22LR Pistol suggestion...

[Mystery]

Thinking of getting a 22LR for building up skills.
I thought about getting M&P 22LR as I have M&P 9 but a lot of you suggested on getting a target 22LR so I read a lot of threads and watched a lot of videos.
It comes down to basically 3 semiautomatic 22LR pistols.
1. Ruger Mark
2. Browning Buck Mark
3. S&W Victory

Here's the summary from my research.
Some like Browning and S&W over Ruger but most used/liked is Ruger.
S&W Victory feels great and shoots great out of the box but looks ugly/plain in comparison.
It is fine for target training and plinking and quite few use it in the competition.
Browning feels better than Ruger and shoots great out of the box but not as much popular in competition as Ruger.
Ruger is the most popular but it is not that great from factory and needs few upgrades out of the box and a lot of upgrades to make it to the competition.
Grip is too thin for many.

I'm not thinking about competition in near futurebut if I can get a gun that also works for competition without spending three times the gun's purchase price in upgrades, I'll buy it.

So here are the questions:
1. Is S&W victory good option? It's around $309.

2. What barrel Browning Buck Mark you suggest? 4" Micro Bull for $269 or 5.5" for $309 or any other model?
Is the 4" Buck Mark as good as longer versions for training?
If it is, I may get it and call it done.
It's cheap and good out of the box for training with no upgrades needed.

3. If Ruger, what model? What barrel? Some models are around $319 like the 22/45 Target but others are over $400 like the 22/45 lite and even over $600 for the competition model.
I'm okay spending little more from the cheapest but I really don't want to spend money on upgrades immediately.

Thanks

[idahojess]

I have an M&P 22 (standard)and a Ruger Mark IV.

I'd get an M&P 22 or an M&P compact 22.

https://palmettostatearmory.com/s-w-...lr-pistol.html

Trigger, weight, fit, all that stuff is more similar to what I shoot. (I generally shoot M&P's).

Both my Ruger and my M&P 22 run fine, but I have way more rounds through the M&P.

The Ruger is quite a bit different. Different reach, trigger pull weight, balance, weight of barrel, etc. I'm probably going to trade the Ruger in on something else, I just don't shoot it.

[whomever]

What kind of competition?

I ran a Bullseye Pistol 22 league for several years. What I saw on the line was:

1)The high end Euro guns - Pardini, Hammerli, etc. $$$$$
2)S&W Model 41's $$$
3)Various 1911 conversions (people who also shot the centerfire league wanted a 1911 platform. As a class, these were pretty unreliable)
4)Ruger MK something. Both the classic MKII style, and later MK 22/45's when they came out). These were a plurality.
5)Onsey-twoseys of everything else. Old High Standards, the Sig Trailside, Buckmarks, revolvers.

My better half shot expert with a stock MKII (with a red dot, but with presbyopia you need that for any gun). She eventually added a custom grip.

Unless some other gun really speaks to you, I'd get a Ruger. They are usually reliable, lots of people know how to fix them, aftermarket stuff is readily available if you want to fiddle.

I'd get the 5.5 inch bull barrel, in either MkIV or 22/45 flavor, depending on what grip angle you prefer. I would avoid the 'Lite' ones. A little weight is your friend, for bullseye anyway.

If you're doing rimfire IPSC or Silhouette or something, then disregard :-)

[Sal Picante]

Thinking of getting a 22LR for building up skills.

What kind of skills?

I'm not thinking about competition in near futurebut if I can get a gun that also works for competition without spending three times the gun's purchase price in upgrades, I'll buy it.

What kind of competition?

Seriously, answering these two questions is what is going to put you down a particular path.

Ruger is the most popular but it is not that great from factory and needs few upgrades out of the box and a lot of upgrades to make it to the competition. Grip is too thin for many.

It does? What kind of competition? How big are your hands?

[0ddl0t]

Is range time and/or ammo cost a limiting factor? I.e. will shooting the 22 take away from shooting your 9mm? If so, I'd recommend dry fire instead of splitting your range time between dissimilar platforms.

