S&W Victory Or Not

[misswired]

On sale for $299, with loads of aftermarket mods....what's not to like about it? Flat trigger and walnut grips was all I needed.

I too, musta got a good one. Again.....NO problems at all.

 

[.38SuperMan]

Bought one late summer and have been shooting it with no issues. I'd buy one again.

 

[Pete C]

I bought one last summer. Had some issues, sent to S&W for repair. Got it back , no better. I've been tinkering a little. Works OK as long as I only get CCI polymer coated. When you get one that works right, they are accurate and fun.

 

[RUT]

>>I've been tinkering a little. Works OK <<

It's all about tweaking that Micky Mouse ejector. :-(

 

[Vided]

The first 200 rounds were a "wtf", FTE issues, so I found this forum and
A thread about FTE, I tweaked the ejector a hair and there you go, 1300 rounds no issues.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

I don't-won't own one. I think they are butt ugly just like the 22a series. Much prefer my Ruger MkII's and Browning Buckmarks. Which have been flawless and a lot more aesthetically appealing too.

 

[S&W59]

I went vintage on my S&W 22. Recently acquired a 2206 and it has a minor issue born of a fatigued recoil spring which a replacement will be here by the end of the week. Fails to completely close by about .7mm time to time after fully ejecting and feeding the next round. Weak spring. A small nudge on the back of the slide locks it in and it fires normally. The pistol is a Rube-Goldberg device on detail disassembly but is exceedingly accurate. I could have gotten a modern 22 pistol, but I have one already, a Ruger Mk2 slab-side target model. Half the fun of an old gun is breathing renewed life into it. The guns I regard the most are the ones I brought back from the edge.

 

[Vided]

I replaced my Ruger mk ll with a Victory, no more cursing when cleaning it.

 

[raykdman]

I purchase My SW22 when they first came out. With over 1,000 rounds, the only problem I had was a fired case stuck in the barrel. Probably my fault for not cleaning it from the previous two range trips. The only additions have been a set of wood grips and and Vortex Venom which helped my accuracy tremendously.

 

[Pete C]

>>I've been tinkering a little. Works OK <<

It's all about tweaking that Micky Mouse ejector. :-(

The ejector was never the problem. Unless I use the CCI poly, it will sometimes pick up the shell ahead of the extractor so it fails to go all the way into battery and fails to fire.

 

[muddocktor]

I bought a Victory a couple of years ago and like some others, had extraction problems. I found a thread here that explained how to tweak the extractor, did the tweak and zero problems since then. Fast forward to December when I brought my wife to the range. I let her shoot the Victory and she promptly claimed it from me so I ordered me a replacement for myself. The new one worked flawless out of the box.

 

[Jerry_B]

No problems whatsoever. I shot it a lot, with mostly the bulk pack stuff. My wife likes it too, but prefers her MP 22 compact for the weight.

 

[DOUBLESHOT]

Last November I finally got my three handgun permission slips (permits) and the first one was for a S&W 22 Victory. Well my LGS had two on the shelf. One was $90 cheaper than the other but they looked identical. This used pistol had the box and all the accessories. With tax, the savings over the new one was almost $100.

My first couple of outings showed that it had a problem with ejecting. (My son said I should have bought the new one!) After reading a few forums and watching a couple of YouTube videos, I bent the ejector very slightly. Every case ejected properly.

Then it had another problem - about a third of the rounds would not fully chamber. I had to push on the back of the bolt to get it to fire. Someone at my LGS suggested that I replace the recoil spring. (My son said I should have gotten the new one!) Everybody online was out of stock so I called S&W and they sent me two at NC! (Some of these gun companies are right up there with Chick-Fil-A!) The new springs were almost an inch longer than the one that came with the gun. I suspect that the previous owner stored it with the bolt locked open.

Up until this point it would only properly cycle with two or three types of Federal ammo. Some of the other ammo cases would get stuck in the chamber. (My son said I should have gotten the new one!) I bought and installed a new extractor with spring and holder for less that $20. Now it eats just about everything with almost no problems. It has been a learning process and it has been fun because I learned so much about this gun and I feel that I had a part in its success. (I told my son that I was right to get the used one!) My Victory is Victorious!!!

 

[Sevens]

I enjoyed that story and I have had many similar adventures with used handguns, the feeling of success and pride is an awfully good one.

I am curious if your Son realizes that you might possibly have traveled the same road with a NEW gun at a hundred bucks more? And/or with the associated hassle and time of shipping the gun back to S&W?

 

[DOUBLESHOT]

Well we both bought 1911s in 45ACP. He bought a brand new Colt Competition and I bought a used Sig Sauer. His is back to Colt and mine is in my safe! His has a weird problem. None of his four Colt magazines will lock the slide open after the last round. My Sig mags. in his gun work fine and his mag. work fine in other 1911s, so the LGS where he bought it sent it back to Colt.

On my third permit I picked up a used but minty Beretta PX4 Storm Compact and boy is it nice. It's like and extension of my hand. Well over 500 rounds and not one problem.

 

[Tap Tap]

got mine 2 years ago & over 4000 rounds through it with no issues

I got mine 2 years ago also and have one 2000 rounds through it with no problems either. I added a red dot and a slide racker to make it easier to rack the slide. Its been great and goes to the range every time I go.

 

[Taipan01]

I had the hots for one when they were initially released but then cooled off somewhat when I read all the complaints on this Forum. Granted, dissatisfied customers always will tell more people about their negative experiences than happy customers will share their positive experiences. But I waited...

Instead, I bought one of the new Ruger Mark IV Competition pistols. It looked positively great but its grip angle was uncomfortable for my arthritic hands and wrists so after one box of shells, I sold it. I can shoot 1911s comfortably but you can't change the grip angle on a pistol as you can with Ruger's Precision Rifles (which I have done).

So I'm back to using either my Model 22A-1 Talo edition or my Advantage Arms 22LR Target conversion kit of one of my 1911s. And I'm still waiting...

Ed

Have you tried the Ruger 22/45 models? That's their selling point, the grip angle and controls are like the 1911's. The mark III's had a model where you could switch the grips out. I haven't looked at the Mark IV's about that feature though I'd assume they kept that feature, not positive about that though.

 

[migma]

I bought mine late in 2018 and have only one problem..... rear sight adj. screw went loose and drop out of the pistol 2 times, I was lucky to find it again both times

 

[Barrie]

Migma Welcome to the Forum. Glad you have good eyesight, saved you hunting for a replacement screw twice already. I might suggest some of the weaker locktite on it to keep it in place.

 

[Wee Hooker]

My bet is that 95% of those complaints are repetitive and from 1% of actual owners. I'd also bet that most of those were on early production run guns.
My first SW victory ( a production model) bought this time last year has run 100% with no flaws since the first time I pulled the trigger.
My second Victory was a Performance Center model. That one did have losening screws on the barrel and optics mount but I equate that to poor attention by the one "gunsmith" that assembled it. Once those screws were retorqued, that Victory has also been problem free. I've since seen a few other PC Victories with the same initial but solvable loosening issues.

IMHO, the production models are good to go!