Walther P22 .22LR ADVICE!?

[pete f]

jeepers, the stuff costs like 2 dollars a box, go buy as many different boxes as you can find. shoot it up, see what works best. Every gun is different, some like green boxes, some like red, some like white boxes and some like it all. See what YOUR gun likes best.

Finally, try real hard to find your wife a much better gun for self defense, as a .22 rimfire is NEVER the best option, if you love her, buy her something decent. My wife shoots a ltwt commander in .45 acp and has no trouble. My sister in law shoots a g19 and has no trouble with that either. My mom shoots an old m19 S&W, shes 83 and has no trouble with +P short barrel speers in her gun.

If your wife likes the p22, try a p99 in 9 mm for her to try, same feel, just bigger.

 

[hobgob]

i bought one of these from a buddy of mine. i put some cheap bulk stuff through and it had at least 2 or 3 jams every mag. plus the safety kept engaging after a few rounds fired. its a comfy little gun, but not as accurate as i would have liked and it is kind of tricky to disassemble. I gave it to my bro for his bday.

 

[greener]

The best troubleshooting and tweaking guide to the P22 is at this link:
http://www.freespeech.com/1917-1911M_P22_bible.pdf
If you own a P22 it is a good download.

Mine does best with standard velocity ammo. Very few jams. It doesn't like Xpert22 (won't feed it). Shoots mini-mags quite well, but I'm too cheap to buy them.

The P22 is the hardest pistol I have to shoot accurately. The light weight and short barrel seem to magnify shooting flaws. I've kept at it and have gotten to the point that I can do reasonably well with the pistol. It is fun to shoot, but it is also the most poorly made (materials, design and construction) I own. Little did I know that when I bought a new one I was buying a project gun.

Enjoy.

 

[KI4LIV]

I bought one to teach my 10 year old daughter how to shoot on.

It wouldn't cycle a damned thing properly - until I put some hi-velocity rounds through it.

After 100 rounds of the "good stuff" the spring is broken in enough that it will cycle anything that I feed it!

 

[rklessdriver]

Each gun is going to be different. Your going to have to try a couple different brands. However the general consensus is that Federal and CCI Mini Mags work the best is MOST P22's.

My wifes P22 works best with FEDERAL bulk ammo but of course Wal-Mart dosen't have any lately.

CCI mini mags work great in hers, but are really expensive compared to the bulk stuff.

It won't chamber or extract the Winchester SuperX bulk worth a crap. They also seem really weak.

Remington's seem way too hot for the little gun and every other round makes the saftey go down automatically (even after I tricked it up). Feeds, Fires (when you push the saftey up) and Extracts great thou. My friends P22 works just fine on the Remingtons...

Semper Fi
Will

 

[KI4LIV]

That having been said - after the break-in with the 100 rounds of hi-vel stuff, I mostly feed mine the Federal FMJ bulk from Walmart as well. Remington bulk works too (too bad they only offer it in non-jacketed form!), but tends to leave a LOT of lead built up in the barrel on both the P22 and my wife's U22 Neos.

 

[USMCDK]

the next time I bring the wife to the range I am going to invest in some CCI mini mag I will try to also find the hi-velocity stuff and kick that through as well.

as for the advise about buying my wife something in a bigger caliber I was thinking about do that for either her bday or christmas a 9mm should be a good idea. We bought the weapon because of the fact that it fits her hand a lot better then my H&K USP45. She has tiny hands and can't really get a good grip on dubba stack mag guns. but then again I can probably find a Glock 9mm or something else that has a 10rd capacity that will fit her hand. Heck I work here at SIG and should be able to find something nice here for a reasonable price. Something small like the p239 or p232, small and packs a good punch for SD and CCW. comes in only single stack. If I do get her a 9mm it's going to be JHP for the home SD Mag and when on the range FMJ's and maybe a mag of the JHP just so she knows the feel of both rounds being fired and hope fully become comfortable with it.

 

[mr.trooper]

Iv only fired copper plated bullets in mine, both high and standard velocity.

My mother ALMOST limp-wristed it when firing it with an imporoper grip, but it hasn't had any failures yet. I keep mine very clean, but I shoot hundreds of rounds through it at a time, and it doesn't foul up enough to jam during those shooting sessions.

