# Walther P22 Range Report



## Psycho-82

Well my first thoughts of the P22 were nicely built and good quality. It was an early Christmas present for my wife. We took it out with 3 different types of ammo because i kinda figured a .22lr might me picky on ammo and i was right! We used:

Winchester Wildcat: This was the worst ammo we tried in the bunch for this weapon. Had multiple stove pipes, a couple failure to eject, and 3 stuck cartridges that i had to use a rod to get out. With that being said the extractor spring seams to be a bit weak as i played with getting one out i just used more hand pressure on the extractor itself to grab the rim and the cartridge pulled right out.

Winchester Xpert HB: Not to many of these were used so i cant say to much, however the ones we did use it failed to feed a few times with this ammo and so we had to rack the upper in order to get another round to feed.

Remington Golden Bullet: This ammo worked the best in this weapon as we had zero problems with it! Firing the pistol with this ammo made it feel better in my hand as well.

After about 200 rounds of mainly the crappy stuff through i checked the barrel after i removed a cartridge that didnt extract i noticed a MASSIVE amount of lead fouling! So much so that you couldnt see the rifling.

We changed the sights around as well to get it zeroed in and both, the front sight post (easy to change out) and rear sights were easy to adjust.

Overall i enjoyed shooting it with the ammo that worked best in it! Also since ive never really dealt with this amount of lead fouling.... whats a good product to use to get it out!?


----------



## buck32

Shooters Bore and Sweets are a couple that come to mind. There are many on the market now and if you wait long enough a few more will chime in on this thread.


----------



## knoxrocks222

wire brush........my p22 wouldnt shoot anything but cci stingers


----------



## MITCH

Had the same ammo problem with my P22. Will shoot stingers just fine, a little expensive. Also CCI Mini=Mags at about $8.00 per 100 rounds work just as well as the stingers, also Remington Thunder bolts.
Mitch


----------



## Bisley

My short barrel model will only shoot high velocity ammo, reliably. I use either CCI Mini Mags, or Aguila 'Super Extra.' It will shoot several bulk pack Remingtons before choking up, but is a single shot with Federal and Winchester.

Mine is on its way back from the factory. It would not fire, after about the third field-strip...something to do with all that safety crap they put on it, I reckon. S&W/Walther was very prompt about the service - 8 day turnaround, if I had been home to accept delivery, yesterday.

It is a fun little gun, and practicing with it has helped to improve my skill at shooting very short pistols. But, if I had it to do over again, I would probably buy a plain-jane Browning Buckmark for the same price.


----------



## ahenthus

I took a buddy to the range today and we fired several hundred rounds in my P22. I have lately been using the Remington 22 Golden bullet and Federal both in 550 value/bonus packs from Walmart. I had never had more than one FTF, if even that, (in 9 months ownership and several thousand rounds), but my buddy brought a Winchester 333 value pack today and had at least one and sometimes 3-4 failures to fire or someother failure such as to cycle the next round with each 10 rd mag. he fired. We looked at the specs and they were all 36 grain HPs. The Winchester was 1290 fps, the Remington 1280 fps and the Federal 1260 fps. Is this typical? I have heard others mention the finiky nature of the P22 as far as ammo goes. Any thoughts on bulk pack ammo? Remember that I had not had trouble from mine until today and it has fired bulk pack almost exclusively since new. No more than 3 50 rd boxes of premium 22 LR in 9 months. What gives?


----------



## fusil

Bonjour,
my P22 shoots anything I feed it. Mostly CCI Blaser. :smt068
You gotta keep it clean or your heading for trouble.


----------



## Freedom

I picked up a P22 a few weeks back. First trip to the range I grabbed Winchester White Box and it failed 3 or 4 times per magazine...essentially a single shot gun. Thought maybe it needed a hotter round for the slide action so I tried 1500 fps Federal Spitfire this weekend with the same problems. I've heard some have succeeded with Rem Golden Bullet, but what gives? I did not expect this gun to be so particular on the ammo. Once I find the right ammo this will be a fun gun, but right now...I'm thinking I should have bought something else.


----------



## BigDaveP

Mine is reliable with Rem. Golden Bullet in bulkpacks, and with Aguila (I think it's called Interceptor, the really fast one)... but it is picky... gotta be high velocity, the slide spring setup is very touchy and won't cycle on any round that's too weak, and that's a LOT of them.. and yeah, if it gets dirty it's done for. 

Also, anyone who just got one, check out the various online versions of the P22 Bible. You got some things to do.


----------



## Freedom

Since my last post I have successfully run several hundred rounds of Rem Golden Bullet and CCI Mini Mag and Stinger. A call into S&W recommended CCI Mini Mag...and the forum members turned me toward Rem Golden Bullet (as ell as CCI). The CCI ammo is difficult to find around here, but would be my choice. The Rem Golden Bullet is pretty messy out of the box - if you like oily, dirty "gold" fingers then Rem Golden is your round...hmmph. With both brands the gun fired fine and I had no failures to feed or eject. I enjoy shooting this gun now and clean it after every trip to the range. A clean P22 is key, as is the ammo. I hope after shooting a few hundred more rounds that my gun will eat the Winchester and cheaper ammo, but if not at least I have found the rounds that work for me.


----------



## cougartex

Thanks for the update.


----------

