S&W22 Victory

Contrary to normal practice in the firearms industry, the Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory became widely available for consumer purchase soon after its initial public announcement - instead of the lengthy marketing run up normally allocated to the process of new product launch.  We saw this gun at a dealer show in early January and two showed up at our local shop - The AR Bunker - a few days later.  All of us wanted to shoot this beauty the minute we laid hands on it at the show but we couldn’t agree on which of us would actually make the purchase, so a few days of good-natured bickering finally produced a volunteer.

The Victory is, among its other virtues, an extremely ergonomic pistol.  Our small band of pistoliers consists of shooters with a wide variety of hand sizes and shapes, so there is no handgun that is “perfect” for all of us.  The Victory is no exception but it comes as close to the mark as any we’ve tested in a long while. It gets scores of “very good” or “excellent” from all of us, with more of the latter than the former. One of us even deemed it “a perfect fit.” The grip shape is wide where it needs to be wide and thin where it needs to be thin.  The bottom of the backstrap is nicely curved forward to prevent it from digging in at the bottom of the palm of the strong hand. Trigger placement is a nice compromise of fore and aft, which, along with its carefully crafted shape, accommodates both long and short fingered shooters.

Standard equipment includes front and rear fiber optic sights and the rear sight is fully adjustable for elevation and windage.  While many target shooting champions do not favor fiber optic sights, these are not so bright that they distract from the sight picture, but do aid in quick acquisition.  A picatinny rail mount is included with the purchase package and can be easily installed in lieu of the rear sight for those who might want to mount a red dot or other optic instead of the “iron sights.” Magazines are 10-round capacity and S&W also includes an extra - which is almost unheard of these days with new 22 pistols.

Stainless steel is found throughout. Frame, barrel, receiver, and bolt are all stainless, lending weight and durability to the gun.  The Victory is not a dedicated, high-end target pistol like it’s S&W 41 cousin (which costs almost three times as much) nor is it a lightweight utility/plinker/varmint shooter, but it is suitable for either use while its cost is much closer to the latter than the former.  The plentiful use of stainless steel provides the weight necessary for accurate target shooting and the ruggedness that withstands shuffling around in a backpack or other outdoor recreational activities.

Take down (field stripping) does require a tool but it is a common allen wrench which is included with purchase and is the only tool required. Once one screw is removed, the entire upper assembly - consisting of the receiver, barrel, and bolt - disconnects from the frame and this simple process reveals all that is necessary for routine cleaning.  Further disassembly of parts in the bolt and receiver - for those more mechanically inclined or experienced - are also very straightforward with common tools, making more detailed maintenance easy to perform.

Putting the Victory through its paces at the range was a real eye-opener.  As much as we all liked the looks of this pistol, appreciated its weight and balance, and admired its design and engineering, we were doubtful that S&W could pull off a “real winner” for the target shooter at this price point.  We thought; “there must be a wart or two somewhere on this princess.” After about 50 rounds each we were all smiles, with astonished comments flowing freely between us. Quickly throwing a few rounds at a steel target from 25 yards let us know that some serious accuracy would be available from this chunk of silver delight.

The trigger is not a “world class” contraption as would be found in competition pistols costing $1,500 or $2,500, breaking like a glass rod, and tripping the sear at 2.5 lbs of pull weight.  It is, however, more than competent for the kind of serious marksmanship practiced by mere mortals. Combined with the overall ergonomics of the pistol, its trigger will not prevent the average shooter from reaching his/her full accuracy potential.  Said another way, the Victory’s trigger will allow a “fair-to-middlin” shooter to achieve tighter groups. For those that know the terms, there is a small amount of take-up, followed by a very small amount of creep, and then the break is very crisp.  There is also an over-travel adjustment for those who want to tweak it.

3” to 4” inch groups, at 25 yards, freehand, with bulk ammo were achieved on our first outing with the Victory. Feeding the Victory a variety of inexpensive bulk ammo, we had no failures to feed or fire attributable to the gun. It even functioned perfectly with subsonic ammo, which chokes many pistols not fitted with a suppressor. Our experience on the first outing leads us to expect some very pleasant results when we get to test the beast again after some more break-in and with some premium ammo from a bench rest.

