Walther P22 Pistol - A Fun Plinker By: Frank Borelli, 8 August 2005 When I was at a local gun show almost a year ago now I was looking for a handgun that was small enough I could use it to teach my seven year old proper shooting skills. A .22 caliber weapon was a given, and I felt a semi-automatic might be better than a revolver given grip sizes and angles. I came across a Walther P22 and had to take a second look. I have previous experience with the Walther P99 and its Smith & Wesson counterparts, the SW99 (and the .45ACP version, SW45). As I was used to the size of those combat caliber handguns, the sight of such a down-sized Walther brought a smile to my face. It looked like it would fit my son perfectly. Preliminary handling by him at that time supported by belief, so we bought it and took it home (we actually had to pick it up at the dealer's some ten days later due to waiting period laws). The pistol came in a very attractive case that, in addition to the pistol, also held the following: 1) a five inch barrel 2) the barrel lug tool 3) one spare magazine 4) a different size backstrap 5) a "compensator" to be used with the five-inch barrel The pistol, as you can see, has a light-gray (almost blue looking) polymer frame. The grip is small enough to fit the smallest of hands comfortably - as demonstrated by its comfort in my seven-year-old's hands. The magazine release is ambidextrous, levering down rather than pushing in to release. Both of the magazines I received with my pistol drop free if you push the magazine release down and hold it long enough for the magazine to clear the grips. If you just give it a quick push the mechanism will create enough friction on the magazine to hold it in place. That's not a design flaw. That's a matter of mechanical skills on the shooter's part. The manual safety DOES NOT decock the weapon. This is important when you're teaching basic marksmanship to new shooters. Once the first round has been chambered, the safety will disengage the trigger but you still have a cocked weapon in your hand. The magazines proved easy to load. If you've spent any time stuffing .45 caliber rounds into magazines, pushing the little .22s into these magazines is almost enjoyable. The weapon proved more accurate than I expected. Using an old suply of CCI Stinger .22lr ammo I was able to print 1.5" - 2.0" groups at twenty-five yards from a bench-rested shooting position. That's with the 3.5" barrel. With the five inch barrel I managed to shoot one five-shot group that measured 1.1" from the same shooting position. As you would expect with any decent .22, recoil was all but non-existent. The slide was easy enough to cycle to chamber the first round. My son had no issues with it. Although the first trigger-pull is a little long and seems to stick near the end, all of the single-action pulls are crisp. That long double-action pull presented challenges to him. Keeping the sights aligned and a decent sight picture proved difficult as he was struggling to keep the weapon steady near the end of that first pull. On subsequent shots he had no troubles. Just to test it out I tried about five different kinds of ammunition, all from reputable manufacturers and of relatively recent production. The Walther P22 didn't malfunction at all. We experienced no feeding or extraction/ejection malfunctions. It was actually a very pleasant afternoon of shooting. It was my son's first outing with a pistol (though he's fired his rifle before) and he's looking forward to the next one a great deal. I have several holsters for small framed pistols and it fits virtually all of them with minor adjustment to the safety strap for whichever holster we're using at the time. The pistol cost right at $350 when we paid for it at the gun show. From what I've found shopping around that seems an average price, though it can be had for a few dollars cheaper and several dollars more. All in all I consider the money well spent and the pistol an excellent tool for continuing my son's education in handgunning. Also, don't forget to read the Tactical Equipment Evaluations: Extrema Ratio - Col Moschin Combat Knife-----8 August 2005 Plus others!!! Check out this week's Highlighted Training Article about a "The Next Evolution of Active Shooter Training". I have a comment on this article. Optimized for 1024 x 768 viewing Website Contact webmaster@borelliconsulting.com ©2004 - 2006 Borelli Consulting, All Rights Reserved