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.22 recommendations

All of the above.

Have a MK IV 22/45 lite and have put over 1,000 rds. through it in the less than a month; I love it.
Still want a Wrangler or GP100, cuz wheel gun
Glock 44 looks fun, I’ll take one of those as well.
Walther and SR22 both seem finicky with ammo. The 22/45 eats near flawlessly...
Aguila Super extra, CCI SV, CCI mini mags,
20 year old Thunderbolt, Winchester wildcat, Winchester SuperX, Golden bullet, Federal Champion, and Stingers.
There’s probably more, but that’s all I have.

Also, all .22 is relatively dirty. Keep em clean and keep em lubed. Some prefer plated bullets to bare lead, they all seem dirty to me.
 
dcmdon said:
Have you shot the Glock slowly for accuracy? I'm curious how it does.
Click to expand...
It does the same as the sr22. It’s a .22 modeled after a combat handgun. If you want a .22 that’s pleasant, easy, and accurate to shoot, stick with the Ruger Mark 2, 3, or 4 series.
 
jdgill said:
If you buy a Ruger Mark 1-3 you'll clean it ONCE. And, IF you get it back together, you won't clean it again. Just sayin'.

Can't speak to the Mark 4.
Click to expand...
True, but the good news is that they only need to be cleaned every 7-10,000 rounds.
 
Great time to pick up a Ruger MkI, MKII or MKIII for cheap.
I don't get all the fuss about putting one back together.
I mean seriously, a two minute Youtube video and your done.
I guess that it's because they were designed when men were men.

I also don't consider a 22LR service type pistol to be a useful training aid if you own the real center fire pistol.
The trigger, recoil, bullet drop and handling are way too different to be considered useful for anything other than holstering, unholstering, sight alignment and mag changes.
In fact you may get all great with the 22LR version and still suck eggs with the real version.
All because your too cheap to buy center fire ammo and don't want to practice with the real one.
 
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Cuz said:
True, but the good news is that they only need to be cleaned every 7-10,000 rounds.
Click to expand...
And you dont need to take it appart to clean it.
My 1st experience with mk pistol.
Im at the indoor range checking out my new Mk. The resident club bulls eye shooter is there. Spread of target rugers on the bench. We get to talking and after a bit more shooting I ask
“How do you take it appart?”
He says “Why something broken”
Then goes onto to say you dont need to take it apart unless its broken. You come see me when you have 3500 (Took about 2.5 yrs) rounds through it.
Well I did go see him. He asked if it was jamming I said no.
He took the pistol from me Wiped it off really well , took some q tip style cleaners and gave the guts a good swap and said see you in 3500
Then mumbled now just keep swabing the barrel with oil so you dont get rust.
Have not shot that pistol much since then.
 
dcmdon said:
DO NOT EVER EVER GET A SIG MOSQUITO
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I could not second this opinion more. My mosquito is, I believe, the worst firearm ever produced by man. It went back to Sig three times before I gave up on it and left it in my safe where it has not seen the light of day in years.
 
The SR22 seems to be very hit or miss. I have one and it's a huge piece of shit and I hate it. Others here recomend it. You takes your chances, I suppose.

Personally, I'm eyeing one of the Wrangler .22 revolvers, but I don't expect much out of it for $200. I also one day plan on picking up a Mark IV. The earlier Mark I-III are great shooting guns, but I avoided them because takedown and cleaning is such a pain in the ass.
 
mac1911 said:
And you dont need to take it appart to clean it.
My 1st experience with mk pistol.
Im at the indoor range checking out my new Mk. The resident club bulls eye shooter is there. Spread of target rugers on the bench. We get to talking and after a bit more shooting I ask
“How do you take it appart?”
He says “Why something broken”
Then goes onto to say you dont need to take it apart unless its broken. You come see me when you have 3500 (Took about 2.5 yrs) rounds through it.
Well I did go see him. He asked if it was jamming I said no.
He took the pistol from me Wiped it off really well , took some q tip style cleaners and gave the guts a good swap and said see you in 3500
Then mumbled now just keep swabing the barrel with oil so you dont get rust.
Have not shot that pistol much since then.
Click to expand...

Yes you do need to take it apart to clean it, properly anyway. I used to shoot one in competition pretty much daily and no way you could go thousands of rounds between cleaning. I’d take down and clean mine monthly and have the guy at the indoor range put it back together (they rented them so they cleaned/assembled them daily).

