Well I finally treated myself to a new Ruger, a 22/45 style stainless model KP4. Cost me $248 which seems about right, it was interesting to note that the gun store warranty covers the gun for 1 year of on site repairs with them which was nice.
So it was that I went straight to a convenient outdoor range for some testing.
The Ruger suffered maybe 5 FTF's that all seemed to be mag related, a strip down, clean and lube of the mags solved the problem, along with remembering to ensure that the first round in the magazine sits up against the feed lips on insertion into the gun. 500 rounds in and the Ruger was running like clockwork.
Accuracy was good but difficult to test properly, it hit whatever I aimed at, and that's usually as far as my accuracy interest runs.
22LR has always fascinated me as a round, having taken in its time everything from mice to elephants (well, one elephant at least) so I picked up some cheap Remington 36 grain Golden hollow points (525 for $11, I like them already) and some Remington Vipers (36 grain truncated cone solids). A large vine tomato and 3 large grapefruit also made the trip, but lunch was not on the menu.
The Vipers made neat entrance and exit "wounds" with only slight tearing at the exit point. The first application of a hollowpoint turned the tomato into pulp and tore a jagged inch and a quarter wide hole through the grapefruit. It looked for all the world like it had been hit by something much, much bigger. I was genuinely surprised at the massive difference, somehow I didn't expect the HP's to work quite so well.
The Vipers are supposedly hot, deep penetrating rounds, and I purchased them primarily with my wife's preference for .22 in a defensive application in mind (in spite of her having other choices she will always pick the .22). But seeing the damage that a regular hollowpoint can cause gave me some doubt about using solids for SD, even bearing in mind problems associated with HP's shallowing out.
.22LR you've gotta love it.
PS - The Ruger really is a pain to re-assemble but it's fairly easy to clean, I agree with all those thousands of owners who recommend these guns to others. Buy it.
Mike H
So it was that I went straight to a convenient outdoor range for some testing.
The Ruger suffered maybe 5 FTF's that all seemed to be mag related, a strip down, clean and lube of the mags solved the problem, along with remembering to ensure that the first round in the magazine sits up against the feed lips on insertion into the gun. 500 rounds in and the Ruger was running like clockwork.
Accuracy was good but difficult to test properly, it hit whatever I aimed at, and that's usually as far as my accuracy interest runs.
22LR has always fascinated me as a round, having taken in its time everything from mice to elephants (well, one elephant at least) so I picked up some cheap Remington 36 grain Golden hollow points (525 for $11, I like them already) and some Remington Vipers (36 grain truncated cone solids). A large vine tomato and 3 large grapefruit also made the trip, but lunch was not on the menu.
The Vipers made neat entrance and exit "wounds" with only slight tearing at the exit point. The first application of a hollowpoint turned the tomato into pulp and tore a jagged inch and a quarter wide hole through the grapefruit. It looked for all the world like it had been hit by something much, much bigger. I was genuinely surprised at the massive difference, somehow I didn't expect the HP's to work quite so well.
The Vipers are supposedly hot, deep penetrating rounds, and I purchased them primarily with my wife's preference for .22 in a defensive application in mind (in spite of her having other choices she will always pick the .22). But seeing the damage that a regular hollowpoint can cause gave me some doubt about using solids for SD, even bearing in mind problems associated with HP's shallowing out.
.22LR you've gotta love it.
PS - The Ruger really is a pain to re-assemble but it's fairly easy to clean, I agree with all those thousands of owners who recommend these guns to others. Buy it.
Mike H
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