Please tell me about your .22s

[427mach1]

Gotta agree with those that chose the Woodsman. Here's my 1951-vintage Woodsman, purchased by my grandfather, passed to my mother, then to me. This thing always seems to hit whatever I'm shooting; it just doesn't miss. It is, as others have mentioned, difficult to tear down and clean the internals.

 

[judge]

Down to my last 2 - a S&W model 17 4 inch (great practice gun for speed shooting on steel) and a Jim Clark built Ruger Mk II with the complete full Clark treatment. Finest .22 auto I've ever owned - shoots like a rifle. Used for bullseye only.

 

[feralmerril]

You wont see many of these. A old model colt trooper in .22 LR

 

[jkc]

I'd start with a 4"/10 round 617 and shoot that some before deciding that you'll ever want or need anything else.

 

[Art Doc]

Just about any quality handgun in 22LR will do what you need. You need to decide what suits your taste best. Me? I can't decide.


I like Smith revolvers:

I like Colt revolvers:

I like Ruger autos:

I like oddball autos:

I like oddball revolvers:

I even like the unorthodox custom model:

And the 22 pocket pistol:

 

[USAFret]

Either or both of my early 60's vintage Ruger RST-4 or my mid-50's vintage S&W Model 17 go to the range every time. They are the first that I shoot or even sometimes the last. Great for practice and economical for ammo cost. Am looking for a Ruger 22/45 and a S&W Model 18 to add to the mix. Can't beat a 22 for fun shooting and valuable practice.

 

[Stainz]

I'll suggest either the 4" 617, middle below, or the 3" 63 bottom below. Both are currently available new. The top below is a 5" 63, dropped about two years ago.

Their new prices, at a well-stocked dealer with decent prices, will range from $640-$700. None are delivered with wood grips. The J-frame 63's, both 8-shooters, sport 60 Pro grips, $43 from S&W Accessories. The 3" 63 came with the HiViz fiber optic front sight - the others were added.

My 3" 63, first available nearly a year ago, is a fun plinker. It's SA trigger is fine - it's DA pull is a bit more than the larger K-frame 4" 617, which is also half again heavier than the 3" 63. The 3" 63 is a great 'kit' gun - small enough to fit a decent tackle box. The 4" 617 is a very dedicated range or holster revolver. A 'DS-10' speedloader and loading plate, also available in 8-shot for the newer 63's, will give you faster reloads. The beauty of the rimfire revolver is that it isn't proud - or recoil energy dependent, like evil bottom feeders. Mine love the Federal 550 packs - $16 @ WallyWorld - and CCI Stingers alike. My greatest regret is that I didn't get my first S&W rimfire revolver, my 4" 617, earlier... I was sixty when I bought it over three years ago. Don't wait!

Stainz

 

[Dyerbill]

I'd start with a 4"/10 round 617 and shoot that some before deciding that you'll ever want or need anything else.

Exactly what I was thinkinng.............10rds,accurate and easy to glean.

 

[CajunBass]

I haven't seen a 22 handgun I don't like. They probably make one somewhere, but I haven't seen it.

Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Dan Wesson and Bersa.

More Rugers

And a couple of Colts.

And one more Smith & Wesson.

I like 22 handguns. I don't have all of those anymore, and I've owned a few that aren't up there, but you get the picture. There isn't one pictured that I wouldn't recomend.

A quick word about the Ruger semi-auto's. Good grief. It's a 22 pistol, not an ICBM. If you can change the oil in your car, you can certainly field strip and reassemble a Ruger 22 semi-auto. Just follow the directions in the owners manual. (If you don't have one Ruger will send you one.) That means follow to the letter. Don't do like I did and assume you know more than they do. Every step is important.

As someone else has said you don't really need to, A shot of Gunscrubber and a wipedown with a rag and a Q-tip, and a few drops of oil, is about all you really need to do.

 

[Sealevel]

I only started shooting this past July and have absorbed the advice of the many knowledgeable folks on this forum. For my "must have" .22 I purchased a Smith model 17. I enjoy shooting it as much or more than any of the other .38 & .357 revolvers I've acquired. Like others have said in this thread "it goes to the range every trip", "I start the range day shooting it and sometimes finish with it" and as Stainz said "don't wait" - in my mid sixties I waited longer than I should have.

 

[GatorFarmer]

For just a fun gun, or even a hardware type "use it hard" gun, you can actually do just as well buying an inexpensive .22 as an expensive one. Generally it will work just as well.

The dirt cheap Heritage revolvers come in a bunch of different variations and handle .22LR and Magnums. I have one. For what I'm going to use it for, it will do what the Rugers will do, and for much less.

Another fun .22 is the Phoenix Arms, which can be had with a long bbl target conversion kit included. There's too many safeties on it, but despite the indifferent ball point pen like quality of the springs and internals, they generally work. I shot one extensively some years ago, it worked better than my Beretta 21A did.

