P-22 Range Report (Kinda)

[eldirector]

No Pics! Forgot the camera, so next time...

Anyway - the Walther P-22 is a fun little gun! Ran about 75 rounds through it this afternoon out at the Danville Conservation Club. Ammo was:
- 25 x Remington Yellow Jacket
- 25 x Federal Game Shok High Velocity
- 25 x Winchester Super X (Std. velocity)

I had 7 rounds fail to feed total, evenly spread across all three carts. The bullet's nose caught on the lip of the chamber, right at the top of the feed ramp, and stopped the slide from moving forward. Pulling the slide back slightly and releasing let the round chamber normally. I'll be polishing the little lip on the bottom of the chamber and trying again soon. No other issues at all.

The standard velocity stuff seemed to work just fine. I did like how crisp the Yellow Jackets felt.

Kept all of the shots on the paper (was using paper plates as cheapy targets) at about 7 yards. After the fifth magazine, I switched to the larger back-strap on the grip. I started to group a bit better. Started low-left, went just low, and slowly up. The grip still feels a bit small, but very easy to hold.

I have 75 more rounds waiting for the next trip, and I'll remember the camera next time.

[88E30M50]

Thanks for the update. I just took my new P22 to the range for the first time today too, but was not as good at recording the results as you are. It really is a fun little gun. I had a whole lot of failure to feeds though, and in about 150 rounds, would say that there were maybe 20. I was shooting mostly Federal bulk and Winchester bulk.
The difference in the failure to feed that I had was the slide would cycle, but just enough to eject and would not strip a new round off of the magazine. I am thinking it will do better with some better ammo. Even with the FTF issues, it is a nice little gun and seems to put them where I point it with reasonable accuracy.

[danielocean03]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard that P22's will function better once they've been broken in some. I've heard that if the first 2-300 rounds are "hotter" ammo, such as CCI Stingers or Mini-mag HPs that they'll function much more smoothly with far fewer FTF's than the cheaper Federal Bulk Pack / Remington Golden Bullet packs once they've broken in a little bit. Has anyone else heard of something similar?

I was told this by a good friend who is very into firearms. His salesman at PSS told him this and he has had very few FTF's with the P22. He refers to it as the most fun gun he owns, which is saying one hell of a lot.

I shot my first P22 today, Scutter01 was nice enough to let me shoot his. I'll be looking for one in the near future.

Also, please note - I have a RRA stripped lower in the classifieds I'll part with for a decent used P22 if anyone's interested!

[drd]

Originally Posted by danielocean03

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard that P22's will function better once they've been broken in some. I've heard that if the first 2-300 rounds are "hotter" ammo, such as CCI Stingers or Mini-mag HPs that they'll function much more smoothly with far fewer FTF's than the cheaper Federal Bulk Pack / Remington Golden Bullet packs once they've broken in a little bit. Has anyone else heard of something similar?

I was told this by a good friend who is very into firearms. His salesman at PSS told him this and he has had very few FTF's with the P22. He refers to it as the most fun gun he owns, which is saying one hell of a lot.

I shot my first P22 today, Scutter01 was nice enough to let me shoot his. I'll be looking for one in the near future.

Also, please note - I have a RRA stripped lower in the classifieds I'll part with for a decent used P22 if anyone's interested!

Found this on Wikipedia for what's it worth:
There are three revisions of the Walther P22 magazine as the original design was prone to feed failures. Walther corrected the issue by modifying the feed ears and adding a short 3/8" slot which allows rounds to stagger as they approach the top of the magazine. The second version of the magazine is designated with an 'A' after the part number. Later versions of the 'A' magazine have an elongated 1" stagger slot which further improves the magazine's performance. Finally Walther has released a 'B' version which is made of thicker steel, has a tall spring retaining nub and retains the 1" stagger slot.

[danielocean03]

Thanks for the information, I appreciate it. Sounds like Walther is proactively correcting whatever feed issues they've encountered. That's encouraging considering the 5,000 rounds of .22 I'm sitting on without a gun to shoot it through are all Federal bulk pack!

[samrothstein01]

For both of you, are these NEW or new to you? Just curious as they may need some "breaking in" to begin cycling properly. I have been putting Federal Bulk through mine and I have had zero FTE/FTF's in about 900 rounds or so. Mine was used when I purchased it, so it was already broken in a bit, so I was curious about yours as I have heard of this before and trying to help diagnose the issue as I see it arise.

Thanks!

[eldirector]

Originally Posted by samrothstein01

For both of you, are these NEW or new to you? Just curious as they may need some "breaking in" to begin cycling properly.

Yep. Brand new as of last Wednesday. Bought from Fort Liberty in Avon for $319. Haven't been to Plainfield yet, but may hit them up for a spare mag and hotter ammo.

I'll pick up some CCI's, and give them a shot (pun intended). My wife will be using this in her NRA Basic Pistol class in a few weeks, so I'd like to reduce the issues by then.

Lot's of P-22 fans around here

[Scutter01]

FTR, I broke my P22 in on bulk pack ammo from Walmart. I think I got lucky with mine, but I never really had any feeding problems regardless of what I shot.

[danielocean03]

That's good to hear Frank, I wasn't sure of what you did to break your P22 in, but it function fine for me today. I'm really looking forward to getting one now that I've shot one. It sucks having 5,000 rounds of .22LR without having a single gun to shoot any of it with!

[antdog/zook]

who has best prices on these? i am wanting 1 with extended barrel.