I picked up a M&P 22 Compact from a local GS a week ago, after shooting a visiting friend's pistol here on our farm. His was a well made model, accurate out to 15 yds, the farthest we shot it and had virtually zero malfunctions. Price on mine, locally here in KY was $389 + tax.
Safety: the safety lever, ambidextrous, is easy to find, not too big, with a good detent in Off and On position and allows chambering a round with it engaged...a feature that I don't think I've ever run across before. Safety - On, rack the slide and the top round chambers, in other words. Too, this gun has a magazine safety. No magazine and it can't fire...OK by me for a plinker or informal tgt gun, but a deal breaker on a defensive pistol...YMMv. The rest of the controls are the same as most other autos: Slide stop, take down lever et. al.
Accuracy: We were shooting CCI Mini-Mags, HP and solids, as well as Winchester yellow box HP's. Both were about equally accurate from a two-handed Weaver stance, groups hovering around an inch at 10 yds. A further check at 25 yds is down the road. Neither brand required a double hit to fire either...a bit of a surprise this since we (and I later) shot better than 250 rounds. I did try it out on my steel plate array (4"), and had no problem hitting them from 25 yds.
I do make it a practice to clean my guns after each session and am in the habit of running a patch through the chamber plus a brush out of the barrel and bolt face every 50-75 rounds; so their record for zero malfunctions may not be surprising to some. Those shooters that want to run a hundred or hundreds of rounds without doing so may expect different results, but in my experience, no .22 auto with dirty powder residue in the innards is capable of sustained fire without some maintenance.
Back to the guns: we both found the Compact felt great in the hand...my size "L" paws worked well with the grip size & trigger reach, about the same as a 'J' frame Smith revolver with back strap filling grips. The same was true for my buddy and his "M" mitts. The gun's very light weight works against accuracy, requiring an effort to hold steady, but is worth the effort for better on the belt carrying comfort, IMHO. The accuracy is there...you just have to concentrate!
The triggers, on both guns, however, were lousy right out of the box. Of course both were new at the time, but still..... A short clean up session down in my shop with pipe cleaners, tooth brush & some military weapons grease for the innards with Kroil for the rails improved them a lot. We're hopeful that with continued use, they'll smooth up further. As they came from Smith, they were gritty on the take-up with a spongy Glock factory trigger feel at let off. The grease/oil regimen really helped a lot with both take-up and break, but left the long reset unchanged. Even with the gritty triggers, the accuracy we obtained was remarkable...with a good trigger these light weight plinkers would/will be outstanding.
New, out of the box, the Sights shot low and left for both of us, but we had no trouble zeroing them for our individual grips & style of shooting. They're white dots, easy to see in even dim light or against the afternoon sun. Adjustments, contrary to S&W's usual type, have no click detents. The elevation screw is just that...other reviewers commented that it tends to drift over time...not in my example, but a neoprene "O" ring has worked for others and is my intended fix. The windage adj. is an allen screw in the left side of the rear sight. It's very small...smallest I've ever run across, but worked as advertised...also with no clicks.
Takedown is no trouble...the slide/bbl. assembly coming off vertically...a bit different than most autos. Cleaning the barrel from the breach is straight fwd, but the ejector blade rides against the cleaning rod...something worth watching as any offset could conceivably damage it.
Magazines: No surprises here...two supplied, a nice touch considering some manuf.'s supply only one and soak you +$ for add'l ones...both were nickel plated it looks like and worked well with no FTF or other malfunctions.
Weight: This is one of the gun's pleasing characteristics. At 15 oz's., it's barely noticeable on the hip. I made up a holster for my usual 4:00 o'clock carry position (OWB) and found the rig slim and easily concealed by a shirt tail. I don't considerer this .22 a CC defensive piece by any means, but nevertheless it rides at that 4:00 position unobtrusively with easy access.
Overall Impressions: This is one nice plinking and informal tgt practice pistol...a real joy to fire with good sights, and more than enough accuracy for clay birds out to 25 yds or more with ammunition it likes. The triggers on ours are improving, just wish S&W had spent a little time on that aspect of it's engineering. Compared to my other .22 pistols its as accurate as all but my M-41 Smith and the Marvel unit for my 1911's...and that group includes other 1911 uppers by Ciener, and Advantage Arms. It also compares admirably to my exchange uppers for my Sig P226 P229 and a Sig 1911 RCS. For a very light weight plinker, it does very well in our examples.
