Unlike many people we tend to run across now days, I can admit when I am WRONG. Previously I posted the following blog, but because of the incidents that followed that posting I was forced to withdraw it from public viewing until all of the facts were in. Now I am posting the original story again so nobody will be fooled by events that appear on the suface to be copacetic, and I am adding an addition, because of new information regarding the firearm in question. I urge you to read this blog if you intend to purchase a .22 pistol in the future.

When you shoot a lot, the cost of center fire ammunition can be a serious burden. I had thought for awhile that I might purchase a .22 cal. conversion kit for my beretta 92FS. However, the cost of these kits are almost as much as the gun you intend to use them with.

My next thought was to buy a .22 cal. pistol to practice with, and one day as fate would have it, I went to Cabela's and they were having a sale on .22 cal. pistols as well as many other guns, so I decided to take a look at their wares.

They had a couple of Ruger's, a Beretta, and a Browning all .22 cal., and all on sale at what seemed to me to be a pretty good price.

The Browning was really big, heavy, and goofy looking, and my concern was that the weight of this gun would nullify any recoil and make practice with it unrealistic.

The Beretta was very long and cool looking, so cool looking, that it seemed Luke Skywalker had dropped it off so he and Hans Solo could get into the Millennium Falcon, and do the Kesel run in less than a PARSEC. Obviously a serious target competition gun, (foot long picatinny rail and all).

The Ruger's have a good reputation, and kind of looked like a modern Luger, but then I saw the Walther P22.

The Walther looked like a real semi-auto, (because it is) very similar to the new Walther PPS. The P22 is small and light, and fits well in an average size hand, (like mine) and if it was not a .22 cal. it would make a good self-defense pistol. However, keep this in mind, “the .22 you brought with you, beats the heck out of the .45 you left at home!”

It was not on sale, but only $20.00 more than the others were, and again as fate would have it, circumstances seemed to dictate that I buy it, so I succumbed to the pressure of fate and purchased the Walther P22.

This pistol has a 3.4 inch fixed barrel, and comes with two (2) ten (10) round magazines, one of the mags has a "little" finger extension, four (4) changeable front sights, it has adjustable rear sights, two (2) back straps, it has an under the barrel picatinny rail, and comes equipped with the new style, trigger guard magazine release. The pistol has a key locking system, if you should need one, a concave trigger guard front with horizontal treads, front and back diagonal slide treads, and ambidextrous safety. It has a magazine safety (which does not allow the gun to be fired without the magazine inserted). It has a treaded field stripping mechanism that doubles as an indexing area. In addition, it comes with a plastic foam filled box and the standard "LIBERAL" trigger lock, and the brass shell that the gun discharged at the Walther test phase.

I took the P22 to the range the following day and burned through 500 rounds, and I was amazed at the accuracy of this gun. At ninety (90) feet, I was hitting eight (8) inch steel plates, five (5) or six (6) out of six (6) consistently from a standing position, (modified Weaver stance) to be exact. With no more than three (3) seconds in between shots.

This is the first .22 cal. pistol I have ever owned, so if I comment on things that seem standard, it is because of my limited experience with small caliber pistols, so please try to stay calm.

The P22's magazines have a small knob on the side used to compress the spring, making them very easy to load. If the short barrel is something you just can't live with, there is a five (5) inch barrel model available. I thought I would take a chance with the new type magazine release, but it doesn't take too much time to get used to it, and it does offer the left handed shooter an option as well as an option for right handed shooters to use their right index finger to release the magazine.

I have cycled over fortyfive hundred (4500) rounds through this bad boy, and I am very pleased with my purchase. However, this pistol is particular about the ammo used in it. It works first time and everytime with CCI "mini mags", if you want to spend the money. I prefer to use the balk packs of five hundred (500) or more, and Remington works the best for my gun. The hammer spring is tighter than a gnats a** stretched over a rain barrel, and coupled with a stiff recoil spring, slows the slide down enough that the slide doesn't cycle all the way to the rear, and thus, will not feed the next round into the chamber consistantly without premium ammo.

Walther makes a fine gun, in the P22, and when you look at it closely, it is a work of art and very thought out, almost over engineered.

However, Walthers online customer service needs some serious help. Maybe someone should show them how to answer an e-mail question.

