JohnMcD348
Member
I own a couple of M&P22 compacts. I bought a His and Hers for the wife and I. As we all know, the rear sight is terrible on these pistols. That screw set thats there to addjust the rear sight loves to unscrew itself while you shoot it. I've shot 3 of these, including the two I own, and every one of them had the same screw issue. I needed to get something on them that was consistent and accurate because the wife and I are going to a Pistolseed event in the next few weeks. So, over the last 6 months or so, this is what I've done.
1st thing I tried was updating the sights with the Dawson sight set. I've got a few Dawson sights on other pistols, but for some reason, these just didn't want to hit well. Both sets shot high and I just asn't able to get a consistent grouping to be able to send off to Dawson for them to send me a corrected sight. Their CS was great. I emailed them about it and they told me exactly what to do and who to send the information to so they could send us the best sight to correct the issue. I don't know why, but I couldn't group, even though I shot it off a rest. I thought it was me, but I also shot my other two M&P9's, my 1911, and my 686 of the rest and they all grouped great.
So, I took those sights off and reinstalled the Factory original sights. What I did for the rear Windage set screw was appllied PURPLE Loctite 222( Loctite 222 Site ) and it worked really well. It's a low strength version that holds the screw in place, but allows it to be adjusted. The sight was Ok, and it holds it's adjustment now. I started wondering about going with an optic instead. I have one on my M&P9 Compact that the wife bought for her carry and she was asking about putting one on her pistol so it was similar to help with training and practice. Around that same week, I was talking with the lead instructor for the Psitolseed event and he said they're finding that people who show up to their events with optics seem to do better by the end of the weekend that those who use iron sights or those who use Irons with or without laser aiming devices on their underlug rail.
SO...... Now I began a search for Optic mounts for the M&P22 Compact. I found the ones from EGW, at their sight (EGW Optic Mount) and got them in and mounted our Holosun 507 sights on the pistol. I got them bore sighted at home, using a small, .22cal bullet laser device and all looked good. Got them to the range the next day and FAILURE TO FEED, FAILURE TO CYCLE. We were using the same 40gr CCI Mini-Mag that I've been firing in all of my .22s for the last few years now. We shot one magazine full and left. We got 10 good shots and 10 good practice moments for FTF drills with that one magazine. Between the weight of the mount and the sight, the rated 1235fps, 40gr and the 1260fps 36gr CCI's were not enough to cycle the slide with that much weight on the back end. Made a few calls around to the local Shops and found one that had the 1400+fps Stingers, Velocitors, and Winchester Hyper 22's. Just happens that the store I found them at also had an indoor range, so I bought a box of each. Stingers were a No-Go. They worked just slightly better than the Mini-Mags and would function with 2 or 3 shots without having to hand-cycle the pistol. Winchester Hyper-X 22, there was 1 time that I got 3 consecutive shots without hand-cycling the pistol out of 3 magazines I tried. The CCI Velocitor 22s were the game changer in the pistol. I shot 100rnds(2 boxes) and it worked every time without any issues. I bought a few more boxes and took the wife back to the range this past weekend. We ran about 250 rounds through both pistols and got the 507c sighted in and practiced with a few of the Appleseeds targets that we'll be using during the Pistolseed and the psitols worked great. Using the 7yd Pistol target, I was able to hit and group hits in every area, including Major Pitcairn's Button.
With my Google searches that I started after the first Range trip, I found a few other forum threads around at other sites where others have worked out the whole weight issue with the .22 compact. Some have gone through and searched for the lightest sight and mounting options possible. I went the other way and got lucky to find ammunition that would work with the weight.
Hope the infor helps others who want to put a Optic on their M&P22 Compacts. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them.
John
1st thing I tried was updating the sights with the Dawson sight set. I've got a few Dawson sights on other pistols, but for some reason, these just didn't want to hit well. Both sets shot high and I just asn't able to get a consistent grouping to be able to send off to Dawson for them to send me a corrected sight. Their CS was great. I emailed them about it and they told me exactly what to do and who to send the information to so they could send us the best sight to correct the issue. I don't know why, but I couldn't group, even though I shot it off a rest. I thought it was me, but I also shot my other two M&P9's, my 1911, and my 686 of the rest and they all grouped great.
So, I took those sights off and reinstalled the Factory original sights. What I did for the rear Windage set screw was appllied PURPLE Loctite 222( Loctite 222 Site ) and it worked really well. It's a low strength version that holds the screw in place, but allows it to be adjusted. The sight was Ok, and it holds it's adjustment now. I started wondering about going with an optic instead. I have one on my M&P9 Compact that the wife bought for her carry and she was asking about putting one on her pistol so it was similar to help with training and practice. Around that same week, I was talking with the lead instructor for the Psitolseed event and he said they're finding that people who show up to their events with optics seem to do better by the end of the weekend that those who use iron sights or those who use Irons with or without laser aiming devices on their underlug rail.
SO...... Now I began a search for Optic mounts for the M&P22 Compact. I found the ones from EGW, at their sight (EGW Optic Mount) and got them in and mounted our Holosun 507 sights on the pistol. I got them bore sighted at home, using a small, .22cal bullet laser device and all looked good. Got them to the range the next day and FAILURE TO FEED, FAILURE TO CYCLE. We were using the same 40gr CCI Mini-Mag that I've been firing in all of my .22s for the last few years now. We shot one magazine full and left. We got 10 good shots and 10 good practice moments for FTF drills with that one magazine. Between the weight of the mount and the sight, the rated 1235fps, 40gr and the 1260fps 36gr CCI's were not enough to cycle the slide with that much weight on the back end. Made a few calls around to the local Shops and found one that had the 1400+fps Stingers, Velocitors, and Winchester Hyper 22's. Just happens that the store I found them at also had an indoor range, so I bought a box of each. Stingers were a No-Go. They worked just slightly better than the Mini-Mags and would function with 2 or 3 shots without having to hand-cycle the pistol. Winchester Hyper-X 22, there was 1 time that I got 3 consecutive shots without hand-cycling the pistol out of 3 magazines I tried. The CCI Velocitor 22s were the game changer in the pistol. I shot 100rnds(2 boxes) and it worked every time without any issues. I bought a few more boxes and took the wife back to the range this past weekend. We ran about 250 rounds through both pistols and got the 507c sighted in and practiced with a few of the Appleseeds targets that we'll be using during the Pistolseed and the psitols worked great. Using the 7yd Pistol target, I was able to hit and group hits in every area, including Major Pitcairn's Button.
With my Google searches that I started after the first Range trip, I found a few other forum threads around at other sites where others have worked out the whole weight issue with the .22 compact. Some have gone through and searched for the lightest sight and mounting options possible. I went the other way and got lucky to find ammunition that would work with the weight.
Hope the infor helps others who want to put a Optic on their M&P22 Compacts. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them.
John
