Most reliable .22 pistol?

[Zincwarrior]

Having just received my .22 Victory back from S&W for the second time to fix problems with it, I once again have been thinking, what are the most reliable moderately priced .22 semi auto pistol on the market currently? By reliable I mean a pistol that will not jam, Fail to feed, or fail to extract, if it is properly maintained and cleaned (ie cleaned and oiled after every range session)?

Ever since I shot my old Ruger Mark II into the ground (shot it so much the barrel wore out and the frame cracked), I've not found a pistol I could rely on to shoot without quite a few jams. I have had great luck with non .22 pistols, but with .22s I have an inordinate number of unreliable ones. Once the prices get reasonable again, I'd like a decently reliable pistol for the range and just to have at steel challenge type matches (as a hack, not trying to actually be extremely competitive).

[OlongJohnson]

I've had good luck with Buck Marks, although I do spend a bit of time going through each one and detailing it out mechanically before putting it into service.

A reasonable quality revolver would also probably work well, as there is a lot less to interrupt their cycling.

Note that with .22LR ammo, function depends very heavily on the quality of the ammo. With less than good quality ammo, you can expect a range of malfunctions. CCI or better ammo fixes many, many problems that are observed with .22s, although there is the occasional gun that doesn't like CCI.

[Zincwarrior]

I've had good luck with Buck Marks, although I do spend a bit of time going through each one and detailing it out mechanically before putting it into service.

A reasonable quality revolver would also probably work well, as there is a lot less to interrupt their cycling.

Note that with .22LR ammo, function depends very heavily on the quality of the ammo. With less than good quality ammo, you can expect a range of malfunctions. CCI or better ammo fixes many, many problems that are observed with .22s, although there is the occasional gun that doesn't like CCI.

What do you do to the Buckmark detail wise?

[mtnbkr]

Most of my experience has been with the Ruger MKIII series pistols (standard and 22/45). I've found them to be very reliable with virtually any ammo. My personal 22/45 very seldom bobbles and when it does it's because I need to clean it or the magazines (I often shoot it with a suppressor and it likes to be cleaned about every 500 or so rounds of garbage bulk-pack stuff). If I didn't use a can or if I cleaned it every range trip, I doubt it would have any issues until parts started wearing out.

I think a Ruger 22lr with quality ammo is probably the lowest cost entry. You could proactively replace the extractor with an aftermarket one, which is an easy and inexpensive modification. Anything else would be more to improve the trigger or ergonomics (all of which I've done as well).

Chris

[BillSWPA]

My Buck Mark has been very reliable over many thousands of rounds with a variety of bulk ammo, but it does prefer copper plated bullets. I clean it regularly and occasionally replace the recoil spring assembly, but that is all I have done with it.

My Glock 44 has also been very reliable, although with a much lower round count and only 1-2 types of ammo. The exception is chambering the first round of the magazine was not carefully loaded.


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[Duelist]

I have had very good service from my Ruger MKII, so I understand the desire for a reliable .22 to match it. What has been your experience with new Rugers? I would think that one of those equipped with a red dot would be killer for steel challenge.

My G44 seems to be a good gun. The .22 that gives me the most joy to shoot is a Kframe S&W. A Single Six is pretty good, too.

[Zincwarrior]

WE like both Rugers and Buckmarks. We have or had three Rugers. First one: 40,000 - 50,000 rounds through it before it gave up the ghost. Second: Ruger 22/45. The sight kept drifting, and it was the old style with the interesting cleaning procedure, which is what drove me to try other pistols. NOTE: since the Victory started being a major pain, I have dug this one back out. I have purchased a night fiber optic sight set and based on these comments will likely get some new springs for it and one of the adapters that let you unscrew the bolt with an Allen wrench then send it to a smith to change out everything, inspect and cleanup.

The daughter has an old style Ruger target as well.

Glock 44? This slipped my notice. Will have to look at.

Ideally I would get two or three shooting reliably and alternate.

[okie john]

In a semi-auto, I'd get a Ruger semi-auto of pretty much any vintage. We used to have them as rental guns when I worked on commercial ranges and they were tough.

In a revolver, I'd get a Ruger Single Six or S&W K-22. In those, you just have to keep the chambers and barrel root clean.


Okie John

[Half Moon]

On the cheap end, my wife has a Bersa Thunder .22 that has been very reliable with a variety of ammo (though mostly Mini-Mags to be fair). It has fairly good accuracy as well. If I remember right, additional magazines were pricier than I would have expected but can't remember the actual cost. The pistol itself was around $250 new though. I was skeptical when she brought it home but all in all, sample of one, it has done well.

Stepson and I both favor our pre- Model 17 S&W Target Masterpiece .22 revolver but not sure that qualifies into the moderately priced category.

[SecondsCount]

I'm also a Buckmark fan and believe it or not, my Kimber 22LR conversion kit that I swap with the Custom Target slide approaches 99.9% with Remington Golden and Mini Mags.