Accuracy is a matter of trigger pull. The P-22 has a TERRIBLE trigger. Its not heavy, but its very mushy. This makes it difficult to predict when the trigger will break. you need to practice your technique and get it down solid before you will be able to get respectable groups out of your P-22.

 

[USMCDK]

in the military (USMC) we were taught to never anticipate the firing of the gun, more rather, have the firearm scare you, per-say. I do remember our range coach telling us to not try to remember where the trigger breaks for the same reason. However I know that the M-16 has actually 3 different trigger weights that it cycles through. 5lbs 3lbs and 8lbs, if I do remember clearly. hold on a second... :banghead: yup I do remember clearly.

 

[USMCDK]

Hey Hey guess what clean the heck outta the lil guy and lubed it up really nice, I mean really nice, kinda generous like and she fired like a pissed of employer at an overly reckless employee. with the bulk American eagle loads. Go figure eh???

 

[rklessdriver]

I'm glad yours is working well for you.

Last week at the gun show my girl saw a beautiful 2 toned Ruger MKII and said "I really like that!" So I went home, got the Walther, put a sign on it and sold it in about 10mins (after all the ammo problems lately I was actually happy to see it go). Took the money and put it towards the MKII she wanted. Hoping it will be less ammo sensitive, sucks having 3000 rounds of .22LR's you can't shoot :banghead:.
Wil

 

[USMCDK]

should have sold the ammo as well. Yes Yes I know you can't have ammo at the gun show, but I am sure that you could have sold it somewhere somehow???!!!

 

[ShooterX]

i did all the tweaks at the rimfirecentral site and i got pretty good runner now. It eats everything now, but its still not that accurate even with the expensive stuff. I shoot boxes and boxes of bulk. I wish I had 50 round mags for this little gun.

 

[USMCDK]

yeah but then you'd wish you had more money at that, cause you know we'd blow right thru a box of forty in 3.2 sec.

 

[USMCDK]

On that note I wish I had more money so that I could go throught that many rounds right now with even the 10laoder mags

 

[FieroCDSP]

I don't shoot mine much anymore, but I honestly can't remember the last time I had any kind of feed or firing issue with mine.

 

[capttom]

omnivorous

For a much maligned pistol, the P22 has lots of fans; consider myself one of them. My short barreled version will feed any standard or hi-vel load, although the accuracy varies. My main use of the gun is for fun, so I buy whatever I see first. Remington bulk ammo is what I have now. If I want serious work, (for example, if I tuck the .22 in my pocket for my evening walk), I'll use Stingers. Good snake and rat medicine.

 

[bignick73]

Mine eats everything I've put in it no probs. American Eagle, Winchester, Remington Sub-sonic, Aquila sub and hyper velocity, CCI sub sonic and stingers. Only one that gave me anything resembling a problem was the Rem, sub sonic didn't lock the slide back at the end of a mag one time when I had a suppressor on it.

I also give mine a CLP bath on a regular basis so it's pretty spotless.

 

[Sniper X]

Since day one on mine, not one problem firing anything except when I let a girl shoot it and she limpwristed it so bad it stovepiped every 3rd round or so. I showed her better technique and it never did that again.

 

[USMCDK]

True Story

Last night was the first time I have ever had to pull my pistol on someone. Can anyone guess which one it was??? That's right the P22 not the H&K USP45.

I was walking the streets of manchester at 245am till 4am looking for a friend that had just up and left. Let me tell you it's a horrible feeling know that she's out there without protection walking streets that are now run by the nasty side of Minorities. ( I am not saying all of them are bad, just the $#!t head ones that think no matter where they live life has to be all about thugging and gangsta crap. Also by NO means do I feel that all minorities of the US are bad.)

Well needless to say when I was walking I was confronted by a two man groud of thugs (yeah wanna-be's) which felt it would be profiting to tell me to "run my pockets" while pulling out a 4" knife. I hastefully pulled the .22 outta my back pocket, cocked it, and replied "you don't want what I have and I don't want what you got. So let's call it a night and all go home unharmed." to my suprise they told me to off white boys and went the opposite way as did I.

Now what does this have to do with the OP? Simple! I guess I can credit this thread for my decision to pull the (pee-shooter) :nnener: instead of the man stopper. I guess I was thinking that at such close range it would be better to be more descreet then to thunder my way outta that situation.

Thank you guys for all the advise and keep it coming.

Sorry for getting off topic, but I thought this storry might help break some ice in this thread.

USMCDK