In summary, this gun is an ideal balance between design, engineering, and ergonomics.  Form does not give way to function, nor vice versa.  Our examination (2 of our group are highly qualified gunsmiths) revealed a high level of build quality and no obvious design features that would predict failure.  The design is simple and straightforward.  Rube Goldberg was definitely NOT invited to this party, and his absence portends long life and reliability for the pistol.  Parts and materials seem to be of very high quality and build quality is as good as we’ve seen in modern firearms.

The SW22 Victory belongs in a class with the Ruger Mk III and the Browning Buckmark, at least in terms of build quality, reliability, and ruggedness and is every bit as good as those other two; but is a better pistol out of the box as a target shooting competitor. (Way better than the Ruger in terms of ease-of-maintenance).  So, it ain’t a S&W 41 nor a Hammerli Xesse but it also ain’t $1,300 and most shooters will never achieve the skill level necessary to justify the extra expense of those high-end models.

Respectfully Submitted
The Bunker Bunch
June, 2016

PS: The SW22 Victory is in stock and available from The AR Bunker.  More info and specs are available from www.smith-wesson.com

Remington Golden Bullets

The ubiquitous .22lr is, probably, the most popular caliber in use today.  Several factors influence its popularity, including soft recoil, relatively inexpensive ammunition cost, and vast number of firearms owned which are chambered for the cartridge. The expansive number of shooters who employ the “22” for recreational purposes (plinking at tin cans, varmint hunting, casual marksmanship, etc.) mostly seek inexpensive ways to pursue their efforts, and the Remington 22 Golden Bullet HP (GB) has become very popular among this crowd. Frequently, perusal of .22lr ammo at one’s local sporting goods store or gun shop will result in the GB having the lowest price among the selection available.  Also, availability of the GB seems to be among the most consistent in today’s tight supply environment.

Among more serious rimfire operators the GB has a (mostly undeserved, as we shall propose here) reputation for low quality and reliability.  During some serious, objective tests, our little band of pistoliers found this notoriety to be mostly false; or at least greatly exaggerated. Make no mistake, this epistle is NOT intended to imply the GB is a high quality product.  It is not in the same league with the match grade .22lr ammo on the market in terms of accuracy, consistency or reliability.  So, it is not, deservedly, the first choice of marksmen who place great value on reliability of ignition and ultimate accuracy from a given firearm. Neither, not surprisingly, does the price of the GB reside in the lofty heights of that “match grade” ammo.

Accuracy
Choice of ammunition has a greater effect on where a bullet will impact a target than most shooters realize.  Shooter skill, ammunition quality, and firearm quality - in that order - are the most important factors in placing bullets close to an intended point of impact. A shooter with minimal-to-moderate skills cannot expect to dramatically improve his/her performance by buying expensive guns and ammo.  For someone, however, who has excellent shooting skills and a firearm proven to be capable of exploiting them, choice of ammunition can dramatically decrease the size of a bullet impact group on a paper target, or the chance of delivering a first shot deadly blow to a game animal.

Our extensive experience with all kinds of shooting, especially rimfire, dictates the use of a much higher quality ammo than the GB when we’re engaged in serious competition.  When we’re just practicing trigger control or some other facet of shooting, where very tight groups are nice but not essential, the GB - and other “budget” products - provide excellent choices for minimizing the cost of that kind of shooting.  Ammo cost should not deter a marksman from engaging in enough practice to hone his/her skills

Performance
We recently tested several brands/grades of .22lr ammunition to verify the manufacturer’s claims of velocity.  Included in these tests was the size of impact groups on a paper target at 25 yards.  We did not test longer range results, which would be more impacted by velocity variations and by design and ballistic coefficient of the bullets because that was not the focus of our curiosity.  In our tests, the GB demonstrated muzzle velocities very close to Remington’s claims and a very good consistency of the velocity from shot to shot.  Other things being equal, these results place the product in the “good” category.

While the GB provided Point of Impact (POI) groups about the same as its “budget” competitors, it did fall short of generating the kind of “one ragged hole” performance of the much higher priced “match grade” ammo we included in the tests.  When you can achieve groups of 2” (average) from a pistol, handheld, on a bench rest, at 25 yards, over and over again, you’re a good shooter, your gun is a good one, and your ammo is “decent-to-good.”  This is what we got with the GB.  Admittedly, the “match grade” ammo produced notably smaller groups - as expected.

