Is the M&P 15-22 a good first gun?

[GRAYSTER]

Hey all,

I'm looking at buying my first gun . Everyone has been saying that the M&P 15-22 is an amazing gun for the price. I, however, do not know much about it. I have been reading forum posts and have come to the decision that many people do love this rifle. Is there anything I should know about it before committing? What are the pros and cons? I probably will not be using it for hunting.

 

[w0ady]

well what will be the main usage? if its for nothing better than shooting paper targets at the range, its a great option. reliable, accurate, cheap to shoot. if its going to be for protection and range, then id go more with a .38 revolver or 9mm semi.

 

[Snake Plissken]

Welcome to the forums, Buying your first gun is awesome thing. You should decide what your gun needs are going to be for like plinking, defense, hunting ect. No doubt it would be a fun purchase, good luck on your decision.

 

[GRAYSTER]

It will mainly be used for plinking and home defense. Thanks for replying.

 

[Majorlk]

It will mainly be used for plinking and home defense. Thanks for replying.

Plinking, yes; home defense, not so much.

There are many threads on using a .22 LR and most knowledgable shooters agree that it would be the caliber of last resort for home defense. Virtually any pistol round larger than .380 ACP is a much superior choice.

The purpose of a self-defense round is to STOP an aggressor in his tracks. Absent a direct shot into an eye socket or ear opening, the .22 LR simply is not a reliable stopper.

 

[Desert Five-0]

Not good for home defense.

For a first gun a .22 is great because the ammo is cheap and you can practice the fundamentals of marksmanship. I might suggest a Ruger 10-22 for a first gun. They are a quality gun that dose not cost as much. There are also a ton of aftermarket accessories for it. If you are set on a 15-22 I am not going to talk you out of it though.

If you want something for self defense, a .22 is not something I would trust. Maybe get started on a .22 rifle and after you get used to shooting make your decision on a more appropriate home defense gun.

Whatever you decide, make sure to take a firearms safety and familiarization class if you don't know much about guns. I see too many people doing unsafe things at the range and I would hate for you make a horrible mistake.

 

[rraisley]

What experience, if any, do you have with shooting? Every shoot a friend's gun? What was it? Did you enjoy it? Are you looking for a Tool, or a Toy? (Not saying they can't be the same thing, but a tool needs to fit the purpose, while a toy just needs to be fun.)

 

[ultraman702]

As a first gun, I'd give it a "thumbs up". It's very reliable and easy to maintain. Cleaning is a snap since tear-down is pretty straight-forward as well as re-assembly.

It's a fun rifle and I'm having a great time with mine. The factory sights are decent, but adding a red dot raised the "fun factor" for me.

 

[w0ady]

It will mainly be used for plinking and home defense. Thanks for replying.

then no, i would not purchase it until maybe your third gun.

again for your first, i would go with a .38 revolver or 9mm semi. the revolver is nice because it has less moving parts. 9mm is a good starter round too because of lower recoil and price. if you have a gun range that allows you to rent, that would be a great place to start trying stuff out. you want to find something that is comfortable for you to shoot, accurate and reliable.

your second gun could be a nice .22 pistol similar in function to your first that would be for cheap practice. then for your third, you could pick up the 15-22 as a fun plinking gun.

 

[Ghost_Soldier]

Great advice from everybody as usual.

I think a good shotgun like a remington 870 12g would make a good first firearm, it might not be as fun at the range as a 15-22 but it would be the best option for home defense IMO. Ammo isn't to expensive either.

 

[copper06]

I'll tilt the hat towards saying that the 15-22 is a fine first firearm. Learning that firearm I would contend is more important than the firearm itself. Sight alignment, breath control, trigger squeeze, safety, safety, safety.

As someone mentioned the 22lr is not optimal home defense, however, in skilled hands and as your only/primary firearm, a 15-22 in my opinion is just fine. When things go bump in the middle of the night and you're called upon to defend yourself and/or your family, there are far worse weapons out there to do it with.

There's also the school of thought that your 15-22 looks like a full blown AR type rifle which most any bad guy knows what they are capable of. The 15-22 has 10 round/25 round capability depending on the laws in your state. I wouldn't want to get shot by one round let alone 10 or 25.

The inexpensive ammo of the 22lr coupled with good teaching, lots of practice, while also enjoying yourself shooting will go a long ways in deciding on down the road if you need something bigger/better for home defense.