Here's the obligatory pic with the holster I made up for carry. Best Regards, Rod
Safety: the safety lever, ambidextrous, is easy to find, not too big, with a good detent in Off and On position and allows chambering a round with it engaged...a feature that I don't think I've ever run across before. Safety - On, rack the slide and the top round chambers, in other words. Too, this gun has a magazine safety. No magazine and it can't fire...OK by me for a plinker or informal tgt gun, but a deal breaker on a defensive pistol...YMMv. The rest of the controls are the same as most other autos: Slide stop, take down lever et. al.
Accuracy: We were shooting CCI Mini-Mags, HP and solids, as well as Winchester yellow box HP's. Both were about equally accurate from a two-handed Weaver stance, groups hovering around an inch at 10 yds. A further check at 25 yds is down the road. Neither brand required a double hit to fire either...a bit of a surprise this since we (and I later) shot better than 250 rounds. I did try it out on my steel plate array (4"), and had no problem hitting them from 25 yds.
I do make it a practice to clean my guns after each session and am in the habit of running a patch through the chamber plus a brush out of the barrel and bolt face every 50-75 rounds; so their record for zero malfunctions may not be surprising to some. Those shooters that want to run a hundred or hundreds of rounds without doing so may expect different results, but in my experience, no .22 auto with dirty powder residue in the innards is capable of sustained fire without some maintenance.
Back to the guns: we both found the Compact felt great in the hand...my size "L" paws worked well with the grip size & trigger reach, about the same as a 'J' frame Smith revolver with back strap filling grips. The same was true for my buddy and his "M" mitts. The gun's very light weight works against accuracy, requiring an effort to hold steady, but is worth the effort for better on the belt carrying comfort, IMHO. The accuracy is there...you just have to concentrate!
The triggers, on both guns, however, were lousy right out of the box. Of course both were new at the time, but still..... A short clean up session down in my shop with pipe cleaners, tooth brush & some military weapons grease for the innards with Kroil for the rails improved them a lot. We're hopeful that with continued use, they'll smooth up further. As they came from Smith, they were gritty on the take-up with a spongy Glock factory trigger feel at let off. The grease/oil regimen really helped a lot with both take-up and break, but left the long reset unchanged. Even with the gritty triggers, the accuracy we obtained was remarkable...with a good trigger these light weight plinkers would/will be outstanding.
New, out of the box, the Sights shot low and left for both of us, but we had no trouble zeroing them for our individual grips & style of shooting. They're white dots, easy to see in even dim light or against the afternoon sun. Adjustments, contrary to S&W's usual type, have no click detents. The elevation screw is just that...other reviewers commented that it tends to drift over time...not in my example, but a neoprene "O" ring has worked for others and is my intended fix. The windage adj. is an allen screw in the left side of the rear sight. It's very small...smallest I've ever run across, but worked as advertised...also with no clicks.
Takedown is no trouble...the slide/bbl. assembly coming off vertically...a bit different than most autos. Cleaning the barrel from the breach is straight fwd, but the ejector blade rides against the cleaning rod...something worth watching as any offset could conceivably damage it.
Magazines: No surprises here...two supplied, a nice touch considering some manuf.'s supply only one and soak you +$ for add'l ones...both were nickel plated it looks like and worked well with no FTF or other malfunctions.
Weight: This is one of the gun's pleasing characteristics. At 15 oz's., it's barely noticeable on the hip. I made up a holster for my usual 4:00 o'clock carry position (OWB) and found the rig slim and easily concealed by a shirt tail. I don't considerer this .22 a CC defensive piece by any means, but nevertheless it rides at that 4:00 position unobtrusively with easy access.
Overall Impressions: This is one nice plinking and informal tgt practice pistol...a real joy to fire with good sights, and more than enough accuracy for clay birds out to 25 yds or more with ammunition it likes. The triggers on ours are improving, just wish S&W had spent a little time on that aspect of it's engineering. Compared to my other .22 pistols its as accurate as all but my M-41 Smith and the Marvel unit for my 1911's...and that group includes other 1911 uppers by Ciener, and Advantage Arms. It also compares admirably to my exchange uppers for my Sig P226 P229 and a Sig 1911 RCS. For a very light weight plinker, it does very well in our examples.
Here's the obligatory pic with the holster I made up for carry. Best Regards, Rod
