Best & Worst 22LR pistols

BP7

BP7

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Discuss - for myself, and for others who are interested, what are the BEST (reliable, accurate, easy to get parts & mags, good value for money) and worst (limited production span, flakey parts, hard to get spare mags, inaccurate, silly expensive or hard to find) of the 22LR pistols?

Ruger
Browning
Chiappa
GSG
Walther
Kimber
CZ
Sig
S&W
etc...


(let's stick to self-contained firearms, NOT conversions / tops for existing handguns)
 
OK, I'll offer up the Norinco Woodsman clones. Extremely cheap, very reliable, built like a brick sh** house but alas a real pain to strip down. Other than that it's gotta be the best deal out there.
Beretta Neos - reasonable price, very accurate,gotta be the easiest semi pistol to strip down and clean. But mags are expensive and ya either love or hate the Star Wars look.
 
Looks aside (but really it is not that bad) my Neos just keeps plugging away with very few issues.

The sig mosquito is fussy on ammo. Took a couple thousand rounds to work in one i use often and even now is ammo sensitive but better than it was new.
 
Ruger semi pistols gotta be at the top of the Best List. So good they're boring.
Browning Medalist does it for me, can still get a very good one for under $800, still less expensive than a new CZ Kadet, which is one of my favourites.
The worst, probably some of the Western SA, knock-offs. I personally haven't owned anything I've been disappointed with. I have a Norinco M-93, that is very impressive, for the price.
 
I have owned:

Sig Mosquito
CZ Kadet(pistol not kit)
Ruger 22/45
NAA Minimaster

I think the OP should rephrase the OP so as to make a distinction between revolvers and semi auto's as the revolvers will obviously be more accurate, and reliable.

Of the above the most reliable was obviously the revolver, but thats a given.

Anyways if we are just looking at semi autos, the only one of the above I still have is the Ruger 22/45 as it is the most reliable and accurate of the one I have owned, as well as anything I have ever shot. I bought this thing for $330 brand new and would recommend to anyone. It is about the only gun I can group well with at 25m! :D

The Sig was reliable for me using Blazer which is cheap anyways so I never had any issues, but it was not very accurate and the barrel would come slightly use after a few hundred rounds. It was also really small, and felt cheap. Not too expencive but more than it was worth IMHO.

The CZ was an amazing pistol and a great trainer as it had the feel and weight of a real gun but the one I got brand new would not lock back reliably no matter what ammo I put through it. The price is ridiculous anyways so kinda made it an easy choice to sell.
 
I like the Browning Buckmark....much too boringly accurate and reliable that I sold it...it presented no challenges to shooting.:D

Second is the Ruger Mark II standard I had back in the 80s/90s. Reliable, decent trigger but I never got the hang of dismantling/re-assembling it for cleaning. Accuracy was OK.

If the OP includes revolvers, then my absolute best .22 pistol was the S&W 17-3 I traded away five months ago.

No more .22 handguns in my inventory as reloading and casting makes 9mm almost as cheap...not counting my labor of course.
 
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My S&W Model 41 and my pre-Model 17 K-22 Masterpiece get the job done for me.

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I would say that quality semiautos have a slight edge over revolvers in .22 rimfire. The fixed barrel does not have the same inherent inaccuracy as the tilting barrel of most centrefire auot pistols and having the chamber integral with the barrel means that the bullet doesn't have a gap to jump.

As for worst .22 pistols, my vote goes to some of the pot metal junk guns like Rohm or Clerke.
 
I have a CZ Kadet and a Sig P226 Classic .22LR.

The CZ will eat everything and spit it out in nice tight groups all day long. It is a little more expensive from the get go but i'm extremely happy with this purchase, especially since it's for my wife, I dont have to turn around every 2 minutes because I just heard a "click" and no bang.

The Sig, after trying 5 kinds of ammo, will cycle flawlessly all day long with some Federal Champion(Bulk box) now and i'm really starting to like this gun...
 
mlehtovaara said:
I have owned:

Sig Mosquito
CZ Kadet(pistol not kit)
Ruger 22/45
NAA Minimaster

I think the OP should rephrase the OP so as to make a distinction between revolvers and semi auto's as the revolvers will obviously be more accurate, and reliable.
Of the above the most reliable was obviously the revolver, but thats a given.

