Target .22 Comparisons

[SSGSAD]

My vote is for the Ruger 22/45. I have around 7000 rounds through mine, and 2 fte, that is it !!!!! Very accurate. It is NOT a problem to field strip and clean !!!!!

 

[dshaf]

If you could somehow find a Browning Nomad, you would find it to be one of the sweetest shooting target .22's made

 

[chezuki]

I have a Buckmark with Tactical Solutions upgrades. My son wanted the shorter barrel. I originally bought a longer fluted barrel, but when he moved to California, he couldn't take the threaded barrel, so we swapped. With a red-dot sight and a home-brew sear spring trigger job, the Buckmark is about the fastest little semi-auto that I've found. Very light and a good pack gun.

That's a pretty Buckmark!!

One day I'm going to put a compensated Volquartsen barrel on my High Standard.

 

[BE Mike]

If you could somehow find a Browning Nomad, you would find it to be one of the sweetest shooting target .22's made

If you can find a magazine for a Browning Nomad, you would indeed be lucky! One of my complaints about the Browning .22 pistols is that they changed the magazine designs a few times over the years and finding a good magazine can be very, very difficult. Another complaint is that availability of the pistols (before the panic) has been spotty.

 

[Cool Breeze]

Another question: the 22/45. What does the "45" refer to? Is it referring to a similarity in the grip to a 1911? Is it ONLY referring to the grip? is the bolt, barrel, all that the same as the normal Mk2 or MK3 etc?

Also, If I'm considering a dot sight, is there really no accuracy difference with a shorter barrel?

And, what is the noticable difference of adding a compensator? (do I need to aim for a threaded barrel)

Thanks!

 

[pudly]

22/45 means that the grip angle is the same as the 1911. In fact, the newest 22/45s can use regular 1911 grip panels. The rest of the gun is quite different in both form and function from a 1911. The regular Mk2/Mk3 have a more angled grip.

If you want a true 1911 form, there are a couple, like the GSG that really look like (and more closely function like) a 1911.

A longer barrel will get you a little higher muzzle velocity, but not enough to notice for most target shooters. A rifle actually gets the maximum performance out of .22lr. Since you would be depending on the red dot, the regular sights and site radius are irrelevant.

 

[Cool Breeze]

Ok, I was at ZX today and held a Buckmark and 22/45 side by side. The buckmark had the finger grooved grip and therefore felt a little more comfortable, but what the heck is up with the safety? It is right in the way of where my thumb should be. And, it has sharp edges so with a tight grip it would be quite fatiguing. Do people end up filing it/rounding it over? I have a Kahr cm9, and lots of guys take the sharp edges and corners off the slide stop...

Thoughts?

 

[RAREBEAR]

I own several Ruger's MKI MKII 22/45's, a S&W 41, a GSG 1911, a high standard, and a Colt 22. My Buckmark is the one that I shoot the best and find myself plinking with more than all the others.

 

[rockhopper46038]

Just had a chance to shoot both my S&W41 and my Nelson Custom/Bob Marvel 1911 upper at the range side-by-side. Here are the targets. 5 shot groups, 25yrds, stabilized with wrists against the bench, but not bench-rested or sandbagged. S&W was shot with irons, the conversion was shot with a Burris Fastfire 3 3MOA red dot atop it. I didn't do my best work with the conversion (first pic); those two up top were me, for sure. Hard to beat the S&W, but I think the Nelson conversion will give it a good run once I figure out the red dot a little better.

 

[cundiff5535]

I wanted to chime in here as this is a pretty easy question to address. This 100% depends on your budget and how "crazy" you are...lol

--If you are a 1911 shooter, I would echo the poster who said to look at a conversion. I do not know about the company he recommended but I can speak to Marvel and Nighthawk. The Marvel "Unit 1" is the best of the best in terms of conversions and the Nighthawk is very close behind (Bob Marvel is now working with Nighthawk and he was the designer of the Unit 1). I owned both and thought the Unit1 was slightly better. A lot of folks at Camp Perry are shooting these! Either of these can be had for roughly $500 bucks... as a matter of fact I sold my NH conversion in the INGO forums a while back for like $425 or so...

--If 1911 conversion is not your cup of tea and you are on a budget, a Ruger Mark II/Mark III or Browning Buckmark are nice. You can get one in the 175-425 range depending on model and condition. They are great for the money and chances are, you will not out shoot any of them. I also owned a MKIII Target as well as Buckmark URX. For whatever reason, I was not happy with them (I am a weird-o when it comes to certain things on my firearms) so I sold them both even though they were nice! Budget wise, they are great little shooters and training pistols

--If you can spend a little more on a pistol, the next step up would be you Smith 41 and the High Standard .22 pistols. I love everything about this class of pistol as there is no better for the money. These will range between $650-$1200 depending on condition, model, etc. I own a 41 and its very nice, I also own a High Standard Supermatic Citation 10x, Supermatic Trophy, and The Victor! I personally think the High Standards shoot better than the 41 but, the Smith 41 lovers swear by this pistol. These pistols are on the same level as the Hammerli Trailside that you mentioned. To fill you in, that pistol is NOT made by Hammerli, its made by either Sig or Walther depending on if you get a Trailside or Xesse. I would take the 41, Supermatic Trophy, or The Victor over either of those pistols any day of the week. You can not go wrong with any of them. As a note of info... if you do go the High Standard route... you would want a Hamden model as those were considered the best of the bunch. They were made with better tolerances and higher standards as the later Hartford or Houston models.

