[gunner40sw]

What is a good gun and setup to shoot steel in the 22 cal division. Or if you have any good websites that have guns or info that would be great.

[Jaxshooter]

The most reliable one you can find. I have a S&W Model 41 that runs extremely well on good ammo, High Standard Military Citation pickey on ammo, S&W 617 10 shot revolver CCI Mini Mags, Marvel Open Conversion on a dedicated SV frame very reliable on Federal Auto Match. I have 3 or 4 more that run some days and not others. That is the nature of the .22. You will find plenty of info if you use the search function. IM me if I can help.

[Sarge]

Gunner
I made some observations at a local steel match last month about the 22. I posted it here somewhere. I asked a few shooters some questions and learned that 22 ammo can be absolute garbage. I saw almost every shooter have trouble with jams/misfires. They said for reliability they shoot good quality ammo not most of the bulk stuff. The 610's were very popular revolvers and 41's and ruger's pretty much made up the rest. Hope this helps. Good shooting!

[gunner40sw]

The S&W 41 goes for a good buck. I just got a new edge in 9mm. What about getting a 22 conversion for it and use that. I did want to use a dot but i guess I can use iron sights. They do have a nice 41 for aucton with two barrels and different grips and 3 mags the reserve is 1275.00 nice gun and hardly any rounds through it.

[G-ManBart]

gunner40sw, on Mar 12 2009, 08:35 PM, said:

The S&W 41 goes for a good buck. I just got a new edge in 9mm. What about getting a 22 conversion for it and use that. I did want to use a dot but i guess I can use iron sights. They do have a nice 41 for aucton with two barrels and different grips and 3 mags the reserve is 1275.00 nice gun and hardly any rounds through it.

That 41 (on GB) isn't all that great a deal honestly. You can buy nice 41s pretty easily for around $700-750 (collectile versions do go higher, of course). In fact, one guy was selling a couple of S&W demo guns that looked like new for around $600. The extra barrels run about $250 last time I checked. So, if it was $1000 or so it'd be a good buy and even reasonable at something closer to $1100, but that's if you're a bullseye guy who's going to use the longer barrel. I've bought three 41s in the last six months and have a lot of old historical data on serial numbers, version etc in case you're looking for specific info on a gun you see.

For steel you don't really want any of the factory Smith barrels. The 5" field barrels are rare, expensive and not suitable for optics. The 7" and 7 3/8" are too long and the 5 1/2" are a bit too heavy. To use any of them they have to be the newer drilled and tapped version, or you have to D&T and older version, then put a mounting rail on it and then the scope. That puts the scope a bit higher than most folks would like.

What many folks are going to are barrels made without iron sights, that have rails machined into them ready to take optics. Clark makes a nice barrel (several really) for the 41 and there's another, even better manufacturer that doesn't want massive publicity at this point. The unamed manufacturer is working with two famous sponsored shooters to come up with a SC specific barrel for the 41. If it all works out, that barrel will allow you to mount a C-more directly to the barrel with no adapter/rail etc.....it'll have the proper hole spacing built right in. I'm not sure when they'll release them to the public, but I know they're hard at work on it now. I'm trying to score one of the early barrels, but I have no idea if I'll be able to swing it at this point. PM me if you want the details on the company and where to watch to see when they get released. R,

[Seth]

I bought a Mark III Target yesterday. 5 1/2" Bull barrel, drilled and tapped for scope. I haven't shot it yet, but I WILL!

Now I just need to find a C-more railway for it....

[mikey357]

As far as the "Budget" .22's go, it is hard to beat either the Ruger MKII/MKIII or the Browning Buckmark...I see plenty of both at our local Monthly Matches...

As long as the guns are kept reasonably CLEAN, correctly lubricated--not to MUCH, not too LITTLE--and GOOD quality ammo is used, they just seem to RUN...and RUN...and RUN...

Only "Knocks" on the Ruger, AFAIK, is that they ALMOST ALWAYS can stand to have a "Trigger Job" done on 'em, and SOMETIMES the Factory EXTRACTOR is kinda' WIMPY...IF the Extractor issue pops up, the replacement from Volquartsen works GREAT...

HTH....mikey357

[Seth]

I shot my new MKIII512 today. Ran 590 rounds through it (550 Remington Gold Wal-Mart Special) and 40 rounds of Winchester cheapie.

