Please Suggest A Dependable .22LR Auto Pistol

[gmckinl]

Buckmark. Mine has been great.

[frazzled]

Also, my son recently acquired a S&W Model 22A (pictured below). It is marginally more accurate than my Ruger, but it is also more finicky about ammo. It is also cheaper than the Ruger. That said, the location of the magazine release button - on the front strap - is kind of funky. Sometimes you eject the magazine without meaning to.



They are very different pistols, but both are a hoot to shoot.

May be in market for a .22 target for the wife to replace a very aging Ruger (~50,000 rounds through it at this point-yep)

1. Finicky-real finicky or will it eat Remington, Federal, and Winchesters ok?
2. How's the trigger pull?
3. How about dissassembly?

[shootthesheet]

I like the Beretta U22 Neos too. I bought the one with the shorter barrel but should have got the longer one. It is accurate and easy to take care of. I don't know about the rest because I have not shot or really looked at them because I was looking for one that was less expensive. I got mine at Academy for $209 and at that time both sizes they had was the same price. May have changed now. I plan to order a longer barrel from Beretta eventually.

[Rex B]

I bought a S&W 22A a few years ago when Cabelas opened in Ft. Worth.
I shot it once or twice, never got used to the grip. It felt like a 2X4.
I also thought the plastic receiver looked cheap.
Full-length rail was cool though.
Anyway i sold it a few months ago, and I rarely sell guns.

I did buy a Ciener kit, then built a 1911 frame up for it. Very nice, I have about $400 in it.
Every 1911 guy ought to have one of these. You can buy the cheapest 1911 you can find, then sell the top-end and recover a lot of your cost.

If I buy another .22 auto pistol, it'll probably be a Buckmark, though I might be tempted by a good deal on a Ruger MkII Target.

[stevie_d_64]

I would suggest the newest Ruger (Mark II or III?), but assembly is a bit of a bear. They are good shooting pistols.

Jason

[mr surveyor]

I prefer the Ruger Mark II,III, 22/45 myself. The grip angle is much more akin to the grip angle on my carry guns. I have yet to see a Ruger .22 cal pistol not be user ready right out of the box... after a good field strip/cleaning to get the factory goo off. I have had limited experience with a couple of Sig Mosquitos, and came close to buying one, but the three my ffl buddy got delivered to him were all very finicky. I love my Sig P239, and wanted a similar platform in .22 cal, but decided to let one of my buddies be the "test case" on the Mosquito. Very limited reliability with exception of a very few types of ammo, when he can find it. I'll stick to my Ruger... it's still flawless after at least 10,000 rounds.


surv

[Abraham]

Thank you one and all for your very informative responses.

Now, decisions, decisions...except, one: The "Ultimate Cliploader". I hope that whatever I decide on can utilize this extremely handy devise. I'm almost at a point where I might buy both a conversion kit AND a new .22 cal pistol.

Over time, given the cost of center fire cartridges, (and difficulty to obtain) the .22 cal kit and pistol will ultimately pay for themselves. Well, sorta...if you like to spend a lot of time at the range and use mucho ammo each time out that is...

[frazzled]

Remember .22 pistol clips can be dicfficult to load. My neo is easy but the ruger clips are a pain. I found you can easily catch the pin on the edge of your shooting table to load without any problem (you have to pull the pin/lever whatever you call it down to load rounds). Saves your thumbs

[mrvmax]

Remember .22 pistol clips can be dicfficult to load. My neo is easy but the ruger clips are a pain. I found you can easily catch the pin on the edge of your shooting table to load without any problem (you have to pull the pin/lever whatever you call it down to load rounds). Saves your thumbs

Ruger magazines are not a pain with the Ultimate Cliploader. I actually find them fun to load.

http://www.steve4ultimatesales.com/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65jHazxWXCA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[frazzled]

Oh, cool. I thought you were making a statement about needing something to help. I've sent to the Wife as she shoots the Ruger to see if she wants. Thanks for the heads up.

Tip for the day. Never let your Wife "borrow" your favorite pistol for too long, or else whats yours becomes hers and hands off!

[CompVest]

And what would be the down side to that? She gets a gun she likes and you get an excuse to buy another.

[frazzled]

And what would be the down side to that? She gets a gun she likes and you get an excuse to buy another.

How do you think I got the NEO?

What, you really like my Baretta...well if you insist...

[CompVest]

[RECIT]

I have a Buckmark with fiber optic front sight and LOVE it. Way more accurate than me and doesn't give me a lot of problems with failures or anything. My best friend has a Ruger 22/45 and he loves his. Accuracy and reliability are similar to the Buckmark. I bought a Mosquito for my folks and they have failures with EVERY type of ammo we have tried. That thing is just not reliable. Very accurate but lots of failures. I have heard the same thing about the P22's. I think it may be the luck of the draw...no pun intended. Good luck with your search.

[android]

I just picked up a Walther P22 because I was looking for a semi-automatic pistol my 12yo daughter could learn to shoot with. The other option was a Sig Mosquito. I didn't want anything with "real pistol" weight and slide springs as I know she won't be able to run the slide on a full size gun.

I saw pretty much nothing but hatred for the Sig, so I looked at the Walther. General opinion is that it has a few problems but they can be fixed. There is a member on Rimfire Central that has a lot of good pictorials and a P22 Bible that is really useful. I bought the pistol and became a shade tree gunsmith. I tore it apart and did all the recommended fixing and polishing and put it back together. I've worked on N scale steam locomotives and other small mechanical stuff before, so this wasn't much of a challenge. A few springs were hard to get back in, but pretty easy to work on in my opinion.

I did a functional check this morning and shot about 200 rounds of Walmart Federal bulk pack .22LR through it with only 1 FTL. I was getting 3-4" groups at 7 yards which I think is decent considering it is a short barreled, inexpensive pistol shooting cheap ammo.

My daughter helped me clean it tonight and we went over safety and how all the parts work. We practiced working the slide with the unloaded pistol after we put it back together and she can do it. I'm going to go over safety and operation a few more times and then take her to shoot it this weekend.