I’ve been looking into purchasing another 22LR practice pistol and have been looking at the Walther and Sig a bit. I’ve seen many bad reviews of the earlier Walther and a few on the SIG. The Walther appears to have been reworked and turned into a good weapon. No idea on improvements to the SIG. Just wanting to get Dopers opinions on these two guns and if they believe one is better or if both should be passed on. I already own a Ruger and a S&W 422 but was looking at one of these to add to my collection.
I got a green Walther P22 last year with the 5" barrel. (I’m told that this pistol is banned in California because it has a threaded barrel.) We were going to have an assassin use it in our film, only the film folded before we did. The P22 looks like something the character would have carried.
It fits nicely in the hand, but I think it fits my hand better when used with the magazine that has the finger extension on it. I like the ambidextrous safety, as I shoot with both hands. The magazine release, being part of the trigger guard takes some getting used to. It’s a little strange having to pull the trigger to decock. (Well, not so strange; but I’m used to my Beretta.) So it looks great (especially in dark green) and it feels good. The safety is nice, but the magazine release isn’t as nice as the traditional push-button. How does it shoot?
I shot it against my Ruger Mk.II, which has fixed sights and a 4" barrel. First of all, the Ruger is heavier. It feels more like a firearm than a toy. The Ruger has a ‘target chamber’. This tighter chamber may be a factor in its greater accuracy compared to the ‘sport chambered’ Walther. (On the other hand, the Walther will digest just about any .22LR ammunition; while the Ruger is more finicky.) Now the Ruger, as I said, isn’t a target pistol. I find myself drawn to very ‘common’ examples of certain things, and my Mk.II is as basic as they come. But it still shoots tighter groups than the Walther. My biggest complaint with the Ruger (aside from its preference for certain brands of ammo, while I have a bunch of cheap Remington lying about) is its magazine release, which is on the bottom of the grip.
The P22 is a good-looking pistol. Very ‘cinematic’. But it’s not as accurate as I thought it would be. Unlike the Ruger, it’s never jammed/misfed on me. It’s fun to shoot. I like the synthetic frame, but the barrel seems prone to rust. I clean my guns after every outing, but one time I forgot and the barrel had surface rust on it. I’d used the Ruger on the same outing and also didn’t clean it as I should have. No rust on the Ruger.
I’d say that the P22 is a good choice for your toybox. I enjoy mine. But it’s not a Wunderpistole.
Sorry I don’t have any information on the Sig.
Incidentally, the only experience I have with SIGs is the P226. It was a very well-used pistol, and the trigger had been lightened. The trigger was scary-light. I preferred my Beretta.
I’ve seen the SIG Mosquito, but haven’t fired one. Very well made, like all Sigs.
It looks and feels very much like a P226 except it’s lighter in weight. This makes me wonder why one couldn’t just get a .22 conversion for the Sig 226 like one can do with the Glock, and have a dual caliber pistol.
I’ve wondered about those. Are you changing out the barrel when you put the conversion kit in? What exactly does it require?
I hated my P22, but that was 4 years ago…so the new ones might be better. The extension barrel would twist after a few shots, thus knoking the front site off by a milimeter. The double safety didn’t work well. The gun jammed a lot. Hated it. Again, the new ones might be better, but don’t go for a used model.
-Tcat
No such problems with mine. But then, it hasn’t been used much. Did you buy yours new? If so, how long after you bought it (i.e., approximately how many rounds were fired) before the problems arose? What were the conditions when it jammed? (i.e., do you mean that a round would not feed? Or that you experienced stovepipes?) Were you able to determine whether the jamming was caused by lead fouling, or a damaged magazine, or something else?
The kits changes the barrel, guide rod, the magazine, and sometimes the slide.THIS kit is expensive (I’ve seen other brands for $99-$140) but it has a nice info sement on why one would want to convert.
Be warned that if you buy the cheaper kits that don’t include a new slide you can get a lot of failures as the .22 has a hard time moving a heavy .40cal slide back.
If you go on Ebay or Gunbroker you should be able to pick up an Advantage Arms kit for around $150 or so.
Oh, and I think with those cheaper kits you have to swap out the firing pin, which isn’t that big of a hassle until that itty bitty little spring flies out across the room and you can’t find it forever:eek:
Easier to buy the better kit.
Maybe I got a lemon, but it was horrible. Bought it new, the first day of shooting I noticed the twist in the extension barrel, both clips seemed to feed the bullets at an angle that would cause them to catch on the lower edge of the barrel, the slide would then ram into the bullet head and cause a nice ding in it. I even tried it with different bullets and got similar results. The best bullet I could find was CCI mini-mags.
Now I remember the safety having a problem too. I think I dry-fired it with a bullet chambered to test the safety and saw the lever move. I then dry-fired it a few times (it is double action) and the safety came off and fired the round after 5 or 6 tries. Or something like that…It has been awhile, but I remember it being one of those WTF?!? moments.
-Tcat
From what I’ve read the gun has been reworked to deal with the jamming issues. I wasn’t going to get the extended barrel so that wouldn’t be a problem. It simply looks ugly to me.