Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Favorite 22 handgun

High Standard SK-100 Sport King for me.

Honorable mentions go to the Colt Woodsman and Ruger Single Six.

For a revolver I’d have to go with a Colt officer model even over a k-22

For an auto it would be between a smith 41 or a Colt match target

Ruger Single Six
Ruger MKIII

Autos are fun and can be reliable, but I am a fan of the boring Ruger Single Six. The Bearcat had been a good one too.

.22 autos are picky about ammo in my experience. Some won’t cycle reliably with cheap ammo or when really dirty. Revolvers have some downsides and they can jam for other reasons, but I like them better overall.

Autos are fun to but hard not to enjoy my boring old rugers as well.

I'm a fan of Ruger and S&W revolvers. For $300 the Ruger MKIII target 45 I just picked up is growing on me. Needs trigger work though. I found my Burris FF2 and the trigger is all that's holding it back now.

Ruger LCRx, my ideal .22 handgun.



When shooting lots of .22 ammo, as is usually the case, I find loading and loading and loading .22 semi-auto mags to be tedious and often accompanied by a sore thumb. Loading eight rounds every time in a revolver much less so on all counts. Plus revolvers don’t jam with cheap ammo as pistols often do.

Heavy trigger double-action, much lighter single-action. Accurate enough to bounce soda cans and shotgun shells around. Lightweight, easy to carry, small enough for concealed carry, big enough to aim and shoot easily.

Durn near perfect.

Nice! Looks like that one has been enjoyed

sometimes the very nicest and most expensive guns 22s in this case are not always the funnest...
I've got a little Taurus TX 22 that is way more fun and accurate above the price point..

I may buy one of those. I've handled a couple. Did you get the one with threaded barrel and sight cutout?

no mine was one of the early ones with no sight cut out but it does have threaded barrel..

I've seen they now make I think they call them Toro. addition them look good

Have you handled a Keltec P17? The p17 trigger is a little better than the Taurus TX22 in the models I tried. The TX was the new one with threaded barrel, sight cut, and one high cap mag.

no I have never played with a Kel-Tec 17.

The Keltec is $100 cheaper, gets just as good reliability reviews. It has a sight cut but no threaded barrel on the cheaper one. They might have another model. The trigger really impressed me, but it didn't feel as nice in the hand as the TX22.I liked the sights better on the P17.

It looked to me like a great pistol to throw in a tackle box or glove compartment, but the ergonomics are such that the TX would be much more comfortable as a dedicated range toy despite the trigger difference. The TX trigger I tried was nice for a striker trigger, about as nice as I have ever tried, but the P17 that I tried was match grade IMHO, so close to what you would expect from a top-notch trigger as to be astounding in a $200 gun. I've paid more than that for a trigger upgrade alone of its equal.

I did not notice any side play but that may be a weakness born of lesser QC and appear in some guns.

I gunsmithed enough years to come to the fact that you can’t make any money doing it. A big portion of my business was rimfire Bullseye and plinkers-hunters. So here is my short list

High Standards: always very accurate, best factory triggers and with the Supermatic Citations high quality sights. Find a beater or used one and they are real accurate performers

Colt: The Woodsman guns like HS great triggers, very accurate, slant grip a joy to shoot

Colt: Police Positive series including the Officer models are fine very accurate, smooth as silk revolvers but are collectibles these days so pricy. Never had a 22 mag that was accurate

Brownings: shoot very well accurate, sketchy triggers but overall nice pistols

Smith & Wesson: the Early K series are fine revolvers and can be slicked up to a degree beyond even the Colts. But they are collectibles and bring good money if in decent shape. Every one I Ransom tested alway had one chamber that shot way off the mark ?

Smith & Wesson: Model 51 or 651 22 mag or swap cylinder 22 LR. Nice high power rim fires on a J Frame so if you get an accurate one keep it.

Ruger: early Standard Models and follow up series II and newer in my opinion best gun for the money. They all shoot with most ammo, tricky take down on early models, need trigger help but great woods pistols capable of hunting accuracy and entry level Bullseye

Finally don’t expect good accuracy and balance with barrels shorter than 4”

Just another opinion

Rick

Aces and Eights

The little ruger's been fun for the last week or so.