Mine has done fine with the Remington Golden's Value Pack from Wally-World. It's $9.99 for a box of 550. Occasionally I'll get some duds towards the bottom of the box. But my gun has had thousands of those things and seems to love 'em.

 

Walther states that only 'high-velocity' ammo should be used.

The extra recoil of the higher velocity is, as far as Walther is concerned, needed to keep the pistol cycling well. In practice, plenty of pistols work fine with standard and even subsonic ammo. Just what does and does not work is probably dependent on a lot of things, but the hammer/breechblock hang up factor is probably the biggest. The more energy is lost to friction the hotter the ammo will have to be to cycle the slide. So called 'hyper velocity' ammo is never necessary, but fun once in a while. Walther has said something along the lines of 'It's fine once in a while, but the pistol isn't made to fire it constantly, so don't push the luck'.

Mine does fine with standard velocity, although I usually stick with the Remington Golden Bullet 550 round box from Wally World. It is 'High Velocity' and it's typically high quality (as .22lr goes). Federal brand also comes in a 550 box, and I've been told it is pretty much the same as the Remington.

High velocity Golden Bullets have had nothing but success in p22's, so thats what I will stick with. It's right at that prime focus of Price, reliability and availability.

-Local

 

While the P-22 will fire about any high velocity ammunition and a modified one about anything, my recommendation for power and reliability is the CCI Mini Mags. For economy, Remington Golden bullets, 36 gr. hollow point and most important - brass washed. Target rounds are more accurate but may not be powerful enough to cycle the slide. Federal 40 gr. champions, lead, aren't as powerful as the Remingtons and can lead up the works. I haven't tried the brass wash Federals but they should be good. :t M1911

 

Thanks for the input. In Texas, we dont have a wally world, sounds like some kind of amusment park. Just kidding...

I have seen Eagles, Yello jackets, Mini-mags, Thunderbolts, and Remington Hyper velocity spitfires as well as a few others, but no Remington Goldens.

I will stay clear of the hyper velocity bricks. I will try to only buy the High Velocity rounds

 

all i have used was cci mini mags without 1 problem. i did buy some subsonic but have not shot any of it. i think i have gone through 600 or so rounds with my p22.

 

Thanks for the input. In Texas, we dont have a wally world, sounds like some kind of amusment park. Just kidding...

I have seen Eagles, Yello jackets, Mini-mags, Thunderbolts, and Remington Hyper velocity spitfires as well as a few others, but no Remington Goldens.

I will stay clear of the hyper velocity bricks. I will try to only buy the High Velocity rounds

Here are a few. Empties, that is. Bulk packs 525 rounds, 36 gr, hp, brass wash. Avoid Thunderbolts altogether.

Remington golden bullets

Federal Champions

 

I love that picture!

Got any pictures of the box the 525 .22 ammo comes in? I would like to burn a mental image in my mind so I can go to the store and look for it.

 

Thunderbolts?

"Avoid Thunderbolts altogether."

1911M, I noticed your comment re Thunderbolts. I just picked up my new P22 a couple of weeks ago and have shot about 500 rounds of Thunderbots sucessfully so far without a problem.

Just curious as to what prompted this. Is the problem that the Thuderbolts aren't brass-coated?

 

Thunderbolts are notorious for severe leading. There are numerous posts regarding how bad they are from knowledgeable shooters. Yes they are lead and lightly waxed as I recall.. You can run into this problem with any lead projectile. I fired 10,000 or more Federal lead Champions with no problems then got 6 bricks that would quickly lead any .22 cal pistol in a little as 50 rounds. I mean to the point the round would no longer chamber properly or fire accurately.

I stick with brass wash or something similar. There doesn't seem to be any fouling problems with them. That' all. If you are going to shoot 25 or 50 times for the day then clean the pistol, they are probably fine. If you plan on shooting 500 or more they're not based on my experience.

Picture of lead hanging out then end of a P-22 barrel after appx. 50 rounds of Thunderbolts. Slivers of lead were everywhere including the mag well. :bthumb: M1911

 

M1911,

Do you shoot in your garage? I can't imagine you throwing empty cases everywhere for a photo op.

What do you mean by "brass wash" ? does it mean brass coated lead bullets?

Thanks, I'm learning as I go...

 

M1911,

Do you shoot in your garage? I can't imagine you throwing empty cases everywhere for a photo op.

What do you mean by "brass wash" ? does it mean brass coated lead bullets?

Thanks, I'm learning as I go...