Anyways if we are just looking at semi autos, the only one of the above I still have is the Ruger 22/45 as it is the most reliable and accurate of the one I have owned, as well as anything I have ever shot. I bought this thing for $330 brand new and would recommend to anyone. It is about the only gun I can group well with at 25m! :D

The Sig was reliable for me using Blazer which is cheap anyways so I never had any issues, but it was not very accurate and the barrel would come slightly use after a few hundred rounds. It was also really small, and felt cheap. Not too expencive but more than it was worth IMHO.

The CZ was an amazing pistol and a great trainer as it had the feel and weight of a real gun but the one I got brand new would not lock back reliably no matter what ammo I put through it. The price is ridiculous anyways so kinda made it an easy choice to sell.
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I would argue the accuracy part, even with decent quality revolvers, there are minor variances between each of the chambers, and lock-up issues that can give inconsistent accuracy. Reliable, yes!
 
Iron Glove said:
OK, I'll offer up the Norinco Woodsman clones. Extremely cheap, very reliable, built like a brick sh** house but alas a real pain to strip down. Other than that it's gotta be the best deal out there.
Beretta Neos - reasonable price, very accurate,gotta be the easiest semi pistol to strip down and clean. But mags are expensive and ya either love or hate the Star Wars look.
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it's not star wars; those are all mauser c96s and stirlings- it's DUCK DODGERS; esp when you mount a holo sight on it like i've done
 
*High Standard Citation, impressive target pistol with amazing trigger, not cheap, a real pleasure to shoot, Won't sell.

*Walther P22, it's worst feature is it's size, just a C hair to small, but a very accurate pistol, won't sell it, a solid design and easy to strip.

*Norc Woodsman Clone, why wouldn't you buy one?? Best value, I think they go for 150$ I paid 200$, Won't sell this puppy either.

*GSG 1911, My latest purchase, I really, really, like this pistol, had it out twice, good trigger, it likes the spicier ammo, hates waxy unplated stuff, and well looks and feels great in the hand, a breeze to strip, my fave right now.
 
i've had surprisingly great luck with my S&W 22A, and despite it being kind of unpopular and mags being hard to find, it's a great piece. accurate enough, and with larger grips like the wood target grips that S&W sells i'm sure it could be even nicer.

i've liked the accuracy of high standard stuff, but hated their controls and the rear sight bridge on some models.

the S&W 41 that i shot once or twice - spectacular. by far my fav, but $1k-plus is hard to swallow.

i'm surprised about your note on the walther P22, as i keep hearing how horrible it is and i personally find it kinda ugly with the canadian-legal extension. but i may end up buying one with a few spare mags if a good deal comes up.

i'm on the fence about the norc woodsman-clone. ya, the price is nice, but the mags are way too expensive for it! forty bucks??? the pistol is 150 and only comes with one mag, so i would think that most reasonable folks would want AT LEAST one extra mag, if not a few extras. at 40-a-pop, it's the dealbreaker. sell the mags at 20-a-pop, and i'd buy a few (pistols & mags) for newbies to shoot.
 
My only input here is about the Sig Mosquito. What a horrible POS that was, 2-3 fte's or misfeeds every mag no matter what I fed it. Polished the feed ramp, cleaned and deburred everythnig including the mag lips, changed the spring and it was still only marginally better. Dumped it and got a buckmark with absolutely no issues !
 
I have had a S & W 422 for close to 20 years now, it's been excellent, eats anything, accurate, light. It was a real good value for the money.

Also have a Herbert Schmidt SA revolver .22/.22mag. Again, no problems. It does have a foolishly light trigger ( has to be under 1 lb) but for the range it's fine.

I can't recall any bad .22 pistols I have used right now.
 
I've had two Herbert Schmidt single action revolvers that were very poor quality. If you pull the trigger really hard, the hammer will fall from half ####. On one of them the hammer wouldn't engage at full ####.
 
dHb said:
I've had two Herbert Schmidt single action revolvers that were very poor quality. If you pull the trigger really hard, the hammer will fall from half ####. On one of them the hammer wouldn't engage at full ####.
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misassembled, or worn hammer notches- easily fixed with new parts, or by weliding the notches solid and then cutting new ones; schmidt/rolm/and some others were cheap copies of a colt frontier( basically a 1873 in 22) and the mechanism wasn't all that bad- the arminus was worse the astras and llamas were a step up from these-i'm surprised you could get your hands on them , considering how long they've been out of production
 
I say Ruger MKIII Target, like mine. Its flawless, expect for the assembly which can be a pain but with youtube it's no issue.

I shot a guys sig mosquito at the range and wow, if that was mine, I would have cut it in half by now. It jammed steady, could be maintence/setup issue of course.
 
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