Walther P22 - REVIEW

[KoRn_1536]

I have a few range reports to do, I'll try to catch up on them later.  We picked up some more guns (not all mine) like a Walther P22, and a Kel-Tec P-11, and I'm re-doing a Remington 552 SpeedMaster (a little auto rifle that shoots .22s, .22L and .22LR).  I'll post more when I get some pictures. 

The 552 was a complete and total mess.  I've heard of the P22s jamming and the P11's slides falling off, so hopefully we'll have better luck. 

[KoRn_1536]

The Remington needs some more parts ordered in from Remington, but it cycles smooth as silk now.  It shoots .22s, .22L, and .22LR.  Great little semi, but lever guns just seems to be more fun; it is cool just being able to pull the trigger for each round I guess.

The reciever, sights, and trigger assembly are all aluminum.  The action, barrel, and magazine is steel and the tube seems to be brass.  Well-built little gun in my opinion.

[GodOfWar_1]

Any gun that's built all of metal has to be a well-built one. 

[KoRn_1536]

Shot the Walther P22 today at my Uncle's 4th of July party...actually not as bad as what the reviews for it was.  We used Remington Golden Bullet .22's I believe it was.  The day before there was one stovepipe jam and one mis-fired bullet (not gun-related), it turns out to just be a bad round.  Today, there were no malfunctions, and it shot fairly accurate for a tiny, 3" barrel .22.  It's entirely too small for my hand (even with the included interchangeable backstrap).  The grip-extention on the clip was nice (like what the XDs have).  I didn't like the magazines that do not have the extention and leaves your pinky flying solo.

As I wrote in another post, it was a lot louder then the rifle .22 we had there.  It was suprizingly loud for a .22 in my opinion.  It actually starting hurting my left ear, and in the first time I can remember shooting one, had to wear a muff over the left ear.  It came with 2 extra front sights, which concerned me...why would you need 2 extra front sights unless they fell out easily?  We were in the shade, but still couldn't see the laser very well when we attempted to use it.  It's probably better suited for indoor range use...I don't see why you would use it in your home as its not a defensive pistol.

The size and caliber do make it a great starter gun.  It's very simple to use and is very light, with almost non-existant recoil.  It teaches you all the basics in safety, trigger control, and function before transitioning to a larger caliber.  My mom and aunt loved it (mom hit an aluminum can the very first shot).  While using double-action, the pull is extremely ridiculous.  Single action really isn't that bad of a break and there was hardly any slack to take up, so repeat shots came pretty quickly in rapid fire. 

One last thing that I did like was the magazines...they have a little lever on the side that allows you to depress the spring and very easily reload the magazine.  I really like this feature and makes it even easier for beginners who might otherwise become frustrated.  Same with the slide, as it pulls back very easily in order to load because of the light recoil spring.  One big complaint I have (if it were to be a beginner's first gun) is that the reassembly is rather difficult for a first-timer.  They give you a tool to insert into the guide-rod hole to hold the recoil spring into place, but that whole idea is just plain too complicated.  They would have been better off going with a simpler Browning-style system in my opinion.  Or they could have put a sleeve on the inside of the slide where the guide rod is to help guide the guide rod in. 

Overall, I was pleasently suprized with the gun...more so then I expected.  We went through 2 500 bricks in 2 days, and there was just the 1 stove-pipe I mentioned.  I give it a B+     

[GodOfWar_1]

I got rid of my Walther jamomatic.  Just couldn't get it to run right. Glad you had better luck.

[KoRn_1536]

Went out the other day again with my brother's Walther, and I have some new info, and it's not as good news as the last time:


I was shocked!   The ambidextrous safety switch was really worn out and very loose...it will probably need some lock-tite to tighten it up again, if even that will work.  The laser was WAY off and kept adjusting itself; meaning one time it would shoot low and to the left, and the next it would land high and to the right.  On the bright side, the iron sights were still dead on.  Another thing was one of the three magazines...there was Fail To Feed after Fail To Feed because the magazine spring didn't seem to have enough tension to load in every round properly.  Plus, the slide lock feature only worked when it wanted to...the mag would be empty, but the slide would only lock once every maybe 5 times.  Again, on the bright side, there were no jams, so I was happy with that.  The gun is only a month old, yet it's completely wearing out, and the finish appears to be wearing off already !!!  There has been a total of about 4 boxes of Remongton Golden Bullet 500 rounders through it, so that's a total of 2000 rounds.  No reason for it to be performing like this.     

Overall I am severely disappointed with the quality of the gun, and it re-assures my initial hesitation about the gun.  I change my grade to a  C- from the initial B+   The only reason not an F because it has potential; when it does work, it is fun to shoot and runs fairly well with fewer jams then what I expected...and like I said the iron sights are dead on.  I'm sure glad it's not MY gun, however!  I am trying to convince him to ship it back for appropriate repairs.


p.s. I forgot to mention, the trigger feels a lot better to me then it did at first.  I still don't like the double action pull of the gun, but in single action, the break really isn't that bad.  The magazine release, however, is atrocious! 
It's ambidexrous and is located as part of the trigger guard, closest to the grip.  You press down to release the magazine, but it is really ackward and makes you have to reposition your hand in order to do a mag change (a person with smaller hands may possibly have an easier time then I did).