22 Handgun
 

I'm in the market for a 22lr handgun. It will be used primarily for cheap handgun practice. Would like to be at $300 or less. What out there is decent at this price point? Also, anyone have any experience with the Walther P22?

Here's a pretty good discussion on the Walther P22 and the Ruger SR22 that you might find helpful. The Ruger is about $100 less than the Walther and appears to be in your price range.

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/ru...2-walther-p22/

I'm not as much a fan of the "combat style" 22LR pistols out there as I am of traditional style 22's, like the Ruger Mark III or Browning Buckmark.

For combat style, I have the Sig Mosquito and Ruger SR22, I tend to favor the Sig for my larger mitts. My sis has a Walther P22, nothing wrong with it, but I prefer not to give my money to Smith & Wesson when I can avoid it.

For a practice pistol, however, a Ruger Mark III or Buckmark is a better choice. I have a beretta Neos also, it's a level behind, but also a price point lower too. I just ordered a Ruger Mark III blued taper barrel 6" for $310 to be a gift for one of my wife's friends that is learning how to handgun, pretty good price on an all steel pistol these days. The Ruger 22/45 has a different feel than the Mark III but has the same reliable and durable action, and can be had for under $300, wanna say I saw them listed for $275.

If you're considering the Walther you may want to take a look at the Bersa Thunder 22LR. It is a Walther copy without the price tag. Check out the reviews on it. I have one in .380 and it keeps on shooting with no malfunctions.
If you are considering a revolver and don't mind the extra weight than look a the Taurus Tracker line. They will shoot right along side any more expensive revolver. I have the Trackers in .22lr, 17HMR and .44 mag.

Instead of a 22LR, get a .22Mag and use it also for personal defense. Better penetration with the 22Mag.

Here's one 22 mag, of several out there.

My dad has a Browning Buckmark... nice gun, and shoots very well as a stock gun.

The Ruger 22/45 looks interesting and is in my price range. Any real world experience out there?

I have 2 of them, one a target bull barrel, one a "Lite". Same action as the Mark I/II/III that I hold so beloved, but a cheaper grip frame. The bolt release is a little different, but it's functional. Reliable, durable, but balanced differently than the same upper on a Mark III since it has a lot less weight in hand (polymer grip vs. steel).

The sub-$300 22/45 we almost ordered for my wife's friend is one of the molded panel grip frames, whereas I much prefer the feel of the models which use replaceable 1911 style panels. The target bull barrel with removable panels I have is $320 now, wanna say I paid $275 for it a couple years ago.

The 22/45's are exactly what they should be. They shoot straight, they run right, aftermarket part support is good, customer service from Ruger is top notch, and they're not insulting to the pocket book nor sensible eye.

I have a Browning Buckmark and love the gun. It's a little on the large side but very accurate and nice to shoot. I have had it for years, I believe mine is the Camper model.

Heavily leaning toward a Ruger 22/45. Hopefully I can find one locally to fondle.

I have a Walther P22 (suppressed) & it jams quite often. Also have a Ruger Mark2 which I love!

One really can't go wrong with a Ruger. They make quality products. If the 22/45 is what you like and feels good then by all means get it.
Another 22 handgun I own that is super accurate is my GSG (German Sport Gun) 1911. It has the look and feel of the 1911 albeit a bit lighter. But it shoots really well.

that looks like a nice gun they make a 4.2" barrel model # 72342 i'm going to buy one of those! you cost me 400 bucks ! lol

I have a Ruger Mark 3. Nice good looking gun. Just as accurate as any other 22 handgun I've shot if not more. I recommend the Mark 3 Hunter.

363.00 over at buds

yeah but shipping will add to that i will try to find one here in arizona. i own a freedom arms model 83 .22lr and a .22 mag cylinder but i only use it to hunt so this will be nice to carry and not worry about a 2500 dollar gun getting all beat up !

Just bought a handgun recently and shipping was free. Also, no tax was added.

well in that case i'll check that out thanks !!!

It's going to be really REALLY hard to beat a Ruger 22/45 MK2 if you can find 1, or MK3 if you can't find a MK2 22/45. They sell them at kygunco for 259$ new. I can easily walk anybody through converting a MK3 back to MK2 style, getting rid of the stupid mag disconnect safety, making field stripping MUCH easier!

I ended up getting a 22/45, target, bull barrel with the removable grip panels. Put a couple hundred rounds through it today. Funnest gun I've shot in a while. More accurate than me, good trigger, balanced well and points naturally. Couldn't be happier. Would highly recommend to anyone in the market for a 22 handgun.

I have had a number of 22 autos and some have found new homes but the ones I kept are the Ruger MKIIs and a MKIII.

When I worked for the Army Small Cal Lab one of the guys in our office said this commercial range rented Rugers MKIIs to shoot and he said they looked well worn. I asked to find out if the range kept round records on their stock and he did.

The only thing they could come up with was the total number of 22 LR rounds they had purchased and divide that by six MKIIs and it was 315,000 average per gun. Obviously some could have had less and some could have had lots more.