My office shop. I shot a hole in the wall one time. :yikes: Shootin is only allowed when no one is around. We have big fans also to move the air. I have a huge earthen bank behind the office also so some firing is outside of the office. I'm in the County so it's legal as long as you are 200' off the road. Pelosi told me she was gonna change that if she could.

Yes all .22 cal ammo I know of has a lead core. Some are waxed on the outside to lubricate them, some have a brass or copper wash applied. This is a thin coating and gives the rounds the appropriate color. Look at the round in the first photo in the reduce the extactor gap thread, remington golden bullet. This type of finish will be so stated on the outside of the box.. See pictures below, brass, copper and waxed lead.:crash: M1911

 

Thanks!

I appreciate the info, this helps a lot.

I wish I could shoot at my office!

 

brass washed goldens

So what are these remington golden 22 (Brass Washed) hollow points! My P22 does not like hollow points,they jam at the feed ramp,but the solid nose goldens work okay. I do get a FTF now and then. It does not mention anything about brass washed on the remo boxes. There seems to be some type of waxy coating on the goldens.

 

Look at the picture above of the ammo. At the bottom are Champion 40 gr. round nose solid lead rounds with a wax coating. Notice the dark color, lead.

The other two rounds above are Remington Bulk packaged brass-plated 36 gr. hollow points. The other box is a brick, 500 rounds or more, of Winchester 40 gr. hollow point, copper plated. Both boxes note what the outer coating is and they look visibly different from the plain, waxed lead rounds.

None of my P-22s have any problems with the hollow points but as a rule hollow points, because they have a flat front are harder to chamber than any other rounds regardless of caliber. The flat nose just tends to catch on things.

If you do the very simple mod to the bottom lip of the barrel chamber as shown in the "all the mods - three part thread - you won't have any lip for the hollow points or anything else to catch on. Takes about 30 seconds.

Hope this helps. :bthumb: M1911

Stock chamber lip.

Modified, polished lower lip.

 

If you do the very simple mod to the bottom lip of the barrel chamber as shown in the "all the mods - three part thread - you won't have any lip for the hollow points or anything else to catch on. Takes about 30 seconds.

Why hasn't this been made a sticky yet. This is very useful information.

Perhaps there could even be a new forum section called "Walther P22 Mods".

I appreciate your shared knowledge.

 

Modified, polished lower lip.

works like a charm!

 

Golden Bullets

I was at the range and bought another box of golden bullets. My gun just doesnt seem to like them at all. I get 4 or 5 failure to fire in each clip, but I pull the trigger again in double action and it will fire. They don't jam at all, they just dont go off the first pull. Why is this the case with these bullets and not the mini-mags or stingers? I also tried some of my father in laws old "peters" brand and they work fine as well. I'm guessing those suckers are 30 years old but they have no problems.

Speck :harry:

 

I was at the range and bought another box of golden bullets. My gun just doesnt seem to like them at all. I get 4 or 5 failure to fire in each clip, but I pull the trigger again in double action and it will fire. They don't jam at all, they just dont go off the first pull. Why is this the case with these bullets and not the mini-mags or stingers? I also tried some of my father in laws old "peters" brand and they work fine as well. I'm guessing those suckers are 30 years old but they have no problems.

Speck :harry:

I have run into this occasionally with various ammo. Check to see that the Golden bullets are freely dropping in to the chamber, if not figure out why, rounds or dirty chamber. Also, after one hammer fall, what does the firing pin strike look like. I've had some rounds fire on the second hammer fall and some fire only when rotated and some never fire even though the rim was beaten to death. The GB's I use are 36 gr, hp, brass plated.

If your hammer spring is weak it will not reliably fire .22 cal ammo. This would not account for the problem with Remingtons only so check the above and try to see what's happening. Compare strike indentation between the different rounds. Perhaps you just got a batch of bad ones. In general .22 ammo has to be struck hard the first time. Keep us posted. M1911

 

Mine also likes the Remington "Golden Bullet" bulk-pack cartridges. I bought a bulk box of Federal Champions; brass-washed hollow point bullet. My P-22 chokes on those occasionally; usually a failure to lock the slide back on the last round, but some FTEs as well. They are definitely "lighter" than the Remingtons.

I have also tried CCI Mini-Mags, CCI Sub-Sonics, and some REALLY old plain-lead Federal Lightning rounds in my P-22. The Sub-Sonics do not cycle reliably. The Lightnings (predecessor to the ThunderBolt?) do, but make a mess in short order as 1911 described. The Mini-Mags, as expected, work great- and show the best accuracy. A bit pricey, though, in the quantities you are forced shoot through this delightful little pistol. You simply cannot stop yourself...

