Well I finally had the chance to head off to the range to test out my new P226 22LR but before doing so I had a local machinist in Toronto make me a custom guide rod made from 304 grade stainless steel to replace the cheap factory one, that cost me $40CAN shipped and worth every penny. He was trying to get me to go Titanium for the "bling" factor but I said I wanted the weight of steel for now.
The P226 looks so much better now.
I also had to grind abit of the recoil spring because I notice not only on the plastic guide rod but with the steel one as well that it was getting all scratched up and found that one end of the spring, the side that sits against the slide, had a slight bend/hook at the end of the spring. Just that bit of a was enough to leave plastic and metal shavings at the bottom of my pistol frame
. Anyhow, now with that ground away and flipping the spring around, opposite to the way the factory had the spring on the guide rod, the slide now operates extremely smoothly.
The end I did a bit of grinding plus a little boo boo on the coil:
The other end:
Now for my results at the range... First off, this P226 22LR is a fun plinker to shoot and fairly accurate depending on the ammo I fed it and it ate every ammo I fed it with only a few hiccups. I shot at a distance of 20 yards and used an official NRA 25 yard target for pistols and shot from a bench, 10 shots from each ammo.
The worst results were from the Federal Value Pack. My shots were everywhere but all ten shots stayed inside the 6 ring. I shot about 300 round from that box and had a total of 4 stove pipes. Not bad...
The best results were from some very old Bisley my dad had in his ammo box and the grease coating on the bullet had oxidized to the point where it was a fuzzy powder. With those Bisley I shot 9 out of 10 in the black
The next ammo that came in second was the Remington Sub Sonics and they grouped very well, 7 out of 10 in the black. BUT... 4 out of 10 shots the brass fail to eject and chamber another round. This surprised me because when I use the Sub Sonics in my S&W 422 they always fail to eject and at first I though there was not enough powder in Sub Sonics but now I think it has to do with the recoil spring and it seem that the P226 22LR has a light enough spring that you can use Sub Sonics but not confidently when it come to chambering the next round.
As for the rest of the ammo I tested they all did ok.
I'm really happy with my new purchase and this is the pistol I'll be practicing alot with for IPSC when I'm not shooting my M&P9. It's full size, the magazines are full size and I can use them with my IPSC rig. 500 rds of .22lr cost me $22. If that was 500 rds of Wolf 9mm's... $129.38. The only difference I see right now will be the felt recoil and the DA/SA of the P226 22LR over my M&P9.
Thanks for reading.
**For more info on the custom made SS guide rod please PM me for contact info.
The P226 looks so much better now.
I also had to grind abit of the recoil spring because I notice not only on the plastic guide rod but with the steel one as well that it was getting all scratched up and found that one end of the spring, the side that sits against the slide, had a slight bend/hook at the end of the spring. Just that bit of a was enough to leave plastic and metal shavings at the bottom of my pistol frame
. Anyhow, now with that ground away and flipping the spring around, opposite to the way the factory had the spring on the guide rod, the slide now operates extremely smoothly.The end I did a bit of grinding plus a little boo boo on the coil:
The other end:
Now for my results at the range... First off, this P226 22LR is a fun plinker to shoot and fairly accurate depending on the ammo I fed it and it ate every ammo I fed it with only a few hiccups. I shot at a distance of 20 yards and used an official NRA 25 yard target for pistols and shot from a bench, 10 shots from each ammo.
The worst results were from the Federal Value Pack. My shots were everywhere but all ten shots stayed inside the 6 ring. I shot about 300 round from that box and had a total of 4 stove pipes. Not bad...
The best results were from some very old Bisley my dad had in his ammo box and the grease coating on the bullet had oxidized to the point where it was a fuzzy powder. With those Bisley I shot 9 out of 10 in the black
The next ammo that came in second was the Remington Sub Sonics and they grouped very well, 7 out of 10 in the black. BUT... 4 out of 10 shots the brass fail to eject and chamber another round. This surprised me because when I use the Sub Sonics in my S&W 422 they always fail to eject and at first I though there was not enough powder in Sub Sonics but now I think it has to do with the recoil spring and it seem that the P226 22LR has a light enough spring that you can use Sub Sonics but not confidently when it come to chambering the next round.
As for the rest of the ammo I tested they all did ok.
I'm really happy with my new purchase and this is the pistol I'll be practicing alot with for IPSC when I'm not shooting my M&P9. It's full size, the magazines are full size and I can use them with my IPSC rig. 500 rds of .22lr cost me $22. If that was 500 rds of Wolf 9mm's... $129.38
. The only difference I see right now will be the felt recoil and the DA/SA of the P226 22LR over my M&P9.Thanks for reading.
**For more info on the custom made SS guide rod please PM me for contact info.