I see a bunch of rationalization/excuses for the poor design of the M I-III but there’s a reason just about everyone complains about the same feature and why the #1 marketing message from Ruger on the M IV is ease of takedown/reassembly.
 
Check to see if your favorite pistol has a conversion kit....................Ordered one for my M-9.... Now its way too much fun to put down
 
1redsoxfan said:
I could not second this opinion more. My mosquito is, I believe, the worst firearm ever produced by man. It went back to Sig three times before I gave up on it and left it in my safe where it has not seen the light of day in years.
Click to expand...
I'd simply expand upon this excellent advice by adding "NEVER BUY A GSG FIREFLY," which is simply the Sig Mosquito rebranded. What a terrible design. I worked so hard to get the Mosquito to run, because on paper it looked like the perfect trainer for my daughter: "85% the size of the Sig P-series," same controls, etc. It even looked like it would work. But that was as close as it got. What a piece of shit. Even with two recoil springs to "tune" the gun to your ammo, it wouldn't run through a magazine, and the DA trigger pull was horrendous. I wanted to take a sawzall to it and just destroy it.

But, I'm surprised no one in this thread has suggested the pistol that took its place: the M&P22 Compact, an excellent design that does everything you'd want in a pistol. It's the right size, feeds everything I've ever thrown at it, affordable, accurate enough for a plinker, adjustable sights, good aftermarket support, excellent factory support, and its standard "slide-and-frame" design builds skills that are directly transferrable to larger handguns. As I've mentioned before, I own a number of them I use as the supplied-pistol for NRA Basic Pistol, and they've never let me down. That's a lot of rounds by shooters of various abilities, and the gun just performs.

AND, they're great suppressor hosts, so there's that.

IOwjfRz.jpg
 
Buck Faker said:
Yes you do need to take it apart to clean it, properly anyway. I used to shoot one in competition pretty much daily and no way you could go thousands of rounds between cleaning. I’d take down and clean mine monthly and have the guy at the indoor range put it back together (they rented them so they cleaned/assembled them daily).

I see a bunch of rationalization/excuses for the poor design of the M I-III but there’s a reason just about everyone complains about the same feature and why the #1 marketing message from Ruger on the M IV is ease of takedown/reassembly.
Click to expand...

Anyone with half a brain can figure out how todissassemble and reassemble without hassle if they bother to learn. I can disassemble in about a minute and reassemble in about 2 minutes. If the gun is new, I might need a rubber mallet. but with 1500 rounds down the pipe, its fine.
 
If you're only interested in plinking, then any .22 will do. My suggestion is to try single action revolvers, double action revolvers and semi auto pistols. Buy whichever one feels the best in your hands.
 
dcmdon said:
Anyone with half a brain can figure out how todissassemble and reassemble without hassle if they bother to learn. I can disassemble in about a minute and reassemble in about 2 minutes. If the gun is new, I might need a rubber mallet. but with 1500 rounds down the pipe, its fine.
Click to expand...

Yup, that’s why so many people complain about it and the entire Ruger Marketing plan for the IV revolves around ease of takedown/assembly. Must be a whole lot of people out there without half a brain, couldn’t possibly be god awful design.

<edit> and I spent an awful lot of time trying, w YouTube videos, the guy at the range showing me. Not once could I get it back together on my own and I finally gave up trying. It was n’t my gun, it was one I borrowed for about a year for a specific bullseye competition - from a friend who didn’t shoot it for that same reason and still rarely does Today. Beautiful gun, Hunter stainless w fluted barrell, great shooter too. But what a pain in the ass to reassemble.
 
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dcmdon said:
Anyone with half a brain can figure out how todissassemble and reassemble without hassle if they bother to learn. I can disassemble in about a minute and reassemble in about 2 minutes. If the gun is new, I might need a rubber mallet. but with 1500 rounds down the pipe, its fine.
Click to expand...
The only 2 things to pay attention to when reassembling the early Ruger MK series are make sure the hammer is forward and hold the pistol so that the hammer strut falls into the mainspring housing when you close the lever. I shot one in gallery competition for years and never understood the fuss about assembly.
 
