M&P 22LR Pistol Range Report

[yardman4]

Picked up the new M&P 22LR pistol Dec 23rd. Right away, I liked the feel of the gun-exactly like the M&P bigger calibers. No interchangable backstraps. 12 round magazine is nice.
I deceided to just take this gun from the box to the range without any type of cleaning or prep. The first day, 200 rounds downrange, no hangups of any kind. After 2 more range trips, the gun has 550 rounds down range. So far, no malfunctions of any kind.
My ammo is a mixture of what I have dumped in a zipper ammo bag. Mostly the Remington bulk HP, along with CCI blazers, Winchester wildcats, and Winchester 555HP.
This guns shoots them all.

I have not really put the gun to paper, but just plinking at a paper plate the gun is right dead on. Plinking cans and other things, I can hit really well.

One of the things I did notice is that the slide recoils briskly, a bit sharper than my Browning buckmark. Trigger pull is about 6.5 pounds, but feels lighter.

Overall, I am very pleased with the gun. I am going to run it without cleaning or lube until it starts to fail. I'd like to see how many rounds it takes before it needs any attention.

S&W has a winner with this 22.

 

[yardman4]

M&P 22

We went to the range today and put 450 rounds thru the gun. Round count is now 1000. Still no failures of any kind. We are still using mixed ammo brands-whatever we pick up gets fed in the magazine. I noticed the front of the barrel and gun now has the grey powdery color.
The gun is still running fine, so we will keep shooting it to see how far it goes before and failures.
This will be updated later.

 

[mikaelo]

I really like the feel of my M&P 22. Not as accurate as a Buckmark long barrel, but thats not what I bought it for. I own a M&P 9c and purchased the 22 to improve my shooting of the 9 and feel it's an excellent trainer for it. Though the trigger is different, I have the stock trigger on the 9, and I think for being made by another company, with a totally different internal design, it's close enough.

Haven't had as good of an experience as you on the ammo though...first box was a Walmart Federal value pack bulk box, it went down with maybe a FTF/Duds every 2-3 mags...then a half brick leftover minimags - no failues...then a Walmart Winchester 555 hollow point box...about the same as the federals...maybe little more, but the gun got alot dirtier. Gonna try a box of remingtons next. Wish I could find a bulk box of round nosed somethings for the <$20 wm price...not sure if its the squared nose of the hp ammo.

Maybe it likes to run wetter...i keep my guns fairly dry with just a thin coat of oil on the wear surfaces. Maybe I need to get some grease for this one...may be particularly good on a spot I noticed on the slide that seem to wear to have lightened the annodization on the inside of the slide.

But all in all i'm happy with it...it feels more like shooting a "real" gun than most .22s I shot.

 

[yardman4]

M&P

I have not done a thing to my gun. No lube---I just took it from the box and started shooting it. I am impressed. Not many guns will go 1000 rounds out of the box without any trouble.
I plan on going to the range next week and put some more shots down range.

 

[mikaelo]

I actually cleaned out a lot of the thick lube the was in the gun. it was so much of it, including in areas where the sot would mix with it to make for a nasty paste.

 

[samurai]

I bought one and took it to the range-500 rds later, I put another one on layaway for me- cuz my wife is gonna take take the 1st one as soon as she shoot it.

 

[RonPaul2012]

M&P22lr loading issues.

Hey guys. I just bought a M&P9 and M&P22lr from Buds
The 9 is working flawlessly.
My problem is with the 22lr. I searched what ammo everybody was using prior to buying. Majority seemed to be doing great with Federal 550 bulk from wally world. And CCI mini mags.
I bought both.
The 22lr fires chambered round then does not load. Sometimes the spent round will not eject. This has happened with both boxes. I took gun home and cleaned and oiled it lightly.
Brought back next day and same thing.
Guy in lane next to me gave me some Rem 525 golden value pack. The gun shot 1 full mag. reload. shot 1st chambered round then failed to reload again. It's very discouraging.
I'm somewhat new to Handguns so any advice is welcomed.
Also is this normal looking for the loaded mag? I wonder if this could be causing the failure to load. Couple of the guys at range seemed perplexed by it. One said it may be a 25 mag and has been fitted to load 22 also.

 

[JN16184]

Hey guys. I just bought a M&P9 and M&P22lr from Buds
The 9 is working flawlessly.
My problem is with the 22lr. I searched what ammo everybody was using prior to buying. Majority seemed to be doing great with Federal 550 bulk from wally world. And CCI mini mags.
I bought both.
The 22lr fires chambered round then does not load. Sometimes the spent round will not eject. This has happened with both boxes. I took gun home and cleaned and oiled it lightly.
Brought back next day and same thing.
Guy in lane next to me gave me some Rem 525 golden value pack. The gun shot 1 full mag. reload. shot 1st chambered round then failed to reload again. It's very discouraging.
I'm somewhat new to Handguns so any advice is welcomed.
Also is this normal looking for the loaded mag? I wonder if this could be causing the failure to load. Couple of the guys at range seemed perplexed by it. One said it may be a 25 mag and has been fitted to load 22 also.