In conclusion, when this Walther P22 wears out, and it is time to replace it, I will purchase another Walther P22! That is, provided Barack Hussein Obama and his cronies will allow me too?

IT WOULD BEHOOVE YOU TOO KEEP READING!!!!!

WALTHER P22 REDUX

Here is a slight update on the Walther P22. As I stated previously, I had poured 4500 rounds through the P22, well, at about 5000 rounds the gun stoped working. I pulled the trigger and nothing happened, I checked the chamber, yes a round is there. The .22 cal. being what it is, I pulled the trigger again and still nothing, not wanting to waste my whole day on one bullet, I ejected the round and chambered another, I pulled the trigger and again nothing happened. I then took the chambered round out and noticed that there was no firing pin mark on the shell. Upon further inspection, I saw that there was a space at the back of the gun where the firing pin used to be.

Then a miracle happened, in the amidst of all the mud soaked gravel, spent shells, leaves, and miscellaneous clutter, I was able to find the back half (1/2) of the broken firing pin laying on the ground, and as you might have guessed, that ended that day of shooting.

The next business day I called the Walther company. They were very nice and gave a choice of options to get the firearm fixed, Option #1, they would send me the part and I could fix the gun myself. Option #2, they would send me all of the paperwork, tags, stickers, stamps, and return order numbers, and I could send the gun to them and they would fix it. The customer service man then said that he just gave me the option to fix the gun to see how comfortable I was with doing it myself, and said he would just send the afore mentioned information and Walther would replace the firing pin, and test the gun to make sure the firing pin breakage isn't a side effect of some other problem. At least that is the way I interpreted what they said.

After a week, I had not received anything from Walther, so I called Walther again, and was told that it takes time to send the paperwork (prepaid return label and instructions for shipping and so forth) out. After two (2) and a half (1/2) weeks had elapsed, I called to see what the hold up was, and by then I had decided that I would rather have them send me the firing pin and instructions.

A few days later, I received the firing pin and no instructions. Normally I would say the people at Walther were acting "STUPID", but I'm afraid it’s not an act.

Fortunately for me, I was able to find directions for the repair on the internet, and I endeavored to preserver.

Well the directions that I aquired worked well, except for the part where they forgot to tell me about the ejector pin, which I proceeded to mutilate. I guess I forgot to tell them that I was really going to use those directions.

I was able to put the firing pin into the P22, and decided to test fire the gun to make sure it worked properly before I called Walther to beg for a new ejector pin. I figured I would just fire it a couple of time and use a cleaning rod to eject the brass. To my suprise the shells ejected perfectly everytime I shot the gun, so I ended up firing about 500 rounds that day without the ejector being installed. I was starting to get juicy.

I decided to call Wather and beg for an ejector pin, so if by any chance I every wanted to sell the P22, I could sell it in tact. So I called Walther again and had them send me a ejector pin, which they promptly did. I was still getting juicy, life was good.

Yes, life was good, all the way up to about 7000 rounds, when the hammer spring broke on this gun. I went from seriously juicy to seriously bummed out.

As you might have guessed, I called Walther again after checking out the pistol and ascertaining that changing out the hammer spring might be too much of a project for me. I told them that "I think I need to send you my gun to be fixed", and told them what was wrong with it. The customer service guy told me, "you can do that yourself, I'll send you the part, It's easy". I told him that my main concern was that I'll open up the gun and springs will go flying all over the place, and he assured me that that would not happen.

So I received the hammer spring in the mail very quickly, (I was impressed) and took my place at my work bench, and proceeded to disasemble the Walther P22. Guess what, it wasn't very long until I was greeted by, what else, springs flying all over the place. It turned out it was only one spring, but to the novice gunsmith it was a horrific sight. After a few choice words were spoken over the firearm and about an hour and a half of shear terror trying and retrying and retrying to  reasemble the P22, I finally got the gun back together and in working order, complete with the ejector pin.

Off to the range I went to make sure the gun was fully functional. The gun seemed to work fine. Seemed is the operative word here. After a few hundred rounds were fired through the P22, it started to have ejector problems. The ejector was installed correctly, and functioning correctly most of the time, however it tended to not want to grab the spent shell about 1 out of 10 times. By this time I had about had it with this gun. I decided to look on the internet to see if I could find some info about the P22, and found that it has a history of ejector problems similar to the one I had been having.

