I also have a Buck Mark, brilliantly purchased just months before .22 LR became hard to find and doubled in cost.TexasTornado wrote:We have a Browning buckmark and it has been very reliable. The only time it has even jammed, it was me not the pistol (bad habit of having a loose grip/limp wrist)...the pistol itself though is solid if a little pricey for a .22.
I'd had a Ruger, but back then, with 9mm cheap enough, I decided to get rid of the caliber and sold it.
I normally hate finger grooves on handguns: let me get the grip I want, and that means as high and tight as possible. But on a no-recoil .22, I don't mind as much. While not precisely the same, the Buck Mark's grip angle is very similar to a 1911, and it does have a nub of a thumb safety. Cleaning is a bit bizarre...but it's also odd for the Ruger. Browning recommends you not field strip the gun, just swab the barrel, wipe what you can reach of the innards, a little lube, and good to go. Yeah; right. Like I'll own a gun and never strip it.
S&W's new M&P22 series looks pretty interesting. I might want to shoot the 12-round model. It's possible I could be convinced I need another .22.
As to reliability, Charles is spot on. Semi-auto rimfire will never cycle perfectly. Good thing we aren't defending ourselves with them. But three tips. First, always use a relatively high velocity cartridge, as in around 1,100 to 1,200 fps. Doesn't take much pressure to actuate the slide, but it also doesn't make much variance on the low side--especially if the gun is a bit dirty--not to actuate the slide.
Second--and this is personal preference only--lean toward copper plated bullets. My preference is the now hard-to-find and relatively expensive CCI Mini Mag. It's easy and fun to send a lot of rounds downrange with a .22. Lead can build up in the barrel faster than copper. I do shoot a lot of Federal lead roundnose, but I'll also send send some copper plated bullets through it before I leave the range. Seems to help scrub out some of the lead.
Third, a Hoppe's Boresnake or, even more likely for me lately, an Otis Ripcord. The Ripcord has no metal brush embedded. If you're going to plink a brick of ammo on a cool, sunny, Saturday morning, take a break every couple hundred rounds, put a little solvent on one of these handy devices, pull it through a couple of times, and go back to knockin' down plates. I really never liked cleaning any smallbore guns...until I started using Otis products and boresnakes. AR-15s with a standard cleaning rod were a pain. But 60 seconds to pull a handy little cord a couple of times from breach to barrel...easy! Great invention.