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The 159-year old .22 LR cartridge has been loaded into all kinds of
firearms through the decades. It predates most firearms today’s
shooters have ever handled, let alone shot, yet it’s still as popular and
useful today as it was when it was invented—in fact, due to modern
manufacturing techniques and materials, they’re better than ever.
The light kick and excellent short-range accuracy of the .22 LR has
long made it a great choice for pistol shooters, whether as a less
intimidating way to learn to shoot, as a high-end competition gun, or
as always ready varmint hunter. While its generous rim made it a
natural for revolvers, the cartridge has also seen massive popularity
chambered in autoloaders, beginning with John Browning’s Colt
Woodsman.
Let’s take a look at some of the best and most enduring .22 LR
handgun designs ever made.
Walther P22
This thoroughly modern pistol was one of the first, and is still one of
the best, ergonomic polymer-framed rimfire pistols.
While the Ruger Mark series represents a pistol design born from the
last Great War that has been refined through the decades, the P22
from German gunmaker Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen is a
thoroughly modern .22 LR pistol with a polymer frame, low bore axis,
and all the features one would expect on a modern handgun.
Walther started making the DA/SA semi-auto pistol in 2002—the dawn
of the polymer pistol age—as one of the first rimfire guns to use
modern manufacturing procedures and features only found, at the
time, on new centerfire pistols. It remains a favorite of shooters in all
walks of life to this day.
On the outside, the P22 resembles the company’s extremely popular
and ergonomic P99, but at about 75 percent of the overall size and
with a slide-mounted thumb safety and an external hammer.
The gun has a cast polymer grip frame with a slide and frame receiver
inserts made from metal injection molding cast zinc alloy. The barrel
consists of a rifled steel insert containing within a steel barrel sleeve.
The P22 comes with a compact 3.4-inch barrel or with a longer 5-inch
target barrel. The longer-barrel version also includes a barrel-mounted
weight that acts as a compensator and matches the slide profile.
All P22 pistols, except the California-compliant model, come with an
internally threaded barrel allowing the attachment of a suppressor.
Walther also makes a thread adapter to fit various suppressor models.
Because of the frame’s polymer construction, it is available in a
number of colors, making it a popular, customizable choice for target
shooters and plinkers.
Because of its polymer construction, the P22 only weighs 15 ounces
and can be fired in double-action with an 11-pound trigger pull, and in
single-action with a trigger pull of just over four pounds. The pistol
uses a blowback action and incorporates a magazine disconnect and
the aforementioned slide-mounted safety, which serves as a hammer
block and as a firing-pin lock. The P22 also includes two passive safety
mechanisms to protect against accidental discharges if the gun is
dropped.
New P22s comes with 3-dot polymer sights, a Picatinny accessory rail,
deep slide serrations, a loaded chamber viewport, a removable and
interchangeable grip backstrap, and a 10-round magazine. It is offered
in all black or with a nickel slide in the regular or Target version, as the
P22 Military in matte black and FDE, and in a package with an included
laser sight.
One of the downsides of the P22 is that its design doesn’t function well
with low-pressure, low velocity ammunition. It must be fed high-
velocity loads to function properly.
S&W Model 17
This simple, robust, and full-sized .22 LR revolver has been serving
target shooters, plinkers, and hunters through most of the 20th
century and well into the 21st.
Though the .22LR does lend itself well to semi-automatic designs, the
fact that the cartridge has a rim means it’s been a mainstay load for
revolvers pretty much since it was invented.
While the Smith & Wesson M17 was introduced in 1947, after the end
of World War II, it has its origins with the company’s large framed
Hand Ejector series produced in the 1930s. The “hand-ejector”
moniker was intended to differentiate the swing-out cylinder revolvers
from previous top-break models, which ejected spent casings when the
breech was opened fully. The new cylinder required the user to use
their weak hand to activate the star ejector.
Before the war, the revolver debuted as the K-22 Outdoorsman in
1931, along with a companion pistol, the K-32, chambered in .32 S&W
Long.
Production of both guns ceased during the war and the Hand Ejector
series evolved into the M1917 chambered in .45 ACP (using moon
clips) for the U.S. military.
After the war, The Model 17 was reintroduced, along with the K-32
(Model 16) in 1947 as the K-22 and K-32 Masterpiece. The Model 16
was produced until 1983, when it was discontinued due to the
declining popularity of the .32 S&W Long cartridge.
One of the more robust revolvers made by S&W, the Model 17 had an
adjustable rear sight and an un-pinned, fixed ramp front sight.
Additionally, a customer could order a Model 17 with what the
company called “The Three T’s,” meaning a target trigger, target
hammer, and target grips. Standard barrel lengths fell at 4-, 6-, and
8-3/8-inches with an abbreviated under lug. S&W also made a Model
18 (sometimes called the 22 Combat Masterpiece), which was the
same revolver, but with a 4-inch tapered barrel.
In 1990, S&W began making the Model 17 with a full-length circular
under lug of solid, blued steel cast as part of the barrel running from
the front of the cylinder yoke to the muzzle’s end, enclosing the ejector
rod and adding considerable weight to the gun. The models hipped
with special rounded-butt wood grips with inletted finger grooves.
In 1998, due to a corporate shift away from blued wheel-guns, S&W
discontinued the Model 17 and all its variants. However, the company
began producing the Model 617 in .22 LR, which was a stainless steel
version of the blued Model 17 with a full under lug barrel. The 617 is
still produced today with a six- or 10-shot cylinder and rubber grips.
In 2009, Smith & Wesson reintroduced the revolver as the Model 17
“Masterpiece,” along with 15 other previously discontinued models
under the company’s “Classics” category, due to a resurgence in the
popularity of vintage S&W revolvers, along with 15 other previously
discontinued models.
Ruger Single-Six
One of the first revolvers from Ruger, the Single-Six combined Old
West style with modern production methods to create one of the best
rimfire revolvers ever made.
In 1953, Ruger bolstered its already growing reputation as a great new
rimfire pistol company by producing one of the best .22 LR revolvers
ever made: The Single-Six.
The single-action revolver looks and operated much like a scaled-down
Colt Single Action Army revolver and other so-called cowboy guns
from the late 1800s. As the name suggests, the revolver’s cylinder
holds six rounds of .22 LR, which are loaded, one at a time, through a
loading gate at the rear of the cylinder.
Since 1973, the pistol has been sold as the New Model Single-Six,
meaning that it includes Ruger’s transfer bar mechanism as an added
safety feature.
Typically, single-action revolvers of this design must be holstered or
carried with the hammer resting on an empty chamber, as leaving it
resting on a live round could cause an accidental discharge. The
transfer bar only allows the gun to fire when the trigger is pulled, and
not only with manipulation of the hammer, which allows the gun to be
safely carried with all six rounds loaded. Ruger will install the transfer
bar on any old model Single-Six free of charge.
The Single-Six is currently chambered in .22 WMR and .17 HMR. Ruger
makes several convertible models that ship with both a .22 LR and a
.22 WMR cylinder, allowing the use of both cartridges. The .22 LR
cylinder can also accommodate .22 Short rounds.
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