Walther P22 Question...

[beafly.cakes]

Recently purchased a new P22. I've read the P22 bible and have a couple of questions.

How important are the modifications he recommends to the reliability of yhe pistol long term?

Should they be made prior to it's first trip to the range?

If the consensus is that they should, should I find a gunsmith to do them? Or is it reasonable for a fairly mechanical person with the proper tools to be successful?

Finally, if a gunsmith does end up being the way to go, can anyone in the SOMD area recommend a reputable one?

 

[Schwabe]

Most of the mods will make the P22 smoother and more "reliable" to cycle your ammo.

The only thing I consider to be important for the gun' life is polishing the "ears" they have a tendency to work into the slide and weaken it.

My gun was bought used and already showed some minor wear on the slide. I did all the polishing etc in the bible and have since some 3-4,000 rounds through it without having further aggrevated the wear marks on the slide. I don't believe you HAVE to do them before taking it to the range for a first outing.

When you do do it yourselve take it down the first time inside a zip lock back, there are some tiny springs in the trigger group that will go flying.

Also remember that you need a magazine inserted when you want to try the trigger after you assemble the gun .... I forgot and took the gun a part several times thinking I made a mistake during re-assemble.

 

[Dino]

I polished the trigger ears and the feed ramp (optional) on my P22 before firing the first shot.
It's been 100% reliable with CCI MiniMags and there's absolutely no wear on the slide.
I'd like to think it would be just as reliable with other ammo but I honestly have no desire to experiment.
Polishing the trigger ears was done just for preventative measures.
Other mods in the "P22 Bible" are to address issues that my P22 didn't have.

Hard to say if my P22 would or wouldn't have developed a cracked slide had I not taken the time to polish the trigger ears, but better safe than sorry.

 

[beafly.cakes]

Dino- Which do you typically shoot:

22 LR CCI Mini-Mag 40gr Solid Copper .22

-or-

22 LR CCI Mini-Mag HP 36gr Copper .22

The hollow points look like they are cheaper locally, but I'm gathering that polishing the feed ramp may become a necessary mod if I plan to shoot a lot of these. Any thoughts?

 

[Dino]

Dino- Which do you typically shoot:

22 LR CCI Mini-Mag 40gr Solid Copper .22

-or-

22 LR CCI Mini-Mag HP 36gr Copper .22

The hollow points look like they are cheaper locally, but I'm gathering that polishing the feed ramp may become a necessary mod if I plan to shoot a lot of these. Any thoughts?

I shoot both 40gr. Solid and 36gr. HP's.
I've purchased both without realizing it until later.
No issues at all.

The "hollow point" in a .22lr is so small, I'm not sure that polishing the feed ramp really makes a difference either way.
I just like to tinker.

 

[clay_shooter]

I had to tighten down the screw on the safety. It was loose letting the block drop down sometimes. Other than that, 2,000 rounds with no problems.

 

[beafly.cakes]

So I decided to simply give the gun a thorough clean/lube and blue locktite the frame screws before my first trip to the range.

While I had it completely apart, I took some time to closely inspect the questionable areas. I've gotta say, the edges on the trigger bar ears looked nothing like the ones pictured in the bible. Both were very round and smooth. I wasnt convinced they even needed polishing.

Inspection of the feed ramp was similarly encouraging. In the bible the edge of the chamber appears to stick up above the lip of the ramp. In mine it was pretty clearly below the angle of the ramp.

So, I decided that I would give walther the benefit of the doubt, lubed it up an took it to the range.

I ran 250 rounds of CCI mini-mag 36g HP through it with only a single questionable cycle. Somewhere around 80 rounds the round in the chamber fired fine, but the slide didn't completely rack all the way back. It seemed to stick. I waited, made sure the barrel was clear, manually cycled the next round and finished the mag with no problems. Any ideas?

Planning to do another complete disassembly, clean and line tomorrow night. I'll inspect the slide for wear from those trigger bar ears then and report back.

Possible Walther has read the bible and fixed some of these issues in production?

 

[Dino]

So I decided to simply give the gun a thorough clean/lube and blue locktite the frame screws before my first trip to the range.

While I had it completely apart, I took some time to closely inspect the questionable areas. I've gotta say, the edges on the trigger bar ears looked nothing like the ones pictured in the bible. Both were very round and smooth. I wasnt convinced they even needed polishing.

Inspection of the feed ramp was similarly encouraging. In the bible the edge of the chamber appears to stick up above the lip of the ramp. In mine it was pretty clearly below the angle of the ramp.

So, I decided that I would give walther the benefit of the doubt, lubed it up an took it to the range.

I ran 250 rounds of CCI mini-mag 36g HP through it with only a single questionable cycle. Somewhere around 80 rounds the round in the chamber fired fine, but the slide didn't completely rack all the way back. It seemed to stick. I waited, made sure the barrel was clear, manually cycled the next round and finished the mag with no problems. Any ideas?

Planning to do another complete disassembly, clean and line tomorrow night. I'll inspect the slide for wear from those trigger bar ears then and report back.

Possible Walther has read the bible and fixed some of these issues in production?

I don't know if they "read the bible" but it's my understanding that Walther did in fact address some of those issues on current production P22's.
Congrats!