22LR pistols, an incomplete journey

That is more than 250 rounds a day.
Click to expand...
I shot one night a week with my wife, then every Saturday with her and on Sunday by myself. I went through a brick and a half each day. Sometimes more/sometimes less.

My wife went through a half a brick per day that she shot.

This was in the "good old days" when both K-Mart and Dick's had sales on .22 ammunition & you could pick up a brick for ~ $7 or $8. We'd each buy the 10 brick limit, then hunt down a different store & buy 10 more each.

We pretty much kept a stock of 50,000 rounds on had at all times, just so we had enough to keep having fun!

The downside of all that was the lack of trigger time many of my other guns missed. :( Oh well, can't undo that.

The Ruger really handled it well though. Outside of a very, very,very, very small blemish on the barrel - the gun looks perfectly brand new.
I have a twin to it that has less than 1000 rounds through it & you really have to look hard to see the difference.

I bought the newer one ~ midway through the marathon - after I'd grown respect for the Ruger & half way in fear of it "shooting out". My fears were foundless though. The gun is fine. I've only put a few hundred rounds through it since that year though.
 
If you don't make a selection, the choice of "not getting anything" will make you.
I would see if MK IIs and MK IIIs are as common, at the pawn shops there, as they
are here. You would get a small price break, and still get a pretty decent gun.
 
The Victory is super sweet. I have a Bushnell Trophy red dot on mine and a Volquartsen carbon-wrapped, lightweight threaded barrel with included compensator. Oh man, that thing can shoot. Don’t let the polymer bother you in the least. I like the grip and size of the Victory much better than the Ruger and Browning alternatives...and I own both those brands in other models. In fact Ruger is my favorite gun maker. But not in the target .22.
 
Brother, I feel your pain if it's a starter pistol just go for the cheaper version until you get good w it then sell it (or not) and get like a 9mm and just keep expanding. But the main idea is to just go w your original choice
 
Personally, I am a vintage .22 target pistol kind of guy... High Standard 102/103 series, Colt Woodsman, Browning Medalist, S&W M-41. Tho the bang for the buck value of a Ruger MkIII/IV is hard to beat.
 
I’m a sucker for 22s. I have four.

- Ruger Mk III 22/45 with a Tandemkross Victory trigger (very sweet), mag disconnect bushing and LCI filler. This thing is a tack driver.

- Bersa Thunder 22. Wonderful DA trigger and very good SA trigger. Not as accurate as the Ruger but a pure joy to shoot with MiniMags. Like it so much I picked up a Bersa Thunder 380. Wonderful pistols.

- High Standard R-100. A nine shot revolver that is accurate enough for tin cans, not a bad trigger at all in both DA and SA.

- Mossberg US 42 A military trainer. Great old heavy rifle inherited from my late FIL. Accurate and reliable with a Lyman peep sight.

I love em all.
 
I had a situation like this when I was looking for that perfect .22 handgun.

My basic advice is... if you KNOW what you want, try to hold out for it so that you don't end up with a bunch of handguns that you feel okay about and have their strong points, but weren't exactly what you had decided on when you did your research.

Oftentimes it is a matter of simply not being able to run into what you were looking for at the right time. Again, stick to your guns (pun intended). Patience is key.

Don't overthink things and let money burn a hole in your pocket. It's better to wait than to buy the wrong thing for your wants/needs.

Conversely, don't feel like you have to get the be-all and end-all of a do-it-all gun with one single purchase. If you end up with 2 or 3 guns that cover your bases, that's fine IMHO.

Most any gun will be fine for plinking, and you can generally get more semi-auto than revolver for the same money. Two things to consider. But also remember that the revolver will eat most anything, which can be very useful and valuable. At least it is to me; YMMV on that.



At last count I have 8 .22 handguns. They all are fine in their own ways, but honestly I could very easily get by with half that amount and if pressed could pare it down to just a couple. Since they all work fine, I just keep them. Research and choose wisely... good luck...
 
spawndn72 said:
I am in complete paralysis by analysis mode. I started off thinking I knew exactly what I wanted; a Ruger Mark IV target. Of course with the internet, I started looking at comparison videos and forums and have now gone from knowing exactly what I wanted to, I have no clue what to buy or even why I wanted to buy it in the first place. . . . . the aluminum lower on the Mark IV target bothered me, . . . . Victory. It has a polymer lower which bothers me, . . . . I could buy the Victory and have enough money left over to buy a suppressor. OOOHHH suppressor . . . .

