I have NEVER assumed any .22 pistol would be as reliable as a center-fire gun. It's just the nature of the beast. If people are going in to this thinking that the G44 will be 99% reliable, they need some expectation management.
The question should not be: "Will this gun be as reliable as my G19?"
The question SHOULD be: "Will this gun be as or more reliable than a Ruger Mk4? Browning Buckmark? Sig or S&W .22 duty clones?"
My thoughts exactly.Originally Posted by RAM Engineer
Also, I very much disagree with the notion that training with a rimfire has no value. It absolutely can have value, you just have to do it right. I’ll buy one of these G44’s, just probably not the very first batch.
First, a S&W 22a is hardly the paradigm of quality rimfire. At the same price point as a Ruger MK3, it was certainly not as reliable with the same ammo. I wouldn't say rimfire semiautos are marginal based on that gun.
That said, do you realize how dirty rimfire is compared to centerfire? I can put 500 rounds through my G19 and 500 through my rimfire (revolver or semi). The G19 will be fine with an exterior wipe down from an oily rage and *maybe* a boresnake through the barrel. The rimfires will need some time on the bench with solvents, rags, and possibly picks. Before its last cleaning, my 22/45 sounded like it was loaded up with sand and the bolt was gritty as hell. Standard velocity ammo wouldn't cycle it (would fire, but required a manual bolt cycle), but it kept running fine with HV ammo.
Also, I've never seen the variability in centerfire ammo I see in rimfire. Loose bullets, poor consistency, damaged bullets, etc...
That said, my 40-odd year old S&W 17-2 is more affected than my MK3 22/45. Every few cylinders-full has me brushing out the chambers on my revolver so I can load it and eject empties, but my 22/45 will keep plugging along until filth keeps the bolt from cycling properly.
I should see how much match-grade ammo (which is comparable in price to cheap-to-mid-tier 9mm) my 22/45 will digest before it experiences reliability issues...
Chris
I never claimed it was. I've owned more than a dozen different rimfire handguns, from $125 cheapos like the 22A to $1000 guns like a Hammerli 208s. You want to know a secret? They all kind of work about the same in terms of reliability. But the higher quality guns do tend to be less maintenance intensive and less sensitive to ammo variance.
Yes, bulk .22LR often has QC issues. The only two bulk I've ever seen that works very well, with <1 failure-to-fire in 500 is Federal Champion 36-grain, that is packed in 50-round boxes (not the loose packed stuff), and Aguila 40-grain packed in 50-round boxes. Everyone else exhibits ~5-10% failure-to-fire rate. Match-grade .22LR is the only way to go if you don't want to master malfunction drills. That said, the number of times I've taken a failed-to-fire .22 and loaded it in a different gun and made sure the firing pin struck another part of the rim and the round goes off, tells me that dual firing pins and plenty of hammer spring would solve another 90% of those failures.
A truly legendary .22LR pistol, would be one that has centerfire reliability, everything else is just a toy.
If you're not familiar with Michael Bane's discussion and P. David Yamane's (among others) expansion on the idea of Gun Culture 2.0, that would be an excellent place to start.
https://gunculture2point0.wordpress....n-culture-2-0/
Myself, I've never owned a rimfire pistol. I do have a Marlin-Glendfield 60 that is neglected in the safe because I did a bad thing to it a very long time ago and nobody I know even wants it for free even though it's a relatively easy fix. I'd only ever bought it in the first place because it has a tube magazine design like the one I first learned to shoot on.
I have never hunted. I do aspire to go for dove next year if a certain someone who offered to take me doesn't flake out on me like the last two guys did, but that's a shotgun thing of course.
I can’t argue with this. I do both but there just isn’t as many people like me as I originally assumed.
My whole household hunts large and small game and competes in NSSF, USPSA, or both. I guess we’re snowflakes.
A lot of people are talking about making the G44 their first 22 so I guess that’s a good thing
Weird , I wonder what I do with all that ammo when I go to the range. I mean it's least three times a week. I shoulve worked it out by now. I thought I was shooting.
Welcome to Africa, bring a hardhat.
This latest drift is just the rural v urban thing again, IMHO.
When I was growing up in a smaller university town, I shot AND hunted. From age 18 on, I’ve lived primarily in major urban centers, and have been developing a population-centric career and shit, so I don’t hunt any more. As the old children’s magazine used to say, "we learn what we live."
”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB
There's all manner of hunting and not all of them end with a bullet being fired despite a gun being involved.
There's nothing civil about this war.
I’d rather this have been G17-sized, but I believe I will be buying one of these. Perfect old man’s pistol, for low-recoil training, and maybe other purposes. I understand why one should not practice splits with a sub-caliber understudy gun. I have always believed that the accurate first shot is most important, and a sub-caliber understudy gun is perfect for that type of training.
Retar’d LE. Kinesthetic dufus.
Don’t tread on volcanos!
Reply With Quote