As that great sage Popeye the Sailor once said, "ENOUGH IS TOO MUCH".

I did some quick math and figured that in about 3000 to 4000 rounds fired from this gun, the nightmare would start all over again. With that in mind I started asking gun shops what they would give me for the Walther P22.

I now think that Walther is using inferior quality parts in the P22, ie. stamped steel firing pin, and who knows what kind of garbage steel they use in the hammer spring. This leads me to wonder what other shortcuts they used in this gun, and maybe in all of their guns. Plus, as I said before, it is very picky about the ammo it likes to eat, and Walther's customer service chews.

With all of that in mind, I highly DO NOT recomend this firearm.

Buy there gun, FINE, spend your money, FINE, but try to get a little customer service, or get one of there pieces of junk fixed, YOUR ON YOUR OWN.

Now, my whole perception of the Walther company has changed, I wouldn't have a Walther product crammed up my A** sideways, if there were room for two (2). I will NEVER, EVER, EVER, buy another Walther gun, EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I sold the P.O.S. (Piece Of Shiite) Walther P22

From the Central Command Bunker: Sociopath Out

It has been eight years since our nation was attacked by people from the middle east, yet still we allow them to walk across our borders, drive our taxi's, run our 7-11's and take part in countless opportunities this great country offers, as many of them lay in wait for their chance to destroy us and our way of life.
We all know, whether we want to come to terms with it or not, that it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when, these people will attack us again and their goal is to do it bigger and better than they did on 9-11-2001.
However, let us not depair, when they light up a dirty nuke (or a clean one), a chemical or biological bomb that kills two or three or ten million americans, us lazy, fat, sports watching, video game playing, barbecuing, capitalists will take our nations security into our own hands and cure our country of this blight that has befallen us.
Keeping in mind of course that those who spew and continue to spew their liberal drivel, no matter what their social position, just might find themselves in the same ranks as our enemies, and justly so.
Is it too late to stop the next attack, probably. Will it happen today, we'll find out real soon. If not, there will be more illumination from this compound.

From the Central Command Bunker: Sociopath out.

I recently acquired one of the new Beretta PX4 Storms, in the 9mm variety.

The model I decided on is the C model, C standing for constant action. This model always shoots in the double action mode, and the trigger pull is shorter, lighter and smoother, than most other double action pistols.

After shooting around 700 (seven hundred) rounds, I can tell you that this gun is very accurate right out of the box, the trigger pull is shorter, about half of a normal double action trigger pull. The lighter part I'm not so sure of, it seems to me too be about the same as any other gun, (I would like it to be about one half as light as it is) but I can live with it. Smoother, yes it is very smooth, and there is absolutely no creep in it at all. It glides through the pull cycle, and has a crisp hammer drop at the end. When your shooting this pistol, it feels like your shooting a revolver, only with 17 (seventeen) shots, 18 (eighteen) with one in the pipe.

The PX4 Storm has a polymer frame and a metal slide, it has somewhat aggressive checkering on the front and back straps. It comes with 2, (two) 17 (seventeen) round magazines, three different size back straps so the shooter can adjust the gun to the most comfortable fit.

However, there are a couple of things that I do not care for about this pistol. Unlike a revolver, when you use a dummy round for trigger pull practice, after you pull the trigger, you have to rack the slide about one half inch to reset the hammer, its not enough to eject the round, so you do not have to reload the bullet every time, but it does get a little old. The other thing I dislike, and I think Beretta may change this later, is the plug in the end of the recoil spring guide is made of plastic, and the first time I cleaned the PX4, I managed to allow the recoil  spring pressure to rip one of the 2 (two) teeth off, and mutilated the other one. This little indiscretion has not effected the performance of the pistol in any way. However I did replace the whole recoil spring assembly, and now everybody is happy.

The most disappointing part of my purchase of this gun was what Beretta calls "Superluminova" sights. These are kind of represented as night sights, but they are just a light storing chemical that glows in the dark after being subjected to some light source. They have some kind of film that is put over the light storing chemical that looks like a glass contact lens, pretty zoot huh! NOT!!! After the first shooting session, 2 (two) of the 3 (three) lens' fell off into the abyss, and as a matter of course, the third one stayed stuck on to the bitter end. I checked on the internet to see if anyone else was having this problem, and everyone was. So instead of sending the gun back to Beretta, I took the advice of others and put some nitro solvent on the remaining lens, and removed it, (it took it right off) and used a dab of Testors white model paint in the sight indentations, and the sights are working great. So no matter which gun you buy or which manufacturer you choose, "Superluminova" sights have too go!

