We tested two 22 LR handguns in an April 2012 showdown of plinking pistols. They were the Walther P22 Model WAP22003 22 LR, $379; and the Ruger SR22PB Model 03600, $399. Heres an excerpt of that report.
In a February 2006 test of four handguns, our Idaho staff called the Walther P22 22 LR No. WAP22003, $301, an Our Pick. The test team said, We liked this little .22 pistol immensely. It was completely reliable in our limited shooting, and shot very well, with many five-shot groups going around an inch at 15 yards. The impact could be fine-tuned as necessary by changing the front sight. The windage was slick and handy, we found, and adjusted with relative ease.… We think anyone in need of a fine little .22 pistol that works every time and doesnt bust the bank need look no farther than the short-barrel P22. We thought it was an ideal fun gun, one wed take in the backpack and not even know its there. Then, in the May 2010 issue, we wrote, Our Team Said: The unanimous decision was that the P22 was the top performer in our tests.… This is a difficult trick to manage for any handgun, because differing ammo selections, test conditions, individual pistol variations, and matchups can magnify the flaws found in any product, making it hard to get a top grade again and again.
But when a gun does that well over time, it can serve as a benchmark against which to test newer products, which in this case is the Ruger SR22PB Model 03600, $399. Like the Walther P22 WAP22003, now $379, Rugers SR22 is full of angles and bumps and slots, but not so many serrations. The top of its anodized slide was smooth and semi-gloss, instead of the Walthers dead-flat black with longitudinal serrations. What would have impressed us mightily is if Ruger (or Walther) had attempted to copy the original Walther PPK for the 22LR, and brought it off nicely at a good sale price. No one makes that gun today, so far as we know. (If Ruger or Walther decided to do it, we suspect a great many fans of James Bond would buy the guns just for the fact that they look like the famous PPK. And if this hypothetical gun were far more accurate than either of these two test guns, wed beat a path to the makers door and buy one for ourselves.) But that veers off our current topic, which is pitting the two similar 22 autoloading pistols head to head.
We acquired a new Ruger and borrowed a locally owned, new-condition P22 for this test. We tested with five types of ammunition. These were CCI Green Tag Competition, Eleys Match EPS, CCI Mini Mag solids, Winchester Power Point HP, and Federal Classic High-Velocity. How does the new Ruger stack up against the Walther P22? Lets take a look feature by feature of the winning gun:
Walther P22 Model WAP22003 22 LR, $379
Walther also has a version with a longer barrel, and one with an integral laser sight for $479. The Walther P22 is full of tactile surprises. The gun is covered with serrations, angled metal and plastic, notches, grooves, and on the grip, pebble-graining. Its a delight to the eye, very busy yet business-like in its look.
The controls are simple and straightforward. Theres the trigger, with a useable DA and pleasant SA pull. Theres the ambidextrous safety, and though it operates in a reverse direction from that of many popular guns, its intuitive after a few seconds. Align it with the barrel and youre ready to shoot. Move it down to the safe position and the hammer moves back a touch if its down, but doesnt drop if its cocked. The safety blocks the hammer from striking the firing pin, and also locks the firing pin so the gun cant discharge. If the hammer is cocked, putting the safety on leaves it cocked. You can lower the hammer by grasping it firmly with thumb and index finger on its sides, and pressing the trigger. Or if youre lazy, just press the trigger with the gun pointed in a safe direction. We dont recommend that method. Although the gun can be carried cocked and locked, its not a convenient safety for that purpose.
Another control is the slide lock, which holds the slide rearward after the last shot. Next is the ambidextrous magazine release, which is a latch device at the bottom rear of the trigger guard that you press downward to release the magazine. One reader wrote that he had trouble keeping the magazine in the gun whilst wearing gloves, or with a shooter who had fat fingers. We submit that handguns ought never to be fired with gloves. While one of us was in Alaska running a trap line, the handgun was kept warm in a shoulder holster. That trapper always removed his gloves to shoot, even at 40 degrees below zero. As for the mag dropping out of the Walther, we could not get it to come out accidentally no matter how thick a glove we wore, nor by pressing down hard on the release with our trigger finger inserted. We suspect that reader either had dirt fouling the latch or a faulty latch on his Walther. We generally used a finger on each side of the mag release to get the mag out of the gun.
