I went to Texas this past week for a visit with an old compadre. My lovely bride and I were guests with my old pal, an 82 year young WWII Marine vet.

We all went to his local club range for some cap busting, and I took my new-to-me 1953 K22. We had a real blast, and the K22 shot beautifully. At fifteen to twenty yards or so, the K22 was a breeze to keep in a baseball size group or slightly smaller for six shots, either double or single action. This is pretty good shooting for me from offhand. The gun would probably shoot even more impressive itty bitty groups from a rest, but I just shot it off my hind legs.

We also shot my pard's Smith 351 PD .22 magnum with Crimson Trace laser grips, and that was fun.

A youngish 30 something like me went with us- he's a local shooting buddy of my old compadre and a full time member of the Texas National Guard and an armorer and gun guy of the first order.

He got similar results to me when shooting the K22 and was quite impressed. He said he had never been a big Smith revolver fan, but after shooting the K22 admitted it was a mighty fine shooting gun. He also said I probably had cost him some money because he was going to be looking for one to add to his battery!

I'm posting a pic of me popping off some rounds with my new treasure.

After the range trip we repaired to a local eatery that had some of the tastiest burgers this side of the Rio Grande and discussed the festivities. My bride allowed as how the 351 PD with laser was a neat set-up. She also liked the laser with the Beretta 92 that she tried. Guess I need to get one of those for her Beretta now- it's the old duty gun I carried when I first got into law enforcement.

The laser might be a bit of a cheat, but like they used to say, "if you're not cheating, you're not trying..."

All in all we had a splendid day of shooting and the K22 impressed me. I only tried two types of ammo, high speed Federal and standard velocity Winchester. It seemed to shoot both equally well and I didn't touch the sights. I'll experiment some more on my home grounds and get serious with some rested shooting to see if I can find a load the gun especially likes.

If you've read this far, thanks for your indulgence.

I went to Texas this past week for a visit with an old compadre. My lovely bride and I were guests with my old pal, an 82 year young WWII Marine vet.

We all went to his local club range for some cap busting, and I took my new-to-me 1953 K22. We had a real blast, and the K22 shot beautifully. At fifteen to twenty yards or so, the K22 was a breeze to keep in a baseball size group or slightly smaller for six shots, either double or single action. This is pretty good shooting for me from offhand. The gun would probably shoot even more impressive itty bitty groups from a rest, but I just shot it off my hind legs.

We also shot my pard's Smith 351 PD .22 magnum with Crimson Trace laser grips, and that was fun.

A youngish 30 something like me went with us- he's a local shooting buddy of my old compadre and a full time member of the Texas National Guard and an armorer and gun guy of the first order.

He got similar results to me when shooting the K22 and was quite impressed. He said he had never been a big Smith revolver fan, but after shooting the K22 admitted it was a mighty fine shooting gun. He also said I probably had cost him some money because he was going to be looking for one to add to his battery!

I'm posting a pic of me popping off some rounds with my new treasure.

After the range trip we repaired to a local eatery that had some of the tastiest burgers this side of the Rio Grande and discussed the festivities. My bride allowed as how the 351 PD with laser was a neat set-up. She also liked the laser with the Beretta 92 that she tried. Guess I need to get one of those for her Beretta now- it's the old duty gun I carried when I first got into law enforcement.

The laser might be a bit of a cheat, but like they used to say, "if you're not cheating, you're not trying..."

All in all we had a splendid day of shooting and the K22 impressed me. I only tried two types of ammo, high speed Federal and standard velocity Winchester. It seemed to shoot both equally well and I didn't touch the sights. I'll experiment some more on my home grounds and get serious with some rested shooting to see if I can find a load the gun especially likes.

If you've read this far, thanks for your indulgence.

I own three K22 successors (17-5 8 3/8", 617-no dash, 6", 617-1 4") and they're all wonderful guns. I've discovered that all three of them love Federal bulk ammo, which you can buy at Walmart for about $14 for a box of 550. That's slightly more than two cents per round, by my estimate.