Now, mind you, all this started off with me wanting to buy a Ruger Mark IV target to shoot at cans in the back yard with my kids and has grown into a suppressed race gun or expensive collectors item. . . . .
Click to expand...
I just got a Mk IV 22/45 Lite a few months back. It's not likely that a Mk IV 22/45 Lite is ever going to be an heirloom piece, but I love it as a plinker. It was fairly finicky the first time I took it out, but after a few hundred rounds and a good mag cleaning, that seems to have settled down. On her second trip, she ate every kind of ammo I stuffed in the mags and ran like a champ. One of the reasons I got the Lite was because it comes with a threaded barrel, and I have plans to get a suppressor.

Bear in mind that I bought mine as a plinker, too. I don't really want to shoot bullseye with them, except for now and again. I can't plink in my back yard, but I am looking for places to rain holy death on invading hordes of soup cans. My wife has the Mk IV 22/45 and she loves it, too. She's more of a target shooter than I am. Her 22/45 never did display the kind finicky-ness that my Lite did. Then again, we didn't shoot hers until after I'd cleaned the mags.

As for the polymer, I really wouldn't worry about it too much. It's not like you need extra weight for recoil reduction. As for durability, . . . . everybody and their dog uses polymer to make centerfire pistols. They seem to be holding up just fine. And Ruger has a fine reputation for their CS. I've had Ruger firearms for ~30 years and have never had to use their CS, so I can't speak from experience, but I can say: I've had Ruger firearms for ~30 years and have never had to use their CS.
 
Last edited:
High Standard

I love my old High Standard Supermatic. Very early one with the lever release barrel.
It's all steel. I will only shoot standard velocity ammo in it. High velocity ammo can crack the frame.

Typically .22 are most accurate with SV and I'd like to pass it down to the kid and the grandkids.
 
I’ll add my wro favorite target pistols-
Baikal IZH 35 is a Russian Olympic style target pistol that is a bit “in the rough” but can be tuned up by a knowegable bullseye smith in to a real gem. Prices have really gone up, but it’s still costing a fraction of a hammerli. CCI sv is the ammo.

Norinco copy of a TT Olympia. This is my favorite .22 as a bullseye pistolsmith told me to buy it, he then milled a rail in to it to mount an ultra dot (very short sight radius so the dot makes a huge difference for me. His own, he shot open sights but he was an NRA grand master bullseye competitor.) did a little trigger job and did a pretty little custom magazine release button and then told me that no one could tell the difference between it and an original by feel... just that the wood gave away it’s chinese origin. All parts are 100% identical, it’s a total copy. Also shoots CCI sv best.

Compared to the rugers, night and day better trigger feel and none of that silly shaking the barrel trying to get parts to fall in place after cleaning.
 
Find I enjoy dumping a large handful of 22LR in my shirt pocket and plinking at targets of opportunity in my backyard with my S&W. Far more enjoyable than messing around with loading magazines.

9226631607_8c6f4f6007_z.jpg


I'm getting pretty good at DA too.
 
Nice revolver, Drobs. I got a chance to shoot one quite similar back in the 70's that was equally accurate to the Colt Woodsman.
 
Thank you Sir. That's the pretty side of the gun. Along with the non-matching grips, it has some holster wear not seen in that pic. I paid a little too much for it ($500) about 5 years ago but it's a shooter.
 
spawndn72 said:
Went back to the stainless Mark IV target and then started thinking, for that amount of money, maybe a used High standard or Colt woodsman might be better.
Click to expand...

I'd definitely go this route if you can find a Colt or High standard in good condition for a reasonable price. In my experiences these are much more accurate than the Rugers. I have 2 of each and I might as well sell the Rugers because they never get shot.
 
Journey completed.

I ended up with the S&W Victory. It had the best price and it felt good in my hand.
I also liked that the barrel is a really easy swap. I really like that fluted Volquartsen barrel and will probably end up with one of those in the near future.

The Mark IV was a very close second but I did not like that you would have to change out the entire upper to do a barrel swap. It was also $100 more. Not that $100 would make or break the deal, but every little bit helps.

I would have loved to have found a woodsman or high standard, but there are just none local to me and Gunbroker can be hit or miss on these old guns.

Now for the bad. My Victory had an ejector problem. It wouldn't shoot 3 in row without stovepiping. Youtube and the rest of the internet to the rescue. By bending the ejector over towards the center of the gun slightly, it fixed the problem. The ejector is definitely a weak spot in the design of the gun. S&W needs to do something about it. Mine was also missing the spring under the rear sight. S&W just isn't what it used to be. Anxious to see how they handle the missing spring when I call them on Monday.

After getting the ejector problems sorted out, the pistol shoots great and has a nice trigger. Hopefully I will be happy with my purchase in the long run. If not, there are always more guns to buy.
 
Congratulations on your new pistol & thanks for updating us*. I hope it serves you well and that you get lots of enjoyment out of it.


*= I hate threads that start with the OP looking at a pistol, but we never find out what the OP finally buys. I guess I need closure or something.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top