Buck Faker said:
Yes you do need to take it apart to clean it, properly anyway. I used to shoot one in competition pretty much daily and no way you could go thousands of rounds between cleaning. I’d take down and clean mine monthly and have the guy at the indoor range put it back together (they rented them so they cleaned/assembled them daily).

I see a bunch of rationalization/excuses for the poor design of the M I-III but there’s a reason just about everyone complains about the same feature and why the #1 marketing message from Ruger on the M IV is ease of takedown/reassembly.
Click to expand...
Growing up shooting 22lr in all sorts of platforms you most certainly can go 1000s of rounds before any deep disassembly cleaning. Was not hard for me and my brother to dump 500 rounds each range trip a few times a week over the summer. Plus the thousands of rounds over the few weeks camping.
Same with barrel cleaning. There is no real need to clean a 22lr barrel other than a few patches after range trips. One wet , few dry, then one wet for storage.
the mk 1-3 are not hard to take down or put together its the dick dance of of inversion of the pistol and when or when not to pull the trigger people get wrong.
 
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mac1911 said:
the mk 1-3 are not hard to take down or put together its the dick dance of of inversion of the pistol and when or when not to pull the trigger people get wrong.
Click to expand...

Perfect description 😂😂😂

Dick dance... I can’t stop laughing 😂
 
Last edited:
ScottS said:
I'd simply expand upon this excellent advice by adding "NEVER BUY A GSG FIREFLY," which is simply the Sig Mosquito rebranded. What a terrible design. I worked so hard to get the Mosquito to run, because on paper it looked like the perfect trainer for my daughter: "85% the size of the Sig P-series," same controls, etc. It even looked like it would work. But that was as close as it got. What a piece of shit. Even with two recoil springs to "tune" the gun to your ammo, it wouldn't run through a magazine, and the DA trigger pull was horrendous. I wanted to take a sawzall to it and just destroy it.

But, I'm surprised no one in this thread has suggested the pistol that took its place: the M&P22 Compact, an excellent design that does everything you'd want in a pistol. It's the right size, feeds everything I've ever thrown at it, affordable, accurate enough for a plinker, adjustable sights, good aftermarket support, excellent factory support, and its standard "slide-and-frame" design builds skills that are directly transferrable to larger handguns. As I've mentioned before, I own a number of them I use as the supplied-pistol for NRA Basic Pistol, and they've never let me down. That's a lot of rounds by shooters of various abilities, and the gun just performs.

AND, they're great suppressor hosts, so there's that.

View attachment 377599
Click to expand...

m&p compact is a great .22. Here with Taurus.
E2D3E6A3-3AA4-4B8B-A2EA-14904F6352FA.jpeg 4449CFE3-DE87-4F4A-8E41-AD38A3AE521B.jpeg
 
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Lennypeters said:
The only 2 things to pay attention to when reassembling the early Ruger MK series are make sure the hammer is forward and hold the pistol so that the hammer strut falls into the mainspring housing when you close the lever. I shot one in gallery competition for years and never understood the fuss about assembly.
Click to expand...


That is exactly right. Hammer back when you install the bolt. Pull the trigger, hammer forward. Muzzle up at 45 deg, insert spring, close latch lever.

DONE.

If you have a Mk3 and weren't properly coached to replace the mag safety with a bushing, (it not only disables the mag safety, it allows mags to drop free) then you need to insert a mag to move hammer forward and then remove the mag. Another reason to remove the mag safety.
 
One other interesting gun. Though its vaporware at this point in time is the KelTec P17.

Nice trigger, 16 round mags, light, reasonably accurate. And under $200.

I fondled one but did not shoot it. Time will tell. But it is interesting. Looks like it has the makings of a great backpacking gun.
 
slap shot said:
Didn’t we just do this? [rofl]

mark IV excellent as well as many others.

I’m still recommending the Taurus TX-22 for anyone looking for a great option.
Click to expand...

I have a TX-22 but if the OP is in Mass I'd recommend the Mark IV. The TX-22 really shines with its 16 round magazine that can be turned into a 19 round magazine with a +3 base plate and its threaded barrel for a suppressor. Neither of those features are of much use if you can't have them or use them so go with the Mark IV.
 
Browning Buckmark. Bought mine new in 1988 and it's one of my few "always comes along" on range trips. Love it.

I have been looking at a 22/45, but haven't... pulled the trigger, yet. :)
 

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