This latest Beretta firearm feels good my hand, the muzzle rise is not as much as the Beretta 92FS, maybe because of the rotating barrel function, and the constant action works just as good as a double/single action after a very small learning curve, without the difference in trigger pull when transitioning to the single action on those models.

The PX4 Storm, model C, has no external safety, no exposed hammer, if you don't count the 1/16 inch of the hammer that sticks out (with a red edge) when the pistol is cocked, and no adjustable sights. It has a traditional magazine release that can be changed to adapt to a left-handed shooter. The barrel is chrome lined for easy cleaning, it has a picatinny rail located under the barrel, a dragon tongue trigger, and tear drop indexing dents that have the field stripping nubs centered in them, which allows the PX4 to be field striped very quick and easy.

All in all, I'm am very pleased with the PX4 Storm, to this date I have shot over seven hundred rounds in the PX4 with no problems, (using target loads only) and with no external safety to poke me, this gun is slated to become one of my favorite large frame carry guns.

From the Central Command Bunker: Sociopath Out

As I stated in a previous blog, "note to self, never ever purchase SPEAR GOLD DOT ammo again, for any reason, EVER!!!!"

Let my tell you my story, it all started on a mild and sunny day at the range. I had not fired my really cool and neat KEL-TEC P32 for quite awhile, and being that it is the pistol that I carry the most, (because of its size) I felt that I needed some time behind the trigger. I had what I thought at the time was some really choice self defence ammo, after all it said on the box "the CHOICE of LAW ENFORCEMENT", so how could I go wrong. Well I'll tell you how I went wrong, I tried to shoot this ammo, thats how. Now I didn't have feeding problems, and no my gun didn't jam, so too speak, there were no mechanical malfunctions in my firearm (well kind of) or magazine. The problem was with the ammo.

After I had shot 1 round, on the next shot, that would be the second shot, if you can call it that, there was no loud bang, no recoil, and the shell didn't properly eject. there was however, kind of a sizzling sound, and with hearing protection, hardly audible. Well naturally my first thought was that the gun had malfunctioned. So I checked the chamber and the shell had lodged in the ejection port in kind of a stove pipe manner, I cleared it, and tried to feed another bullet into the chamber, however it would not seat correctly in the chamber, so I invesigated further, I unloaded the  KEL-TEC, and looked into the chamber, but could see no light, and after taking a small screw driver and probing down the barrel, found it to be blocked half way through with the .32 cal. projectile that was supposed to have exited the muzzle at a high velosity (the CHOICE of LAW ENFORCEMENT you know).

Better yet, I contacted the manufacturer via e-mail, here is a copy of that e-mail:

Please tell me the proper proceedure to remove (without damage to the gun) a .32 auto 60 gr. GDHP Speer Gold Dot bullet that is lodged half way down the 2" barrel of my Kel-Tec P-32 (one of my MAIN CARRY pistols)

I fired the gun at the range with said ammo on Saturday 10-27-2007 and the first round fired normally, however the second shot made a sizzling sound and halfway ejected the casing. Fortunatly the projectiles placment in the barrel did not allow another round to be properly chambered in the firearm.

Any tips you might have on Speer bullet removal will be greatly appreciated.

Yours Truly, a former Customer

Their responce:

I was told that if I wanted too, I could send the remaining ammo to them and they would check it to see what caused the problem, and that they would tell me how to send it.

I thought that if they really cared, they would have sent me instructions on how to ship the ammo, offered to pay for the shipping, and gone to any lengths to retrieve that bad ammo as fast as they could. So I decided to just shoot the rest of their ammo and cut bait.  

I have been shooting firearms for over forty (40) years, rifles, pistols, muzzle loaders, machine guns, revolvers, even grenade launchers (if you count them as a firearm). I have had gun malfunctions because of inadaquit testing by the manufacturer (even to the point of the slide of an auto-loader following the projectile down range, ya gotta see that one, to believe it), limp wrist jams, duds, etc. I have seen guns jam due to lack of proper cleaning, I have had pins work there way out during a shooting sesion, all of this and I'm sure more in the course of gaining experiance in my shooting career. Only one other time have I ever seen this happen, and that was with a .22 cal. rile shot by a young man who before he wondered across myself and friends while shooting, had already fired another live round down the barrel to clear the first projectile, and was lucky enough not to be blinded by the scrapnal that imbedded into his hand. By the way we talked him out of firing a third round.

