnt find the plastic buffer anywhere after a call to S&W it turns out they are free and they will send you them.

Some Cons
A lack of aftermarket parts and support compared to the ruger and buckmark.

Awkward mag release on the front of the grip but it does a nice job of staying out of the way.

I dont care for is how hard it is to cock the slide(Gf couldnt do it). Its just hard to get a good grip so I put skateboard tape on it and its a dream now.

That being said I want a buckmark because I just like the ergonomics of it and its a lighter pistol of course all that comes at a price nearly double the S22a.

 

[sansone]

GREAT guns.. no feed issues, robust manufacture, accurate, easy to field strip. I believe the frame is aluminum not zinc. Zinc is very heavy and when you take the slide off, the frame is very light.. Heck, we have no problem buying plastic guns do we?

 

[wally]

Its my favorite .22 pistol despite it getting ready to go back to S&W for the third time. At least S&W pays the shipping both ways. First time was an early production run defect, these last two have been for broken firing pins

I don't dry fire it, but do run about 1000 rounds a month through it. Maybe they will just send me some replacement firing pins this time.

Our Neos is at Beretta for their recall, been a bad month for our .22 pistols. My wife's Buckmark turned into stove pipe city a few weeks ago, but it was an easy fix -- the ejector wire somehow got bent and was not hitting the cases, bent it back and no failures in 400 rounds the last two times out.

Our Rugers get a lot of use too but they are way less reliable than the M22, Neos or Buckmark. Its not that the Rugers are bad, its just the M22, Neos and Buckmark are about as reliable as a .22 pistol can be. But they all have their quirks.

A lack of aftermarket parts and support compared to the ruger and buckmark

I don't see this as a negative at all, same can be said for the Neos and Buckmark too, good guns don't need a lot of doodads added to them.

 

[sansone]

ever notice how similar the sw22a is to the Beretta "Neos"?

 

[stchman]

I have one and it really shoots well. It has been 100% so far (probably put about 500 rounds through it).

< $200 is a good price.

FYI, the frame is aluminum.

 

[Holo]

Bud's shipped mine this afternoon I'll let you know in a few days!!!

 

[sansone]

holo you are gonna LUV it
..enjoy

 

[BluesDancer]

...and the nice thing is, it will generally run most easy-to-find ammo as long as the insides are not very dirty. I have run CCI Mini-Mags, Federal Auto Match, and Federal Bulk Pack through my 22A with no problems. Winchester Bulk Pack had a few problems for me, but I pegged those to the ammo, not the gun. Have fun!

 

[Holo]

I have noticed the same thing about winchester bulk ammo in .22. The bullet can freely spin and wobble in the brass. Never had the problem with federal or remington bulk. Winchester must have a more lax QA department.

 

[Holo]

sorry for the poor quality. camera on phone is no good.

Put about 200 rounds down range today when i picked it up from the gunshop. No cleaning, no oiling (seemed very well oiled when i got it) and i had 2 FTF's both on the second round of a fresh clip. Put a few more down range and it didn't do it again. And this is with winchester bulk ammo. Shooting at 10 yards from a rest i could cover the group with a quarter. The red dot makes this thing a fun machine. Best $230 I've spent this year.

 

[wally]

i had 2 FTF's both on the second round of a fresh clip

Failure to Feed or Failure to Fire?

If failure to feed and you got a click on an empty chamber, this is one of its quirks.

Mine did this with HP ammo, so I shot only solids for the first year or so. Eventually I suspect the mags or the mag catch wore down enough so the HP didn't hang on it and I've not had the issue again in probably 10,000 rounds of Federal bulk pack.

What happens is on the second round the HP hangs on the mag catch (or notch) and prevents spring pressure from moving the top round up. Only the second shot out of a full mag (or third of a 10+1 load) lets things line up for this to happen. Next time it happens if you carefully remove the mag after the click you can see there is no pressure on the rounds above the mag catch cut out.

I've read other reports of this and it seems to go away after some use.

S&W has a new firing pin in the mail to me today -- great customer service!

 

[Holo]

FTFire for me. Only thing i can think of is lack of oil because the firing pin hit the rim of the shell, dented it but the shell didn't fire. So its either in need of some more oil or the shell was just a dud. The fact that it happened twice both on the second round is still strange though and I as well remember reading about that being a quirk of this model. Didnt happen again after a few more mags full. Just need to break her down and toss some remoil on all the pieces and i bet shes happy as a clam.

 

[wally]

Only thing i can think of is lack of oil because the firing pin hit the rim of the shell, dented it but the shell didn't fire

You can expect a few of these in every bulk pack. Usually they go if you try again and the firing pin hits a different part of the rim.

 

[REJones]

I love mine. Liked the feel a lot more than a Ruger Mark III. Field stripping the 22A is super easy, too!

 

[Holo]

yeah breakdown is cake. Also i like that the grip angle and slide release are very similar to the 1911.

 

[sxcamaro05]

I have the camo version and it is great fun for plinking. I've only had a handful of FTFeed problems with cheap cheap bulk ammo. I now use mainly Federal coppers and have had zero problems. My favorite part about the gun is the one button click to release the barrel. Breeze to clean, nice all around.

 

[lucky-gunner]

S&w 22a

I've had one for almost 4 years. I picked a mine up used for a song and a dance. So I thought it would just be a place setter until I could get something nicer. It's been 100% as long as I use decent .22 LR. I've found mine doesn't like the Winchester .22 of any kind. Eats up everything else though. It's preformed so well that I haven't bothered to pick up a Ruger or Browning.

I have one of the short barrel versions and it's actually a great piece for training. The size is almost a match to a full size/compact centerfire pistol. For the money they are hard to beat.

 

[gpwelding1]

i had a model 2214 which is a compact version of the 22a.one of the best guns i ever owned.no complaints at all from me!!

 

[okespe04]

After polishing the feed ramp the 22A is one of the more fun, reliable, and accurate .22lr autos I have ever owned. Sure they are cheaply built, painted and plastic but the price is right and they work great.

 

[Holo]

my only gripe about the gun is how cheap the slide release feels.

Also could have been bad but ended in a laugh: I was breaking it down last night for the first time. When i was putting the recoil spring and guide rod back in my thumb slipped off the and guide rod flew across the room and hit my kayak while the spring hit my gf right in the face. Lesson learned but man she is a breeze to oil up!

 

[ABTOMAT]

the spring hit my gf right in the face. Lesson learned but man she is a breeze to oil up!

The 22A or the GF?

 

[RevDerb]

I love my 22a. I've put thousands of rounds through it without a single issue. Have some failures to fire but that is the fault of the bulk ammo; not the gun. Each failed round has a distinct indent in the rim where it was hit and failed to fire (Remington, usually). It is the one gun that never comes into consideration when I have to decide what to sell in order to get something else. It's just too much fun.