Sunday, August 10, 2014

S&W Model 22A-1 - First Shots

I took the S&W Model 22A-1 along with us to the bloggershoot last weekend. I figured it would be as good a time as any to run some rounds through it, not so much to see if it was a tack driver or not but to see how well it functioned. I have to admit, I did not expect it to do too well because it appears to be cheaply made to me.

Having only two (2) mags for it meant I got to shoot 20 rounds out of it (10 round mags), then had to stop to reload meaning I lost my spot on the firing line (which accommodated six people at most at one time). That was a bit time consuming because after reloading the mags, I had to wait on a line to get back to the line. In all, I shot maybe 60 to 80 rounds at most through it. Not many and nowhere nearly enough to make it a true test of the little plinker but enough to realize that it functioned okay, at least with the ammo I was using that day. The ammo was CCI Blazer and Federal high velocity, copper plated, 36 grain hollow points (1993 vintage). The gun fed, fired, extracted and ejected every round without failure.

It was pretty accurate too, at least at a very close range. The target was set up at about 5 yards. I fired off a couple of mags rapid fire to see how it would function, then switched over to slow fire for the next couple to few magazines full. While shooting slow fire, I was able to attain a single group smaller than a dime for one mags worth of lead. That was with the old Federal ammo. The other groups were from smaller than a nickel to about a quarter in size.  The slightly smaller than nickel sized group was also with the Federal ammo; I think I only fired 20 rounds of that ammo through the S&W. The other groups that were a bit more open, from a nickel to a quarter size, were with the CCI Blazer.

I might have done better had I not been getting bombarded with hot brass casings from a full auto gun while shooting one stint of two mags worth of ammo and had I not had the guy next to me shooting off a 50 caliber rifle. The shockwave from the muzzle on that thing was tremendous and it certainly did just a little to make me loose my concentration on the next shot. Anyway, I did okay with it and have to say that at the least it seemingly would make a decent plinker. I think it would also probably make a decent small game pistol but will have to do some serious firing at a regular range to determine that. I will be doing just that - taking it to a regular range for some further evaluation on a future date. I'll write it up in more detail after that.

As for the impression I got after its first shots, I am happy with it even though, as I said, it appears to be cheaply made and I expect certain parts will not take all too long to fail. I guess after a year or three of toting it around and shooting it here and there, I may be able to tell if the parts I am guessing will fail will have done so or not. Hopefully I am wrong about it and it will prove itself a better made pistol than I suspect. By the way, the problem I wrote about recently with having difficulty getting one of the mags out of the mag well seems to have gotten a bit better though it is still not as easy as it should be to remove that particular magazine.

All I all, it seems like a fair to okay pistol so far, though it could use some improvements (such as having not one but both mags come free properly) and time and more ammo will tell if it is a plinker or a junker.

All the best,
Glenn B

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