S&W M&P.22 Magnum extensive testing.

[D V US]

My wife and I put another 250 rounds through the M&P 22 mag last night. This was her first time shooting it and really liked it. She fired off 29 rounds and finally asked the question I was waiting for, "How many does this thing hold?!?" It now has her full approval, so next step is to put a reddot on it. This thing has close to 1K rounds through it now without a single cleaning and without a single bobble. An amazing feat for any rimfire pistol, but for a .22 mag it's unheard of. I'm getting sub 2" groups offhand at 15 yards with it now, so something with it, or me (likely me,) is starting to click. A red dot should shrink that considerably.

 

[D V US]

So I have reached the 2K rd. mile mark with this little M&P .22 mag and thought I would give those interested an update. I had decided after my last post to see just how far I could push this pistol without cleaning or oiling it, only wiping it off after each range session. I also added a cheap ebay red dot on the slide, just as another experiment. At the start of this range session we were at 1700 trouble free, 100% reliable rounds. I brought 100 rds. each of the Bitterroot, PMC and Armscor ammos pictured at the start of this thread. Starting with the Bitterroot, with only a few rounds left in the mag I had a failure to feed. The round entered the chamber about halfway and stopped. I reached for the slide to clear it and as soon as I touched it, it snapped forward. I finished the mag but had three more occasions over the 100 rds. of the Bitterroot. The 100 PMC and 100 Armscor rounds fired afterwards all functioned flawlessly, even as nasty as the Armscor ammo was. I'm going to chalk up the failure to feeds to the Bitterroot ammo because it is the only failures in this first 2K rounds. We'll see if we can make it to 2.5K.

On a side note, the little cheapie ebay red dot has worked like a champ over the last few months and 1K rounds. For a shake awake red dot for $39, I'm pretty impressed so far.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Question, is there a huge gap between the forward part of the frame and the slide, or has S&W resolved that issue? So far it sounds like it may be my next firearm.

 

[GnometownHero]

I helped take care of a guy in the ER that had been shot 3 times at 5ft with a 22 mag North American mini by a woman who had it stashed in her bra when he tried to assault her in a bar parking lot. CCI HP ammo. Purple hydrostatic tissue damage his entire chest. One bullet splintered his sternem and gave him cardiac tamponade, one followed the rib cartledge and shredded the top of his right kidney, 3rd shot hit a rib and fragmented lots of pieces into his right lung.
He coded in the ER and it took 3+ hrs of surgery to stabilize him. Day 3 they removed the damaged kidney.
.22 mag is better for self defense than people think.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

I helped take care of a guy in the ER that had been shot 3 times at 5ft with a 22 mag North American mini by a woman who had it stashed in her bra when he tried to assault her in a bar parking lot. CCI HP ammo. Purple hydrostatic tissue damage his entire chest. One bullet splintered his sternem and gave him cardiac tamponade, one followed the rib cartledge and shredded the top of his right kidney, 3rd shot hit a rib and fragmented lots of pieces into his right lung.
He coded in the ER and it took 3+ hrs of surgery to stabilize him. Day 3 they removed the damaged kidney.
.22 mag is better for self defense than people think.

That is also a short barrel. The barrel length on this is 5" so a stout round when fired from this pistol. Would still prefer 5.7 X 28, but would feel comfortable with .22 wmr for self defense.

 

[D V US]

I'm not sure about what you mean by a "huge gap," but if you are talking about being able to see daylight between the slide and frame on the side profile, yes, it's there. This doesn't bother me in the least. Glocks have been this way since their introduction, as have many polymer framed pistols. Some people see this as a "fault," but in reality, it is a design feature. The largest enemy to any polymer component is heat. If a hot barrel can't get air to it to cool it, the heat transfers to whatever is around it, i.e. the polymer frame. And let me tell you, 300 rds. of .22 Magnum creates a lot of heat!

 

[davek]

I understand the gap between side and frame also lets water drain away quickly if pulled out of the water. Not that pulling your pistol out of the lake after a boating accident is a common problem.

 

[GlockPride]

I understand the gap between side and frame also lets water drain away quickly if pulled out of the water. Not that pulling your pistol out of the lake after a boating accident is a common problem.

Apparently it is for many of the population on internet sites…

 

[mtngunr]

.22 magnum, using jacketed bullets, is as clean as centerfire ammunition.

In semi-autos, will still have a lot of unburned powder blowing back into action, and that is true for rifles, and worse for handguns, while chamber and bore do indeed stay centerfire clean. One thing really liked is that unlike most WMR handguns, past the 6.5" Single Six, the M&P reported velocities are up where you'd hope from such a length barrel, 1300-1400fps, where the baseline Single Six can exceed 1400fps, and all of them handily beating hi-vel LR loads from a rifle and providing meaningful zap that is anything but harmless. The NAA Mini was mentioned above, mine clocked 1000-1100fps+ depending upon ammo, basically .22 Standard velocity from a rifle, and hurtful as well...

I understand the gap between side and frame also lets water drain away quickly if pulled out of the water. Not that pulling your pistol out of the lake after a boating accident is a common problem.

The gap is mostly because the plastic frame flexes and would bind under recoil if a tighter fit, Glock does not use glass to stiffen the plastic as that made them more prone to cracking.

 

[mtngunr]

As for defensive loads for that popper, there are boutique lightweight and heavyweight fancy numbers with designer jackets (and designer jacket cost), many of them geared for very short barrel expansion and/or penetration.

I will also mention my playing with the 6.5" Single Six on 1/2 gal water jugs with both CCI MaxiMags "Jacketed"HPs and the original WMR load, the Super-X JHP...the CCI did not expand at even 7 paces, and penciled through, they are plated bullets of what seems a harder alloy than the Winchester true jacketed with dead soft cores. The Winchester shows a dark ring of vaporized lead even on paper at 25yds and larger hole than CCI, and showed expansion on the water jugs out to 50yds where moving slower....your shorter and likely a bit slower M&P may not show expansion at 50yds, but in closer you likely will get fine terminal effects if it feeds them reliably.
As an FYI, the same ammos out of the Brno ZKM 611 with circa 20"bbl had both (unsuprisingly) expanding on jugs at 50yds with the Winchester doing so cleanly while the CCI showed fragments out back, confirming a likely harder alloy. Also showing the original Super-X some mighty fine ammo even though lacking designer jackets and plastic tip thingies, with both good expansion and good penetration weight retention likely from the M&P. Worth looking into, in any case.