I just don't believe buying a soft-shooting SAO competition-oriented 22 is going to do much to help you better shoot a snappy compact 9mm with a meh trigger (which I assume is your goal). 2 cases of 9mm and focused practice will do a lot more for you...

[Mystery]

I have an M&P 22 (standard)and a Ruger Mark IV.

I'd get an M&P 22 or an M&P compact 22.

https://palmettostatearmory.com/s-w-...lr-pistol.html

Trigger, weight, fit, all that stuff is more similar to what I shoot. (I generally shoot M&P's).

Both my Ruger and my M&P 22 run fine, but I have way more rounds through the M&P.

The Ruger is quite a bit different. Different reach, trigger pull weight, balance, weight of barrel, etc. I'm probably going to trade the Ruger in on something else, I just don't shoot it.

M&P 22 is what I started with in the class and I liked it.
That's an option.

What kind of competition?
...
Unless some other gun really speaks to you, I'd get a Ruger. They are usually reliable, lots of people know how to fix them, aftermarket stuff is readily available if you want to fiddle.

I'd get the 5.5 inch bull barrel, in either MkIV or 22/45 flavor, depending on what grip angle you prefer. I would avoid the 'Lite' ones. A little weight is your friend, for bullseye anyway.

If you're doing rimfire IPSC or Silhouette or something, then disregard :-)

I have no idea what kind of competition.
Just watched videos of steel shooting competition where they used 22LR like Victory, Mark and Buck marks so thought that's a popular competition to get into later.

Grip angle is another thing. I have not even held any of these three guns.
I'll see if my range has them to feel the grips/angle.

What kind of skills?
...
What kind of competition? How big are your hands?

Fundamentals like not moving the sights, aim, just the basic skills without spending $$$ on 9mm.
See above for competition...

Is range time and/or ammo cost a limiting factor? I.e. will shooting the 22 take away from shooting your 9mm? If so, I'd recommend dry fire instead of splitting your range time between dissimilar platforms.

I just don't believe buying a soft-shooting SAO competition-oriented 22 is going to do much to help you better shoot a snappy compact 9mm with a meh trigger (which I assume is your goal). 2 cases of 9mm and focused practice will do a lot more for you...

Yes, plan is to practice/train with 22 and use 9mm for the end result.
I burn through 100 rounds pretty quick.
That's $20 for 9mm and going every week to the range adds up.

Good to see different views on the use of 22LR for training.

[Mystery]

How big are your hands?

Not sure how to size hands but I use the 2nd largest grip on my m&p 9mm.

[jeep45238]

It's not on your list, but I've been shocked at the GSG 1911 - way better reliability than expected, multiple sight fights out of the box, and close enough to a 1911 that draw and trigger press work are really good proxies.

[farscott]

I am heavily invested in the Ruger Standard/MK pistol as I have been shooting them for more than forty-five years, but if I was starting today I would choose the S&W Victory as it has a robust aftermarket meaning people are buying it and the barrel is easily changed and is not serialized. The biggest negative of the Ruger design is the barreled receiver is the serialized firearm, so changing the barrel (length, profile, sight type, chamber type) essentially means buying a pistol. The Victory allows for the barrel to be swapped by the end user and the same gun can go from a plinker with a short light barrel to a heavy target barrel suitable for Bullseye.

I have a full-house Volquartsen-built Victory and it is the equal of any of my Volquartsen-built Ruger Standard pistols.

[Stephanie B]

A Ruger 22/45, with a Sam Lamm bushing (~$12, gets rid of the mag disconnect) and a Volquartsen trigger and sear (~$50) gets one pretty far. The Volquartsen sear is polished; it makes the factory sear look like a rough sand casting.

I shot Bullseye up until the last year. The line was almost entirely populated by shooters with some flavor of Ruger (Mk.* or 22/45). One guy had a S&W 41 that he had for decades. One had a Buckmark. Two had S&W revolvers (17 and 617). That area wasn't rich enough for anyone to afford the Euro-guns.