500 rounds perfect. At about round 530 or so, I had a mag problem and a round nosedived into the feed ramp. I ran out of the Remington at 550 and had 2 FT fires with teh Win ammo, but otherwise the gun was FLAWLESS. Its absolutely filthy and I'm certain that the 1 mag problem was a user induced malf. The others were cheap ammo.

I can't say enough about how much I like this gun. Just plain fun.

[vrmn1]

My first Steel 22 was a Ruger 22/45. It is a great gun and I have not had one minutes problem with it. I am not picky about triggers on autos because I usually shoot revolvers so I can handle able anything with an auto.
NOW however I am shooting a Smith 41 and may never go back to my Rugers.
It is absolutely the nicest shooting 22 auto I have ever shot.
Are they high dollar? Well maybe but you get what you pay for.
I found mine for $575 with a 5 1/2" barrel.
I lucked into a brand new 7 1/2 barrel with bomar rear for $125. It had never been fired. It dropped on and I have yet to touch it with a tool. It was zeroed dead on when I put it on.

[Seth]

What dots are popular?

[steveknapp]

I'm in the same boat, I've got a 22/45Mk II that I was going to setup for steel. Just seems like it would be a blast to shoot.

But I'm new to red-dot sights. I've seen some that are small enough to fit into the rear-sights dovetail. Others need a rail.

Any advice is welcome. I'm searching this forum as well as others as well.

[DougCarden]

Dont be cheap on your red-dots......I am not trying to insult anyone, but if you are spending less than 75 bucks for one don't be surprised when they crap on you at a match.
I use C-mores, and can also recommed the new Burris dots and Ultra Dots. You can find deals on tasco tubes on the Egay sights, but they are hit and miss.....You definitely get what you pay for on this.....
DougC

[Seth]

Doug,
How is the Ultradot? I keep seeing it for the NRA guys and the price is fairly reasonable (~$120).

Thanks.
SEth

[itchy]

I shoot irons, so my setup is a Buckmark with a Tactical Solutions barrel. I tried all kinds of ammo and settled on CCI Blazer or MiniMags for matches.

Seiichi

[gunner40sw]

OK thanks for all the info. Now if I don't want to spring a thousand bucks for the Model 41 and that is the one I liked . What is the better way to go if i want to get a 22 conversion. Tactical solutions or the one Shooters Connection sells by marvel and STI. The Tactical solutions I think only fits single stack ( no widebody mags made for it) and I think the STI fits 1911 or 2011 widebody ( just get different mags ). What are the slides made of are they both steel.. I also think the Tactical Solutions comes with a rail to mount a scope. So if anyone has one of these let me know what you think. Also I don't want to do any fitting on any of my frames so I presume these just slip right on. cause I have two old Colt 22 conversion slides but they do not fit on any of my frames and i thought those would just slip on.

[AustinMike]

I picked up a used standard Buckmark for around $180. That thing's awesome! I've been shooting it with the stock iron sights and do pretty well with it. I use bulk Federal ammo in practice and CCI mini-mag for matches. Once or twice out of a box of 500, a Federal might not go bang. CCI has been perfect. Bulk Remington has been downright unreliable in both my Buckmark and my 10/22.

One of these days I want to get a conversion kit for a Glock so I'll have something that feels closer to my production gun.

[Seth]

Here's my new Ruger. It has eaten everything thus far....

 ruger.jpg (287.92K)
Number of downloads: 187

[ken hebert]

I run a Ruger MkIII Hunter with an Aimpoint, Browning Buckmark with a 5.5" TacSol barrel+comp and a C-More, and a S&W M41 with factory sights. CCI MiniMags in the Ruger and Browning, CCI Standard Velocity in the 41.


Although I will be expierementing with CCI stingers here soon as I'm looking for something a little more snappy in the Browning, and the extra 400 fps might keep me from waiting on the "ding" on the 25 yard+ plates. (I find myself hesitating on my hits on stages like Outer Limits)

[DougCarden]

Just saw this thread again......

