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
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