The Chief of Police in a close by town is a good friend and I got my MK III and scoped it and had it zeroed at 50 yards POA/POI and I called him and told him to ease out to my place. He did and I let him shoot it and after a box of ammo went down range he said, "I have got to have one of these!" He went to local gun supply place and ordered one and I put the scope on for him.

He has about 20 pecan trees in his back yard and he has done in about 200 squirrels that came to remove his pecans over the years. He takes them out at 50 to about 80 yards shooting out of his bedroom which is on second floor.

I can confirm Nomercy448's statements about them.

I got certified by the State Law Enforcement Div to teach CWP classes. Most of my students have never shot a handgun and I teach them the basics and I tell them to bring 500 rounds of 22, ears, glasses and thats all. I supply range, targets etc and teach them the basics before I let them try and qualify and I allow them to use my MKIIs and I also have two S&W 22 K frame revolvers. My lowest qualifiers have fired 98s, most shoot 100. I do not let them shoot "the course" till I know they know sight alignment, trigger control and can hit a 1" dot at 7 yards seven out of ten shots.

Well, I have about 1200 rounds through this lil 22/45. Only issue I had was the silly magazine disconnect. First shot wouldn't go if I didn't hammer the magazine home. Replaced the disconnect with a tandemkross bushing, what a freaking mess that was. Took about 10 minutes to disassemble and insert new bushing. Took about 2 days to get that miserable thing back together.

Which part(s) of take-down and reassembly gave you fits? Most Ruger Mark I/II/III's and 22/45's have a dreadfully tight bolt stop pin, but once you get it driven out, a few minutes with emory cloth will help make take-down much easier. Getting everything back in place is kinda annoying, since it's such tight quarters in there for man-sized fingers, and there are a few tricks to get things taken apart, but just doing a hammer bushing shouldn't take too much out of a guys afternoon.

Assuming my batch of parts come in this week, and assuming I can get some shop time over the holiday weekend, I'll be doing an action job on another Mark III next weekend. Hopefully remember to take some pictures along the way and post up a thread in the Gunsmithing Projects Sub-forum.

Actually I had multiple issues, all of which won't happen again. I feel very confident that I could disassemble and reassemble without any issues now that I understand the design. Here were my problems:
1) Bolt stop pin was rediculously tight, wasn't expecting that. Took nearly everything I had to get it back together. After a couple dozen tries (actually several dozen), it loosened somewhat.
2) Sear fell back under hammer when replacing bushing, didn't catch this one until I tried to reassemble about the 5th time
3) Got it all put back together (got lucky), putting grips on and I noticed the sear pin had slipped and was sticking out of frame on 1 side and not the other. Had to tear down again.
4) To slide bolt in, you have to lower hammer. To get main spring in, you have to pull trigger and release hammer. Where I had most issues was the hammer strut would get caught between sear pin and main spring. I realized that by tilting barrel of gun back just prior to closing main spring, strut would rotate into cup of main spring before closing.

What a crazy freaking design this thing is. Now that I understand it, field stripping won't be much of an issue. Funnest darned gun I've bought in many moons.

My sister had to fix her 22/45 magazine disconnect thing ma jiggy also. They better get on that. Because I won't buy anything but the old 22/45's.

Yeah - Wayspr, the Mark I/II/III design really wasn't meant to be serviced beyond an oil change by the owner. Compared to other pistols of its day, it's not really that complicated, but it's certainly not intuitive, certainly not short on parts count, and it's certainly VERY easy to slip up for a first-timer who doesn't know exactly how to hold their tongue when disassembling and reassembling.

The Mag disconnect was nothing but negatively received. That and a few other "safety features" came at a time where Ruger was kowtowing to the anti-gun lobby. A few models have since been offered with these features removed (LC9s Pro, for example), but largely, Ruger views the mag disconnect as a necessary safety feature.

Luckily, there are plenty of Mark II hammer bushings out there to be had to eliminate the Mag disconnect in the Mark III: Clark Custom Guns, Tandemkross, Volquartsen, etc. I've bought enough bushings for what I have, and a bunch of extras to have on hand in case they dry up in the future. Pretty easy part to have machined, but custom bushings cost a lot more than $10.

Even though I'm only teaching once or twice a year these days, I'm a handgun instructor at heart, so I can appreciate how many times I've seen ND's from "empty" pistols with no magazine at the range. For pure greenhorns, it's a nice safety feature to prevent this from happening. BUT, on the other hand, for pure green horns, it's really easy to forget to put the mag back in or take the mag back out at the right times during disassembly and reassembly. The latter causes much more frustration than the former. For us experienced cats, it's frustrating to not be able to dry fire the weapon and cycle on a no-mag condition.

But I do agree with Wayspr - the Mark I/II/III's and 22/45's bring an undeniable level of shooting enjoyment which is a rare simple pleasure today.

If only it was as easy to find bulk 22LR to keep them fed as it used to be!