Again, this is just my opinion on what your original question was, not meant to open a debate on what is a good home defense gun as there is plenty of material available for learning about that.

Best of luck in whatever you choose!!

 

[hkyplr]

While everyone will agree that a .22 is not the ideal home defense round, it is better than what you have now. If you get a 15-22, you can shoot it a lot, cheaper than anything short of another .22. You have to decide what is your primary reason for buying a firearm, shooting for fun or having a HD firearm, then go from there.

Good Luck!

 

[stimp82]

I would go with the 15-22. I do agree with ghost soldier that a shotgun should be your main home defense weapon. But if you do use the 15-22 as your home defense weapon I would buy a few extra mags and keep them loaded at all times and keep them locked up with your 15-22. It's important that become proficient with mag changes and clearing malfunctions. Yes, the 15-22 isn't ideal for home defense but it's better then a golf club. As far as plinking, you can't go wrong with this rifle.
It's by far my favorite rifle to take to the range. It's inexpensive to shoot. Plus there are millions of different accessories you can get for this rifle.

 

[GRAYSTER]

After reading everything, I will buy it. I am also going to look into a remington 870 12g for HD. Unfortunately, I am not old enough to buy a handgun.

 

[hkyplr]

After reading everything, I will buy it. I am also going to look into a remington 870 12g for HD. Unfortunately, I am not old enough to buy a handgun.

Good luck with it, you will have lots of fun!

 

[stimp82]

You won't be disappointed! Just a heads up, midwayusa.com has M&P 15-22 25round mags on sale right for $14.99. I personally have 7 mags. I like to load them before I go to range.

 

[Desert Five-0]

Since you made your decision, a few words of advice. Do not go out and buy a bunch of accessories right away as tempting as it may be. I would get at least 2 or 3 more magazines. Shoot with the iron sights for a while. Everyone should start on iron sights in my opinion.

 

[DelFuego]

Hey all,

I'm looking at buying my first gun . Everyone has been saying that the M&P 15-22 is an amazing gun for the price. I, however, do not know much about it. I have been reading forum posts and have come to the decision that many people do love this rifle. Is there anything I should know about it before committing? What are the pros and cons? I probably will not be using it for hunting.

I love this rifle. That being said, here is my take on the 15-22:

1. This rifle will be cheaper to practice with than just about anything else because the ammo is so inexpensive.

2. A lot of people on this forum end up spending about $1,000 total, including the price of the rifle, before they are satisfied with it. You'll end up buying extra magazines, scopes, bipods, tactical bottle openers, and who knows what else.

3. It is an addictive choice. You WILL accessorize it no matter what you say at first. I think this rifle appeals to those of us who have no self-control, when it comes to buying new stuff for it.

4. Other than spending double the initial outlay for the rifle, their really is nothing on the market that is just as reliable and COOL (tacticool) looking as this rifle.

5. If you are just looking for a .22 rifle, you can spend half the price of a 15-22 to get a very good .22. But, those rifles don't look as neat and threatening to others as the 15-22 does (until you hear it shoot). I guess you can lie to people and tell them your rifle is not loud because it is suppressed.

6. It is a high quality product. I've bought junk before because of the price and lived to regret it a few months down the road.

7. If you take others to the range with you, they will not want to give back your 15-22 until the ammo box is empty.

8. When you go to the range, you will feel like a Smith & Wesson salesman when people start asking you questions about your 15-22.

9. There really is no excuse to not buy one.

10. Within a few months of buying it, you will put 5-10,000 rounds through it without any problems.

 

[Jokiesmurf]

My 2 cent. For home defence. How about a M&P Sport? M&P 15-22 can be find from $450 to $570 & the M&P Sport at $620. It's like the M&P 15-22 but in 5.56 or .223 ammo instead of the 22lr. I am looking around to get one to, to have fun in the range. 40s&w ammo are not cheap like 22lr are. Plus my 8 yr old what to shoot at the range so she can use it also. It will be a good starter gun then in the future a M&P Sport

 

[Razer1]

Welcome to the forum Grayster, and I also say get it! Yeah, what a lot of ppl have been saying about .22 not being a real manstopper at home is true, however, if you do not pannick you could put an aweful lot of .22's into someone also fast and as someone else pointed out, unless the intruder is a firearm owner who is very knowlegeable they are not going to be able to tell it is not a full on AR-15.

And then like you said, get the shotty later to pick up the slack until you are old enough for a hand gun.