Walther P22: Hot Garbage

[petingrass]

So my first-gen Walther P22 finally gave up the ghost a while back, and I thought I should share. After a measly 1500 rounds or so (mostly suppressed) the fire control group housing cracked. The P22 uses a similar scheme to the Sig P365 and P320, where an internal trigger and slide rail assembly is the serialized part instead of the plastic frame.

It was never a fantastic gun, but it did have a certain charm. The single action trigger was mediocre, the sights were plastic and fairly usable, and the controls were lackluster. The double action pull was horrendous. There was no way to decock the thing without pulling the trigger, the magazine disconnect safety made that procedure more likely to go badly, and the safety lever was bass ackwards like a Beretta 92FS.

About the only good things I can say about it is that it had a little bit of a James Bond-ish vibe with a suppressor and Walther’s cheap laser attachment, and that it fit small kid-sized hands pretty well where a larger gun like a Ruger MK series might be too much.

Walther sent me an RMA and return address label at no charge, and a few weeks later sent back a brand new pistol of the current generation. It’s my understanding that they made some changes to make them more reliable, but at the end of the day it’s still an Umarex-made Zamak pot metal turd. I unloaded it as soon as possible.

 

[Xeon64]

Any Gun made out of Zamak is junk. Melt it down and make toys out of it like Zamak was intended for.

 

[323MAR]

That's an example of a mediocre pistol intended solely to make sales. The trade-off is a dent to Walther's reputation. Informed Walther fans know the score and stick to the good stuff like the P99, PPK, or PPS to name a few
Thanks for sharing! I'm glad to hear that Walter made it right though. That's too low a round count to have issues!

 

[CatCam]

I respectfully disagree - I have had my Walther P22 since 2006 with THOUSANDS of rounds through it. I have 13 Magazines and every time we take it out we put a 550 Brick of Remington Golden or Thunderbolts through it. I've trained at least 6 new shooters to use a semi-auto handgun on this P22. I would estimate (rather conservatively) to have a minimum of 8,000 rounds through it. I did do the "tweaks" to it when I got it - there is a P22 Bible that I have somewhere that guides you through some polishing to make the rounds feed better. The more rounds I had through it the better it cycled. Now it will eat anything I put in her but I opt for the cheap crap.

 

[323MAR]

I respectfully disagree - I have had my Walther P22 since 2006 with THOUSANDS of rounds through it. I have 13 Magazines and every time we take it out we put a 550 Brick of Remington Golden or Thunderbolts through it. I've trained at least 6 new shooters to use a semi-auto handgun on this P22. I would estimate (rather conservatively) to have a minimum of 8,000 rounds through it. I did do the "tweaks" to it when I got it - there is a P22 Bible that I have somewhere that guides you through some polishing to make the rounds feed better. The more rounds I had through it the better it cycled. Now it will eat anything I put in her but I opt for the cheap crap.

Thanks for sharing that! I am glad to hear your first hand account.

 

[petingrass]

I respectfully disagree - I have had my Walther P22 since 2006 with THOUSANDS of rounds through it. I have 13 Magazines and every time we take it out we put a 550 Brick of Remington Golden or Thunderbolts through it. I've trained at least 6 new shooters to use a semi-auto handgun on this P22. I would estimate (rather conservatively) to have a minimum of 8,000 rounds through it. I did do the "tweaks" to it when I got it - there is a P22 Bible that I have somewhere that guides you through some polishing to make the rounds feed better. The more rounds I had through it the better it cycled. Now it will eat anything I put in her but I opt for the cheap crap.

I also did many of the fluff and buff mods detailed in the Walther P22 Bible. After shooting the gun unmodified, the excessive wear in places such as the trigger shoe ears eating away at the slide was alarming. After that it was totally reliable right up until it died.

It's certainly possible I got a lemon, or that use with a suppressor lead to the gun beating itself to death. If anything, I suspect the latter.

It really is a shame it died, it was a neat little gun that was different from everything else sold at the time (around 2008). I've heard that the newer generation of P22 fixed a lot of the problems with the first gen.

Unfortunately, I've also had enough bad experiences with several of the micro 22s that I've tried. The Sig Mosquito was a dumpster fire, and the S&W M&P 22C was fine until the safety lever started flopping around. The P22 was a gift chosen specifically to help a shooter with child sized hands take her first shots. In that respect it did its job well.

 

[petingrass]

That's an example of a mediocre pistol intended solely to make sales. The trade-off is a dent to Walther's reputation. Informed Walther fans know the score and stick to the good stuff like the P99, PPK, or PPS to name a few
Thanks for sharing! I'm glad to hear that Walter made it right though. That's too low a round count to have issues!

Guns like the P99 are fantastic. Unfortunately I think Walther outsourced the manufacture of the P22 to Umarex, who are mostly known for making airguns and pellet guns. They should probably stick to those.

 

[twinin]

I had one that was really good with the Volquartsen extractor and spring upgrade. Pretty accurate with the fixed barrel too. It is made of cheap materials like you said. I've always loved the look and ergonomics of it though.

Overall, I do feel a Ruger MK IV and Browning are better though.

 

[340six]

I have had one since 2006 no problems

 

[john17427]

Test drove a friends P22 several years ago. It would only function with hiper velocity stuff. Bought an SR22 and it has been good.

 

[petingrass]

I had one that was really good with the Volquartsen extractor and spring upgrade. Pretty accurate with the fixed barrel too. It is made of cheap materials like you said. I've always loved the look and ergonomics of it though.

Overall, I do feel a Ruger MK IV and Browning are better though.

I did the spring and extractor upgrade as well. It was 100% reliable until it croaked.

The spring made reassembly a lot easier because it was captured. I even had the laser sight attachment and put a fiber optic front sight on it. Probably spent half as much on parts and upgrades as the pistol itself.

 

[Golden Ruger]

Had one for several years zero issues after installing a factory Ruger Sr22 guide rod and spring into it. Sorry to hear that yours failed.

 

[topgunz1]

I have an older one from around 07 and haven't had issues, but I retired it because the two piece barrel and suppressor adapter situation is crap. It was a gift so I'm keeping it, but my Ruger mkIV gets the nod when I want some .22 action.

 

[CatCam]

I will also add that any aftermarket mags with my P22 didn't work, only the factory mags worked without issue.
Maybe you did get a Lemon, Few years back I had a Ruger SP 101 in 22LR that I had to send back to the factory. It was pushing lead fragments out of the cylinder gap and throwing knuckleballs down range . Ruger replaced the gun for free.

 

[Magdump]

I have 4 of the P-22’s (one being an early model) and I’ll be keeping them. As long as Walther keeps backing them 100%, I’ll hang on to them

 

[340six]

I have 4 of the P-22’s (one being an early model) and I’ll be keeping them. As long as Walther keeps backing them 100%, I’ll hang on to them

My son and his buddy in high school put 1500-2000 rounds of bulk Wal-Mart Federal 22lr threw one for 2 years. I would say it was,stress tested. I was better off with my Ruger MK-1 and 2. But it ran well. Only problem was a,weak 22 now and then had it not feed one. Empty chamber. A quick pull of slide fixed it. CCI mini mags were flawless. So was ammo related. But was not picky even Rem Golden worked well