The .22 cal. round seems to me too be inherently unreliable, I have had many ammo malfunctions with the .22, mostly duds. But then again, none of there boxes said, "the CHOICE of LAW ENFORCEMENT".

I know, some of you out there are thinking, so what, in over forty (40) years of slingging lead, shooting guns, putting a few rounds down range, exercising your 2nd ammendment rights, firing weapons, etc., one insident with this brand of ammo after firing thousands of rounds, and the manufacturer produces thousands of rounds a day, this could happen.

Normally I would agree, however, after taking the gun home and pounding the bullet out carefully with some yankee enginuaty, (with no damage to the barrel) I decided since I was going to the range the following week, I might as well shoot up the rest of "the CHOICE of LAW ENFORCEMENT" ammo while I was there. Well to make a long story, even longer, I had eighteen (18) rounds left out of the box of twenty, (20) and two (2) more rounds were bad. They didn't stick in the barrel this time, but they fizzeled, sizzeled, and just barely made it out of the muzzle of the gun.

At this point I made my pledge to never ever purchase SPEAR GOLD DOT ammo again, for any reason, EVER!!!!

From the Central Command Bunker: Sociopath Out

The Beretta 92FS, has been called the Rolls Royce of handguns. There is a very good reason for this, because it is! You can go out and spend $1200, $1300, $1400 or more on a pistol, but you will be hard pressed to find a handgun that is built better, more reliable, or more dependable. I don't have anything against the over priced models, except that they are over priced, but if you have the dough, then go for it if you like.

I know there are some out there that simply can't tolerate a 9mm pistol, because the 9mm is a small, under powered projectile, that lacks the knock down power of a .45 cal. or .50 cal. shot out of a cannon. However to this date, none of these .45 of .50 cal. conasewers have come forward and volunteered to let me shoot them in the foot with my Beretta 9mm.

Well, enough levity for now, let me start this review of the Beretta 92FS.

I have been shooting the 92FS for about 10 years now, and it is one of my carry guns.

As usual I will not boar you with a lot of tech talk, you can find that easily on the internet, I will instead illuminate you with my experiences and my thoughts, my bias etc....

The 92FS has a 15 round double stack magazine, and a fairly large handle to house it, some people don't like the large grip and the gun is just not for them. I like a large grip and find the Beretta very comfortable for me, although I am not a freakishly large person. The distance of trigger pull in the double action mode is a little long, but easy to get use to, and it is not hard to pull, and I have had guns with longer trigger pulls. My 10-year-old can do it without too much straining. The 92FS has an abidextrious safety that also doubles as a decocker. The slide release, magazine release, and the safety/decocker are all ergonomically arranged.

The recoil is not bad, that is one reason many police departments have adopted this pistol, female officers can handle it fine, and many departments have even gone to the .40 cal. Beretta (which I have not fired).

I have found the 92FS totally reliable; I have fired thousands of round through my 92 and have never had a jam of any kind. Keep in mind however, that I use only quality factory ammo, (note to self, never ever purchase SPEAR GOLD DOT ammo again, for any reason, EVER!!!!)(That's another story, for another day) and I never use reloads no matter who loads them.

I use the 92FS to fast draw, I use it to do instinctive shooting, to shoot steel targets, paper targets, plinking, self defense and any other type of shooting that I do except hunting.

I did employ after market adjustable sights (MEC-GAR) on my gun, only to be ridiculously accurate with it, but that is the only modification I have made.

Holsters are abundant for this gun, from leather to the composite ones, almost every manufacturer offers one, and of course ammo is reasonably inexpensive and also made by everyone.

In my humble and meager opinion, the Beretta 92FS is pound for pound one of the best guns you can spend your $520 to $560 on. With the proper care that you should give to every gun you own, the 92 will give you many year of enjoyment, reliability, fun, and protection.

After all, if its good enough for our military, many American police forces, and militaries and police forces around the world, then it should be good enough for me and you.

From the Central Command Bunker: Sociopath Out