Two magazines came with our test gun, one with a flat bottom and one with a PPK-like extension. However, the latest information is that only one magazine comes with the gun. Each held ten rounds. One more control on the P22 is the takedown latch near the front of the trigger guard, which requires you to first clear the gun, then press downward on this saddle-like latch until it drops out of the way. Then pull the slide to the rear, lift it, and ease it forward off the barrel. This is similar to the takedown for the PPK, but the recoil spring is not around the barrel here, its on a small rod that falls out when you remove the slide. Thats the weak point of this design, because you need a tool in the form of a slave rod to capture the spring before you can reassemble the gun. It may be possible to do so without that tool, but we could not do it. Thats where Ruger has an advantage, which well look at in a moment.
Theres also a rail under the muzzle for a light, sort of a Picatinny rail, with one notch. A variety of lights can be put on there, but we fail to see the need for a light on a 22 handgun. A laser sight there might make some sense for those with compromised vision.
Walther makes it easy to install a silencer-threaded barrel where those are legal. Or you can change the barrel for a longer one, at extra cost for the extra parts. The sights are plastic, the front bearing a numeral 3, and the rear having a windage adjustment. The gun shot a touch low for us, so we elected to change the front sight. Three sights came with the gun, numbered 2, 3, and 4. We chose number 2. Removing the original sight was easy by poking it out with a screwdriver from the inside, with the gun being disassembled. Getting the new sight in was tricky. We finally put it in location and rapped it with a stick, and in it went. Then our shots were where we wanted them on the 15-yard target. Windage was easy to correct with the screw-adjustable rear sight. The sight picture was excellent, and had three white dots. If we were picky, wed have the rear notch a tad narrower, but as it was it was fast to use.
Besides, the three front-sight inserts, there was also a flat insert for the back of the grip, and we chose to change it out. A slight press with hand pressure on a proper-size punch got out the rear grips retaining pin, and we easily installed the flatter housing. There was also a key in the package to lock the gun, the slide-spring installation rod, and a wrench to remove the barrel.
With the gun apart, we found excellent workmanship inside. The slide is aluminum alloy, as is the barrel-retention block and the slide rails inside the frame. Everything looked good, we took our pix, and it was time to reassemble the P22. We found that inserting the slave rod through the hole in the front of the slide was the easiest. Then with the recoil spring and rod in place in the frame, we fit the forward part of the recoil spring around the slave rod, inserted the barrel in its hole, and the gun went together easily. We suspect Walther could modify this setup to match that use by Ruger, to eliminate the need for the slave rod.
On the range we had no problems with the gun except with the Federal Classic ammo. This gave repeated failures to cycle the slide far enough to pick up the next round. The same thing happened with the Ruger. We had an occasional failure to fire, caused by some of our test ammo being quite old. It also had failed to fire in the past in other good guns. The simple fix was to cycle the hammer again with the DA trigger on the P22. Again the same thing happened with the Ruger. Bad ammo is bad ammo.
We wanted more accuracy than we got. With our No. 2 front sight, the gun shot just above the point of aim at 15 yards, which is what we wanted. The final choice of front sight would depend on the final selection of the very best ammo for the gun. We thought the single-action trigger was excellent on the P22. The double-action pull was good enough that we could hold the gun on target easily until the gun fired, but we did not attempt to make groups DA.
Our Team Said: We really enjoyed the P22 Walther, wanting only more accuracy from it. The feel, function, looks, balance, and light weight were ideal for fun shooting. The good triggers, both the smooth 9.3-pound DA and clean 4.3-pound SA, made that a joy. Does it have enough accuracy? Maybe, depending on your use for the gun.
