Been interested in these pistols for a while, all the positive comments in the recent Sig vs. Walther 22 thread put me over the top and I picked one up.

Took it to the range today and seeing how you never get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression, I started the Walther out w/ my 22 ammo of choice: CCI mini-mags. My experience has been that if a semi-auto 22 (rifle or pistol) won't shoot these rounds reliably and accurately there isn't much hope. I brought 250 rounds of the mini-mags w/ me for a "break-in" of the new pistol.

Let's start w/ the bad:

The DA trigger is heavy and VERY long which tends to hurt accuracy in a compact pistol. The SA trigger is a little heavy but tolerable.

During the 1st 10 magazines when pressing the slide release to strip the 1st round off the magazine, 3 of the loaded magazines did not feed the 1st round from the magazine completely and required the slide to be re racked. The last 15 magazines this problem was absent.

When I brought it home I stripped it and cleaned it - what a pain! The design is OK (not great), but everything was so stiff, major pain in the butt.

The good:

#1 (sound the trumpets here!), the gun went bang every time I pulled the trigger, over 250 rounds not a single failure. Slide racked at the end of every empty magazine, the gun was 100% reliable. This is a 1st for me in 22 semi-autos, never seen such a reliable little blowback rimfire.

Suprising acccuracy - even w/ the short sight plane and somewhat heavy trigger I was able to maintain 10 shot 2" groups at 10 yards in semi-rapid fire (250 rounds in about 1.5 hours, 1 magazine to reload every 10 shots). Stepping back to 15 yards I was able to maintain group size if I really slowed down and concentrated. No, this is not a target pistol, but plenty accurate for the general plinking/hunting carry requirements I have in mind.

Suprisingly clean after 250 rounds - sure the end of the slide had a light coating of burned powder that was easily wiped away, but the slide and trigger still moved quite freely, no gritty feeling. When I stripped the pistol at the house, the opinion was confirmed - still relatively clean. Definitely seems like a pistol that can shoot a brick in a day and not have problems. Stripping the second time was much easier, still not the best design, but relatively easy to clean once dissassembled.

It's an attractive little pistol and fits my hand well w/ the optional larger palm swell. Yes the trigger is too close, but I'm still able to maintain control and the little pistol seems to point very well.

Pretty decent adjustable sights. I didn't touch mine - hitting dead on out of the box, but they are adjustable.

Relatively light weight, should carry very well all day - no problems.

Conclusion:

I'm really happy w/ this little pistol so far, so much so that I may buy another for my son to use when he's out w/ me and a couple of extra magazines. All of the good recomendations were well founded, if you are looking for a compact little 22 to carry w/ you in the field w/ decent accuaracy and excellent reliability you won't be dissapointed!

I plan to buy some cheaper bulk ammo and go shoot it again tomorrow. Will post when I can.

David

I have one and love it as well, so much I went and bought the G22 to go with it.

It's a hoot to shoot. Did I really just say that? I've been shooting the Federal bulk and the Remmy bulk with absolutely no FTF. It's suprisingly accurate for such a short barrel. I really did not notice the trigger problems you're talking about. I've got 6 1/2 bricks through it now with no problems at all. The only problem with it is it sucks to strip and clean. It's biatch to put back together.

They are good little pistols.

I really like mine, but you need to check your front sight fairly often cause I have seen them pop off and the dang things are hard to find on the ground