Something is wrong with that mag. I have 3 and none look like that when loaded. See if you can find another mag to try.

 

[mlk18]

S&W has a winner with this 22.

Agreed! My M&P22 is also a pleasure to shoot and own. And like yours mine is not ammo sensitive and seems to eat whatever diet I feed it. I bought an SD9 a few weeks back and will be moving the SD9 rear sight (which is a standard M&P 2 dot sight) over to the M&P22 when I get a chance.

 

[troglobil]

are you using the load assist button. It looks to me like you are pulling it down too far and the rounds are not sitting correctly. Try pushing them in without the load assist.

 

[kenjen]

i also am having the same problems that RonPaul2012 is having. my loaded mag look just like his with the top 5 rounds offset because of the cut-out in the mag at that point. bought another mag and waiting for it to arrive, hope this one works better,it's cost me $40.00.

 

[yardman4]

I finally cleaned my gun after 1500 rounds. I was going to shoot a competition and I wanted a clean gun. The gun now has about 2200 rounds thru it, and still not one problem. I have been buying some of every kind of ammo I come across, and the gun likes them all. I don't buy the expensive target stuff, just mostly bulk , cheaper ammo. This is the best auto 22 pistol I have ever owned.

 

[Engine49guy]

Took my new M&P22 to the range tonight.
Out of about
100 rounds of Remington Thunderbolt,
100 rounds of CCI Blazer,
100 rounds of Remington bulk hollow points and
100 rounds of Centurion High Vel.
Had about 5 FT Ejects, 4 FT Feed, 5 light primer strikes and 2 stovepipe jams.

I just wanted to add that had they made the M&P22 trigger double action instead of single action the light primer strikes
would have fired on the second snap .

One of the biggest shortcomings of the M&P22 like the Ruger LCP is the single action trigger only allowing one hammer strike on a round.

 

[Grinder]

Took my new M&P22 to the range tonight.
I just wanted to add that had they made the M&P22 trigger double action instead of single action the light primer strikes
would have fired on the second snap .

One of the biggest shortcomings of the M&P22 like the Ruger LCP is the single action trigger only allowing one hammer strike on a round.

It's a plinker, not a self defense pistol.
I NEVER had a .22 fire on a second strike unless the round was rotated in the chamber

 

[Engine49guy]

It's a plinker, not a self defense pistol.
I NEVER had a .22 fire on a second strike unless the round was rotated in the chamber

I think its the ammo as I was firing my HK4 side by side and about the same amount of light primer strikes occurred with the exception that the HK4 is double action,

The second trigger pull lit the round every time.

 

[kroman]

My M&P 22 also fires fine with the Federal 22lr value pak!
Also have used cci22lr with no problems

 

[Pete 45]

Nice Thread YardMan4

Really do enjoy the thread and can understand why you cleaned it when you did. Was hoping you might make 5,000 rounds before the scrub kit came out.

I purchased mine just after the winter set in so haven't fired her as yet. Doubt I shall attempt to try what you did though it's a thought.

Good luck and keep up the "No Failures".

Pete

I finally cleaned my gun after 1500 rounds. I was going to shoot a competition and I wanted a clean gun. The gun now has about 2200 rounds thru it, and still not one problem. I have been buying some of every kind of ammo I come across, and the gun likes them all. I don't buy the expensive target stuff, just mostly bulk , cheaper ammo. This is the best auto 22 pistol I have ever owned.

 

[Mule88]

Yardman, thanx for the report, Ive been thinking about buying the M&P 22 to go along with my full size and C40's, after your report, Ill pick up the next one I run across.

 

[mi77915]

Thanks for the detailed review!! I've had my M&P22 for a couple of weeks now with absolutely no issues of any kind!!! I have used both CCI and Federal ammo and no FTF or FTE. Simply an awesome handgun!!! Like someone else already said, S&W has a winner here!!!!!

 

[JudgeColt]

Until reading this thread, I did not realize the M&P 22 did not have the same trigger as the centerfire versions. I checked the catalog, and, sure enough, the trigger is listed as "Single Action." That means the gun does NOT have the same shooting characteristics as the centerfire M&P pistols. I am not sure I want one now.

Decades ago, I bought a Model 53 with auxiliary .22LR cylinder so I would have a .22 rimfire gun (close to) identical to a Model 19. The M&P 22 will not be very close to a centerfire M&P if the trigger is not the same. I will have to think about this more before buying one. Bummer!