While we’re at it, we must note that just because a manufacturer claims a product is “match grade” is no guarantee. Neither is price an exact measure of accuracy or consistency capability.  Further research is necessary to determine the true “value” of a particular cartridge.

Reliability
The .22lr cartridge in general is far less reliable than its centerfire cousin.  It’s not the caliber but the ignition method and mass production characteristics that control this more than anything else. There seems to be more of a variation in quality from the various manufacturers in their various products of the same caliber, and there are greater differences in various factors within this caliber among the manufacturers.

When we couple these differences with the fact that “22” semi-auto pistols and rifles are frequently “ammo sensitive” we find that a particular firearm will function more reliably with one brand of ammo over another.  There are pistols and rifles out there that will function perfectly with CCI Mini-Mags but are “spotty” with the GB or the Federal Champion (Federal’s budget offering), and some guns work well no matter what they’re fed - but that’s a topic for another article.

The GB does not function perfectly in all semi-autos, although there are plenty of popular guns out there that “like” it as well as anything else.  Neither do the “budget” products from other manufacturers. So, in terms of semi-auto function, a particular gun will “like” some ammo and not others.  It’s a crapshoot, and the GB is not more to be scorned than others in its category.

Also, an occasional misfire (failure of the primer to ignite the powder charge) might be a nuisance, but the degree to which a particular shooter will find it offensive is very subjective and varies widely.  Some will endure the inconvenience in exchange for lower cost while others will pay a higher cost to eliminate the irritation. Also, in serious marksmanship competition a failure to fire or feed is more important than when pushing a tin can along the ground at the range for fun with one's buddies.

When we eliminate the “semi-auto malfunction” variable from the question by testing with revolvers, we can more accurately evaluate the “ignition quality” of the GB and others.  Among our small group of pistoliers, several are very serious shooters.  Any malfunction experienced - no matter the casual nature of the particular shooting exercise - demands an immediate detailed inspection and diagnosis of the problem.  For these folks, failure to hit the bullseye or produce a small group can be acceptably excused if it’s “fog on my glasses” or “too much caffeine this morning” but a firearm related or ammo related malfunction is cause for much distress. Since we have to rely on manufacturers for our .22lr ammo (we hand load almost all of our centerfire ammo) each of us has a sincere preference.  Even so, budget constraints will keep the $10/box stuff in the range bag unless the friendly casual competition gets intense.

Without objective, data based, testing some of us began to refer to the GB as “Golden Misfire” and began to shun its inclusion in our regular range activities.  For reasons lost in the mists of time, one of us had accumulated a large inventory of GB and was averse to the purchase of a replacement while thousands of rounds of GB remained on the shelf.  So, with plenty of testing fodder available, and a desire to determine if the “Golden Misfire” moniker was undeserved, objective analysis was undertaken.

Using both older stock GB (more than 3 or 4 years old) which had been stored in cool, dry conditions and newer purchases (got a deal too good to pass up) the notorious GB was fired exclusively in several range exercises from a S&W Model 17 (.22lr 6-shot revolver), a Browning Buckmark, and a S&W 22 Victory.  Both of these semi-autos are NOT ammo sensitive, so their impact on the purely “ignition performance” test was not a disqualifying factor. The question, then, became; “How many GB’s can be fired consecutively without an ignition failure?”

Round 1: 76 rounds (77th round failed to ignite).
Round 2: 99 rounds (100th round failed to ignite).

A test protocol of “How many out of 100 will ignite?” would probably have been better but this is what we chose. Together with previous, less formal but still objective, experience shooting lots of GB (due to the massive inventory and Scrooge-like aversion to new purchases), we determined:

Conclusions:
GB will fail to ignite occasionally. Acceptable frequency is subjective.
GB is about as accurate as all but the much higher cost truly match grade ammo.
GB will fail to function some semi-autos but not much more so than its direct competition.
GB velocities (important for hunting) are very close to what’s advertised.
GB provides a decent value in today’s cost environment.
GB does not, in our humble opinion, deserve the “Golden Misfire” reputation.

Respectfully Submitted
The Bunker Bunch

June, 2016