--Lastly, you can go high end! and when I say this, I mean very, very high end. Hammerli, Feinwerkbau, Pardini, Sako, Benelli, Morini, or Walther... there are many high end professional type target pistols and you are going to be spending between $1700-$3000 for one of these. If money is no issue and you want folks jaws to hit the ground this is the catagory for you. The Hammerli 208 or 208s are the most famous and have HUGE collectors appeal. People have fired hundreds of thousands of rounds through these with little to no issue all accurate to 10x accuracy to 50 meters. The Feinwerkbau is what I personally have and its a dream to shoot (this is what most of the olympic teams, and grand masters are shooting these days). 2oz fully adjustable trigger... I can go on and on. The others I mentioned are all very cool to some far less/more than others in terms of cost. I personally love these pistols but, most never understand the reasoning for spending the money for one (dont get me wrong, there is a huge following for these and in the right places can be sold for nearly what they were bought for).

Hope that helped... Feel free to PM if you have questions on any of the stuff I mentioned!

 

[snapping turtle]

There are limited 500 dollar pistols that you are going to do what you are wanting to do.

You have basically ruger and browning (maybe smith) . Look to the used market to keep in budget as these pistols are very hard to shoot out the barrels on.

Ruger mark II has a rough trigger pull I had mine worked on a little but should get a factory replacement. That is going to put you over the 500 dollar mark most likely. Very first pistol I ever bought was the mark II.


the browning used to come in more upgraded versions than it does now. You can do the Higgins spring flip and get the trigger pull nice for free and they used to make them with the over travel screw. Mine can shoot with lots of rifles at 50 yards.



i have under 500 in both of these but they have been around with me for a long time. Today the "silly wet" pistols are running about 750 and the government model ruger over 500 when you see them for sale.

If it is a single Shot you can work with the. A tc contender with a match 22 barrel is a great paper puncher the first gen one I have has a great trigger. Should be available in your price range also. As accurate as either of the above but the have seemed to become a forgotten firearm in smiths ownership.

 

[pitbulld45]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but have a question. What's the difference between the MarKII and the MarkIII? I have a Walther p22 and for plinking it's a good gun. I also recently purchased a MarIII target model and am looking forward to shooting it.

 

[straight-shooter]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but have a question. What's the difference between the MarKII and the MarkIII? I have a Walther p22 and for plinking it's a good gun. I also recently purchased a MarIII target model and am looking forward to shooting it.

Lawyered safety mechanism in the MKIII which tends to make disassembly a bit more difficult but not impossible. In the end, both variations are good.

 

[freddahead]

Smith 41 5&7"barrels....absolute tac driver. Will eat any target ammo as long as you change recoil springs accordingly to bullet velocity.

 

[lmyer]

Lawyered safety mechanism in the MKIII which tends to make disassembly a bit more difficult but not impossible. In the end, both variations are good.

You can install MKII bushing (or others) to eliminate the mag disconnect. Other difference is presence of a LCI on the MKIII. The LCI doesn't bother me, but if you can't stand it you can buy a filler to eliminate it as well. Most people do a VQ sear and trigger at the same time as the bushing. If you use a MKII bushing you must use the MKII VQ trigger parts (or kit). If you want to use the MKIII trigger parts, you can use a "Sam's bushing". I did my new MKIII SS Competition with a MKII VQ bushing and complete VQ MKII trigger kit (which supposedly gives you extra parts that you really don't need). In any case I put all appropriate parts in and the trigger is EXCELLENT! If you are mechanical enough to field strip and reassemble the pistol, you can put the trigger parts in yourself as long as you take your time and look at how things come apart. There are videos that also show how. First time took me about 2 hours of gentle trial/error and video research.

Good luck!

 

[Bigtanker]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but have a question. What's the difference between the MarKII and the MarkIII? I have a Walther p22 and for plinking it's a good gun. I also recently purchased a MarIII target model and am looking forward to shooting it.

The mag saftey and loaded chamber indicator are on the MKIII as stated above. The MKIII also does away with the heal release mags the MKII uses, and puts the mag release in the standard position.

 

[JettaKnight]

1. No one is really carrying these guns, so why are the majority + or - 5" barrels, why not have 7" or even 10"? wouldn't that always be better?

You certainly can carry them in the woods. They'll do fine against rodents, but not rodents of unusual size. Plus, longer barrels == heavier and the center of gavity is way out further so it becomes unwieldy.

2. Everyone talks about how difficult the Rugers are to disassemble and clean. What about the others?

It only hurts the first time.

3. There are several models that have lighter barrels- either aluminum or fluted- is that only for comfort? would the extra mass of a "non" light barrel help to steady the gun?

Yes and no. It reduces recoil (big deal ), but it adds to arm fatigue which is a factor for some (kids/wives).

I do not plan to compete, and rarely would I hunt, more just shooting paper. I don't plan to invest in Eley or Wolf grade ammo- CCI SV at best and probably bulk most of the time. Budget is neighborhood of $500 and I'm not stuck on buying new.

Then any of these will work. Are you hooked on an autoloader? What about a revolver (w/ .22 mag cylinder)

If you like to tinker, a Ruger is a good choice as there's a lot of parts available and out of the box, I find them unacceptable (maybe I'm picky).


I have to Mk III's, one LITE one heavy barrel hunter. They serve different needs for me.






EDIT: didn't realize it's an old thread. So, Cool Breeze, What'd ya get?