TacSolutions makes a 1911 conversion that works, but it is set up for .45 ejectors on the frame (it helps hold the ejector on the kit in the right place). You will need to tweak the ejector for the super/40 ejector if you put it on a frame with it. They make single and double stack mags that work, period.
Marvel kits are very accurate and once you do a little tweaking to them they run like a champ! The Metalform mags need some tlc but once you set them up you just need to clean them once in a while....22 ammo is damn dirty. I have never heard many good things about the Marvel high cap mags (Metalform SS .22 mags with spacers clamped to them) Spend the money for the TacSol mags......FWIW

For the Rugers and Buckmark the TacSol replacement aluminum sleeved barrels are the shit, they work, out of the box and do help on Steel Challenge stages.

As for Dots, I use Cmores, but have tried others that have crapped out with heavy usage. I would buy an UltraDot with the 2min dot that adjusts up in a heartbeat, and I know that the Burris Dot 135? that is out is heavy duty too.
Being a cheap ass I spent all winter shooting my TacSol open gun upper on a STI frame with the widebody mags and all I needed to do is clean it....it ran like a sewing machine. TacSols need stout ammo, such as Minimags and the Fed automatch.
My Marvel did the same thing with the Fed 550pk just fine.....
Hope this helps, for anyone that cares......
DougC

[warpspeed]

Buckmark with TacSol barrel. C-More sight.

[Fireant]

DougCarden, on Mar 22 2009, 04:37 PM, said:

Just saw this thread again......

TacSolutions makes a 1911 conversion that works, but it is set up for .45 ejectors on the frame (it helps hold the ejector on the kit in the right place). You will need to tweak the ejector for the super/40 ejector if you put it on a frame with it. They make single and double stack mags that work, period.
Marvel kits are very accurate and once you do a little tweaking to them they run like a champ! The Metalform mags need some tlc but once you set them up you just need to clean them once in a while....22 ammo is damn dirty. I have never heard many good things about the Marvel high cap mags (Metalform SS .22 mags with spacers clamped to them) Spend the money for the TacSol mags......FWIW

For the Rugers and Buckmark the TacSol replacement aluminum sleeved barrels are the shit, they work, out of the box and do help on Steel Challenge stages.

As for Dots, I use Cmores, but have tried others that have crapped out with heavy usage. I would buy an UltraDot with the 2min dot that adjusts up in a heartbeat, and I know that the Burris Dot 135? that is out is heavy duty too.
Being a cheap ass I spent all winter shooting my TacSol open gun upper on a STI frame with the widebody mags and all I needed to do is clean it....it ran like a sewing machine. TacSols need stout ammo, such as Minimags and the Fed automatch.
My Marvel did the same thing with the Fed 550pk just fine.....
Hope this helps, for anyone that cares......
DougC

I found the same thing to be true, only I didn't have to tweak my ejector on the .40 I used it on. The only problem I had was finding a frame it would fit on. It would not fit on any of my custom guns, I had to resort to putting it on my Tactical frame. As long as I don't feed it light ammo it runs great.

[fiddler]

Anybody have any experience with a recent S&W 22A?

[Scoterbeast]

gunner40sw, on Mar 21 2009, 10:22 AM, said:

OK thanks for all the info. Now if I don't want to spring a thousand bucks for the Model 41 and that is the one I liked . What is the better way to go if i want to get a 22 conversion. Tactical solutions or the one Shooters Connection sells by marvel and STI. The Tactical solutions I think only fits single stack ( no widebody mags made for it) and I think the STI fits 1911 or 2011 widebody ( just get different mags ). What are the slides made of are they both steel.. I also think the Tactical Solutions comes with a rail to mount a scope. So if anyone has one of these let me know what you think. Also I don't want to do any fitting on any of my frames so I presume these just slip right on. cause I have two old Colt 22 conversion slides but they do not fit on any of my frames and i thought those would just slip on.

Have a STI/Marvel on my Kimber .45 - Eats everything I feed it - Been shooting bulk pack Wally World Remingtons lately - cause that's what's available - Will not fit on either of my STI limited frames - Doug lent me one of his TacSol's that he has great luck with but it did not fit either of my STI's or Kimber. Maybe would with little tweaking but this one slid right on the Kimber and could not be more happy with it.

[warpspeed]

Here is a picture of mine.

[Franklin D Wolverton]

I bought a Walther SP22 M4 sport... threw an adco 30mm dot on there... it hella accurate... I use it for NRA bullseye as well...

And it has an adjustable bullseye style grip...

It also ran great out of the box on STANDARD velocity ammo... no jams or failure to fire.

The gun cost me $695 +tax at my local gun shop, and I already had the dot.

Frank