I'm told that the Walther P22s no long jam all the time like my early model did. Apparently the Sig Mosquitos do though.

Out of production, but interesting if you can find one, is a little Beretta 950 in .22 short but one fitted with the long bbl. There aren't many of these in the U.S. since it was mostly a design feature to make the gun legal in some countries in Europe that had a requirement for a min. bbl length. Still if you can find one, you'll have an extremely accurate and quiet little gun in .22 short. I paid 300 for mine with 3 mags and just over a thousand rounds of .22 short, but the going rate is likely higher is one is actually seeking one out. (I just thought it looked interesting.)

The old Charter Pathfinders - I don't know about the current production guns - are also perfectly fine.

I had an early 317 - pre lock, first couple of years of production. It was a lot of fun. Don't know that I'd buy one again though.

 

[Faulkner]

I have a bunch of .22 handguns and I'd be hard pressed to determine which ONE to keep, and for that matter, whether it would be a revolver or a semi. Here are a some pictures of my favorites;

Top is a Uberti Stallion SAA with color case hardened finish. This is a fine looking and a good shooting single action revolver. Surprisingly, they are not as expensive as I expected when I first saw one, running in the $400 range.

Bottom is a Colt Frontier Scout. Long out of production, but can still be found.

I don't currently have one, but I highly recommend the Ruger Single Six too.

As for semi auto .22 pistols, I love my half a dozen Rugers. Pictured below is a stock 22/45 MKII with 4 inch bull barrel. I use it as a trainer on the LE shooting range and it fits my duty holster I carry my Glock 23 in.

The best shooting .22 pistol in my stable is my 40 year old Ruger MKII stainless with a new Tactical Solutions PAC-LITE aluminum upper. This is a fine shooting pistol. This one is a lot of fun to shoot and is super accurate.

 

[pharmer]

Ruger MK II's are the peak of Ruger guns. The KMK512 has more rounds through it than probably all of my othr guns put together. The 4" is unfired. The SW 17, 18, and 63 are all used and wonderful guns. The 63 hasn't seen a cartridge in 20 years and the 18 probably 10. The 17 goes with me to the range when the ruger doesn't. The CZ is a 9mm with the Kadet upper, I would shoot it more but I only have one mag that's a pain to load. the upside is that I can take it and the 9mm upper and have a range session with only 1 1/2 guns to clean. Joe

 

[deadin]

As you can probably guess, I have a weakness for .22's (especially older ones....)

Here's my most of my current stable:

And a group from several years ago. (Some of these have gone onto other "keepers".)

Finally, one I've been trying to talk a friend into selling me...(No Luck, so far...)

 

[Cyrano]

Here's mine. Wow, I didn't realize I had so many until I'd dragged them all out. Zigzag from top:
1. High Standard Supermatic, model S-101. This had the two muzzle brake cuts on either side of the front sight. The first one I worked all summer and finally saved the $75 it cost in 1954. Shot it in college and in the Army. Thsi one I found a few years ago with box, weights and second magazine: It cost a lot more than $75.
2. S&W Model 41. I traded my Hi Standard in on this about 1959. It's SN 9981, and I still have the box, papers and some of the goodies. I was peeved: when I bought it the price was $110, but a few weeks later they lowered the price to $100.
3. Colt Service Model Ace. It scratched my itch for a government model in 22.
4. MAB R. adjustable sights and very comfortable grip. superb plinker
5. Unique Model 52, also a lot of fun to shoot.
6. Iver Johnson TP 22, a knock-off of the Walther TPH.

Revolvers:
1. Iver Johnson Target Model 57A. Not a very refined target revolver, but still shoots a lot more accurately than I can hold.
2 & 3. My two S&W 317s. Bought one new and liked it so much that when I saw another a few weeks later at a gun show, like new, in box, w/o lock, I got it too. They have alloy frames, cylinders and barrels, although the barrel has a stainless liner. They're so light you almost have to put a box of anno on them to prevent them from blowing away. One has Spegel boot grips, the other the rather garish original S&W wood grips.
4. Colt Banker's Special. It's with the box, papers and an original target. Somewhat freckled with rust, but still very nice. It was so much fun to shoot it started me on S&W 317s.
Not shown; S&W K-22, 1948 vintage, undergoing restoration at Chicoines.

If you want to shoot shot (very effective on snakes, which are surprisingly hard to hit with bullets), you need a revolver as the automatics won't usually feed or eject shot shells. I'd go for something light weight, with about a 4 inch barrel; the short sight radius of the 2 inch barrels on the 317s cut down their effective range considerably and I'd like to stay as far away from snakes, assorted bad dogs, etc, as possible. I don't know if S&W makes a 4 inch barreled J frame, with adjustable sights, preferably in alloy, but it would be just about perfect