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S&W M&P 22 first impressions

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I finally had a chance to put several hundred rounds through the M&P 22 I bought a few months ago.

My purpose of purchasing the M&P 22 is to have a practice gun that is much cheaper to shoot than my M&P Pro 9mm, which the M&P 22 certainly is. The hope was that the M&P 22 would feel and handle almost the same as the 9mm version.

Grip: I have the medium backstrap insert in my M&P Pro, which is the same size as the fixed backstrap in the M&P 22. The grip feel is exactly the same comparing both pistols. You could have someone close their eyes and hand them either and they wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Weight: Big difference here. The Pro is much heavier than the 22. The difference is in the use of steel vs aluminum in the slide. Then if you fill the magazine in the 9mm, it feels like it weighs as much as two of the 22's.

Sight picture: The sights are different so it's pretty hard to compare the sights themselves. However, when considering the view of the back of the frame/slide/sights, then is the same. S&W did a great job of making the overall picture of the back of the gun, while sighting, look exactly the same.

Trigger: These are not 1911's, they are modern polymer pistols with jointed type triggers. There is considerable movement of the trigger before sear engagement. The Pro is striker fired, while the 22 is hammer fired. The result is that the 22 doesn't have to finish compressing the striker spring during the trigger pull. The 22 has a much crisper trigger break than even the Pro, which has a pretty good trigger. I understand that the 22 and Pro ( and other centerfire M&P's included) have much different trigger systems, but the result is the 22 does have a better trigger than any other pistol in the M&P polymer series.

Recoil: Holy Cow. The 22 just doesn't have recoil. I fired about 200 rounds through the 22 yesterday, then fired the Pro 9mm. The perception of recoil and muzzle blast from the first shot through the 9mm felt like I had somehow chambered a S&W 500 in my 9mm Pro. Do yourself a favor, if you practice with the M&P 22, then shoot a centerfire M&P in competition, run a couple magazines through your centerfire before your first shot in competition. You'll re-acclimate your brain to the feel of recoil and noise.

Reliability: All 450 rounds through the 22 so far have been Federal 525 bulk pack. The pistol has performed flawlessly - not a single issue, period.

What's not to like about this pistol? I certainly can't find anything.


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When I heard these would have the fixed backstrap, I was disappointed. By the time they actually appeared, I had decided on the medium grip. So for me, I guess it doesn't matter.

I wish the weight and trigger were closer to the centerfires, IF I wanted one as an understudy type gun. But since I traded off my M&P 45 a few months ago and am now M&P-less, I would now be looking at one as a stand-alone .22 pistol.

And it looks better to me now.

The different trigger could potentially be an improvement perhaps, and the light weight would be nice.

Good to know these things.

I'm also impressed it's getting through the bulk ammo. Not many guns seem to, with the sand and glue they all seem to charge the cases with anymore.

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