After doing most of 1911's recommended mods, in over 2000 rounds so far my P-22 has an occasional FTF (good hit on the rim, so its the ammo), several double-feeds with the Sub-Sonics (indicative of insufficient slide velocity), and the front sight has departed twice; all of this in addition to what I described above. I lucked out and found that little sight both times; a bit of JB Weld cured that.

Other than that, my P-22 has been exemplary.

OTOH, a pal bought one the same day I got mine. He did the same mods as I did, and has a FTF at least once per magazine. We know its the gun, as the unfired cartridge shows no rim deformation.

I think these guns are hit-or-miss; IOW, you roll the dice on whether or not you get a "good one". The good news is that S&W will handle it, no questions asked. He'll be sending his in when he gets back from a holiday trip.

Bottom line; it would seem a good idea to follow 1911's advice and stick with brass or copper washed high velocity cartridges.

.

 

Those light or no strikes on your friend's pistol should be easy to determine a solution for. It sounds like the safety must be rotating for there to be no mark at all. Even if a round doesn't full chamber and gives when the firing pin hits it there should be some kind of mark. Also check to see that the firing pin is moving freely forward and rearward (resetting, so the hammer can punch it good) when the safety is in the fire position.

Yeah, you can't really expect low velocity ammo to have enough energy to reliably carry out all the functions a semi auto requires. The Skeeter comes with two slide springs of different strength for different rounds. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. :bthumb: M1911

 

It sounds like the safety must be rotating for there to be no mark at all. Even if a round doesn't full chamber and gives when the firing pin hits it there should be some kind of mark. Also check to see that the firing pin is moving freely forward and rearward (resetting, so the hammer can punch it good) when the safety is in the fire position.

Did all of that; no joy. I told him to remove the levers and grind them down just to make sure, before going through the hassle of sending it off. It is conceivable that the levers are moving down just enough and then getting "bounced" back when he manually cycles the slide. But I was looking for that and couldn't see it.

He should be back tomorrow, and we'll try that.

 

An occasional no strike can only be caused by: 1. safety on. 2. firing pin block malfunction, not assembled properly. 3. broken firing pin. 4. Firing pin not resetting, i.e. sliding to the full rear position because of dirt and the hammer not being able to hit it.

I'm still betting on #1 as this exact problem has been reported before and that was the problem. Note: There is an internal cam on the safety hidden inside the slide. It engages the rearmost notch of the firing pin which will not allow the pin to move forward. This cam is why the safety lever has to be set to the fire position to remove the breech block. M1911

 

I just did some more ammo testing this weekend - I wanted to find a brand that I could use in both my Marlin Model 60 and P22 without problems. My P22 Likes the following: Mini Mags HP and Round Nose, Rem Golden Bullets and CCI Blazers.

My Model 60 likes any of the round nose rounds, but does not like hp's.

So, I bought 2000 rounds of CCI Blazers to have on hand as both guns seem to like them. Boy, my ammo bag is heavy now - I have about 3000 rounds in it. Now time to shoot!

 

I picked up a box or Rem Golds to use this Sat. I'm so excited that I could not sleep last night. I have got to suffer 4 more days before the weekend is here. Then I'm off to the range! I'm starting off with the Rem Golds since so many people seem to have good luck with this ammo in the P22s.

My question is are all Remington Golds hollow points? My bulk pack comes 525 per box and not the 550 that so many others have mentioned. And they are round nose hollow points.

 

Tex,

They come both ways; 550 rounds, or 525 rounds. One of life's bizarre little mysteries; the answer to which is known only by the marketing weenies in Lonoke...

I've purchased them both ways at Wally World. As a matter of fact, time to get some more. I'm on, like, my fifth carton now. And they have all been hollow points.

I don't think the gun cares either way.

 

I had one of the P22s. That thing never jammed, I felt it had a fantastic trigger. The sights (as on most guns these days) completely sucked, primarily because of the way elevation changes were dealth with.

That is a fun plinking gun, about on par with the Buckmark camper, except the smaller version of the P22 will fit nicely in a pocket and the Buckmark won't.

I never could get a decent group with it due to the sights and it's inability to mount any sort of scope to it.

I didn't like the way the barrel link was designed and not much a fan of this whole key-locked safety feature either.

I got rid of the pistol, because I was really looking for something that was more accurate.

My 2 cents with the P-22 is that about any standard or high vel. ammo should work well in it. Like others, I found that mini-mags worked as good as anything else. Great tin can hitting fun!