What's with all the bad press on the Walther P22?

I wasn't dedicated to any particular .22 when I was looking. After a lot of research and a trip to the store, I brought home a MarkIII due to:
1) A number of the ones I looked up seemed to be picky with ammo. I don't recall which one it was, but one recommended that only CCI mini-mags be used. The mkIII got consistent reviews about eating everything without a problem.
2) I didn't really have an idea of the pistol size when I was researching. When I went to the store, the mkIII was the only one I could comfortably hold with my pretty large hands.
 
wargamer2009 said:
i have one, my wife has one.
we love the P22
i also bought the P99 in 9mm and 40S&W
all work fine.
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shocked.gif
 
LenS said:
When my Wife became interested in shooting I bought a new one for her to use. It jammed (FTF, FTE) continually on 5 different brands/types of ammo. I polished the feedramp and sold it here on NES (with full disclosure). New buyer initially had no problems with it and later re-sold it.

I had lots of practice clearing jams with it and it aggravated both my Wife and myself.

End of story.
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That would be me. I don't know Len was feeding it, but I put several hundred CCI 22LR minimags through it without a single problem. I sold it only because it's grip was too small.
 
One of the first guns I bought for my better half:

- Will jam on cheap ammo - cci mini mags work great
- Grip is tiny for me
- Friends have dropped the mag while shooting it... not I, I'm sure it's the way they hold it
- Pain in the rear to re-assemble after cleaning. VERY VERY ANNOYING

With that said, the choices for .22cal semi-autos are few, and from my research they all seemed to have some kind of problem except for the Ruger MK3. Of course it's the ugliest gone of the bunch and the fiancee didn't want it.

I still have it.
 
I can't speak for the P22 other than everyone I know who has one thinks its a great gun for the money. I did have experience with a Sig Mosquito. Constant jamming, misfires, miss-feeds and eventually the last straw was when the safety broke and wouldn't fire. I brought it to a certified sig gun smith to work out the feed ramp and no change. I know there was no change because I wrote down how many rounds I put through it and how many malfunctioned. It was about a 20% malfunction rate right out of the box and right up till trading it in. I have a Ruger MKIII and a handful malfunctions in 3000+ rounds and they were due to dead ammo that didn't fire.
 
Mine has been fine for the most part. It doesn't seem to like lead ammo, but will run fine on copper jacketed or "washed" ammo. The only FTFs I've had are from lead ammo. I think I had that roll pin problem once, but not I can't remember. It's pretty accurate with the 5" barrel. It can be a pain to reassemble, but it's not bad once you get the hang of it.

I have heard stories of slides cracking and general frailty but maybe I haven't shot it enough to reach that point.
 
I bought one myself in Feb. Its a fun gun for me, at least to practice with. I have small hands so I have no problem with the grip. It is a job to reasemble after cleaning, I have done it once. No problem with ftf, I use the same ammo I use for my 15-22. I have maybe shot 200+ rounds so far, as I only have 2 mags for it. Most of my range time is spent with my M&P 15-22, which I just love!!! I bring my P22 along to get some practice on, before going back to my M&P 9c. For the money, its an Ok gun. I am thinking of an 1911 for my next one, but not sure yet what one to buy.
 
Mine jammed CONSTANTLY. I was tired of dealing with it, plus it was kind of a pain to get back together after breaking down. The one cool, though, was I had the model with the laser and it was fun on it (when it wasn't jamming).
 
The Walther factory laser is a great addition to the gun...a lot of fun, and a great buy.

I think I spent about $80.00 on it a few years ago.
 
I have one but will sell it. Loves to jam, I've heard certain ammo, fixes, etc help but whatever. I want to use the cheap .22 boxes, that's the whole point. The construction is cheap also. They use cheap pot metal to make the rails for the slide, so it dents and wears quickly. The shape, size and feel is great, but they should have used better materials.
 
Glad to see this thread still kicking around. After five pages of commentary it seems this is a love/hate relationship. Either you've had no issues with it, or you detest this thing with every fiber of it's being and have had multiple problems with it.
I'm still going strong at a couple hundred rounds...
 
Mine (2007 model w/ laser) works like a charm. I only use CCI MiniMags. I have done all the improvements listed on the "P22 Bible". I love to tinker, so I had a ton of fun doing them. I also keep the gun very clean.

The gun is the perfect size for the wife and kids.

My only "gripe" is that the accuracy is not great using the sights. The sights are not made for precision shooting, and the gun is small. All this combined makes getting an accurate shot at a distance is nearly impossible.

I was shooting this weekend with some friends, and I got "owned" when we had a little friendly competition using a poker card target at 25'. Mind you the poker cards are about 2 inches tall and 1 inch wide, but it was nearly impossible to put the bullet where you wanted.
 
drgrant said:
The only upshot to the P22 is that it is smaller and lighter.
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Which is a good thing if you're going to be teaching women (with smaller hands) and kids, for example.

drgrant said:
One word of warning though, DO NOT feed [strike]it[/strike] any gun remington thunderbolts.
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FIFY.

M1911 said:
I've seen several on the range at my club. They were simply unreliable. FTF, FTE, FTGB, etc. Why buy a P22 when a Ruger MKII or MKIII is so much more gun?
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See my first comment above - the Ruger can be a bit of a handful for shooters with smaller/weaker hands.

s4mt3k said:
Pain in the rear to re-assemble after cleaning. VERY VERY ANNOYING
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You've never disassembled a Ruger Mark III, have you? [rofl2]
 
I did handle a Ruger, a couple years back, when I was looking for a first gun. It was just too heavy for me, and I never cared for the look of it either. It was a MK 2or 3. not sure which one.
 
i had a p22 for my grandson and i to use on the range. we never had any feeding or extraction problems with it. we put about 1k rounds through it but could not get to much accuracy out of it. i traded it in on a s&w 22A with a laser already mounted. i got a decent trade at my local shop for it. after a few range sessions with the new one it is very accurate and fun to shoot, my wife even likes to shoot it but then she likes shooting all my guns along with hers.
 
I was just at the range today when a member came by to shoot his walther p22. He had failures to extract or failures to feed on about 25% of his shots. I fired four rounds out of it, and the accuracy sucked as well. All around a crappy gun. A Ruger Mk II is so much more gun.
 
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dwarven1 said:
Which is a good thing if you're going to be teaching women (with smaller hands) and kids, for example.

[rofl2]
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I agree and disagree here... Yes, it is a great size and weight for new/ young/ inexperienced shooters.

However, The notoriously bad accuracy can really turn people off very quickly too. It is near impossible to correct shooter issue when you don't have a consistent shot pattern. And very discouraging for the newbie shooter that isn't able to see any positive results. They do everything right and don't hit the target.
 

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