I got the new recoil spring and striker spring for the old Mauser 1914 yesterday and changed them out so decided to take it to the range and see if all was much better now. It kindasorta was but the original magazine now was not feeding reliably (maybe the 91 year old magazine spring was an issue) but the new magazine worked flawlessly.
That was always going to be a quick test so jess for fun I brought along three of my 22LR semi-automatics; an old Beretta 21A Bobcat from the late 1990s, a fairly new Taurus PT-22 Poly and my new Walther Ulm (but Cologne proofed) PPK/S 22LR. I also took three types of the 22LR ammo I had squirreled away to see how each pistol handled different ammo. The ammo was CCI Mini Mag Target, Federal Target bulk pack and Remington 525 Golden Bullet "Value Pack" which was the only HP round I tried.
The Beretta was like Mikey, it hated everything except the CCI Mini Mag. With the Mini Mag though it was absolutely flawless. Next best with the Bobcat was the Federal Target and the only issue there was a few simply didn't fire. All showed a deep strike and two of the four that did not fire the first time did fire on a second strike.
The Taurus PT-22 Poly like the CCI Mini Mag and the Federal Target but would simply not feed the Remington. Not a single round would feed from the magazine but all that I loaded directly did fire.
The Walther PPK/s 22LR ate everything and I only had one round out of about 125 rounds total fail to fire. It was by far the most forgiving with no failure to ejects, no failure to feeds and as I said only one (a Remington) fail to fire. I tried that round in both of the tip up barrels and while I got good hits on the rim in all three guns it never worked.
All three were super easy to shoot and accurate. At 5 yards it was easy to place a full magazine in a inch and a half square even with rapid fire. The Walther is the heaviest while the Taurus PT-22 Poly the lightest. The Beretta and Walther are both traditional DA/SA and the Taurus is DAO. The Beretta and Taurus sights are simply milled into the slide and barrel while the Walther comes with three different height front sights (pined in place) and the rear sight is windage adjustable using an Allen Wrench that also came with the gun. The Walther barrel is threaded and capped and comes with a wrench to allow attaching a compensator or blast re-directer or suppressor.
All three easily fit in a pocket, all have a manual safety, all have a button magazine release but the Bobcat is located in the left rear grip while the other two have the magazine release in a more conventional location.
All were comfortable enough to use over a moderate range session and all were accurate enough to put a shot on target at 25 yards but none were fun to shoot at distance.
The only issue that came up was one I was already aware of, the trigger pin in the Taurus will move slightly to the right over a range session. It's never come out or caused any issues and it is easy to simply push back in place.
We all know that 22LR, even today's more powerful and reliable 22LR, is not the best choice for self defense but these three little jewels were so intuitive, so easy to put and maintain on target and with ammo they like so reliable and accurate that I'd be comfortable with any one of them as a primary carry handgun.
In summary, the Bobcat with CCI Mini Mag ammo was the easiest to conceal, easiest to shoot, most reliable over all without a single failure to feed, failure to eject or failure to fire. Next was the Walther. While it's the heaviest and has by far the heaviest DA trigger pull (think vintage S&W J frame trigger pull) it was smooth and had no staging or hesitations and the SA trigger on the Walther was simply fantastic. It was a short pull with crisp break and almost immediate reset. The Taurus was the least pleasant with a trigger that is too curved, too rounded and somewhat vague. It works though and it's only when directly compared to others during a single session I find issues.
That was always going to be a quick test so jess for fun I brought along three of my 22LR semi-automatics; an old Beretta 21A Bobcat from the late 1990s, a fairly new Taurus PT-22 Poly and my new Walther Ulm (but Cologne proofed) PPK/S 22LR. I also took three types of the 22LR ammo I had squirreled away to see how each pistol handled different ammo. The ammo was CCI Mini Mag Target, Federal Target bulk pack and Remington 525 Golden Bullet "Value Pack" which was the only HP round I tried.
The Beretta was like Mikey, it hated everything except the CCI Mini Mag. With the Mini Mag though it was absolutely flawless. Next best with the Bobcat was the Federal Target and the only issue there was a few simply didn't fire. All showed a deep strike and two of the four that did not fire the first time did fire on a second strike.
The Taurus PT-22 Poly like the CCI Mini Mag and the Federal Target but would simply not feed the Remington. Not a single round would feed from the magazine but all that I loaded directly did fire.
The Walther PPK/s 22LR ate everything and I only had one round out of about 125 rounds total fail to fire. It was by far the most forgiving with no failure to ejects, no failure to feeds and as I said only one (a Remington) fail to fire. I tried that round in both of the tip up barrels and while I got good hits on the rim in all three guns it never worked.
All three were super easy to shoot and accurate. At 5 yards it was easy to place a full magazine in a inch and a half square even with rapid fire. The Walther is the heaviest while the Taurus PT-22 Poly the lightest. The Beretta and Walther are both traditional DA/SA and the Taurus is DAO. The Beretta and Taurus sights are simply milled into the slide and barrel while the Walther comes with three different height front sights (pined in place) and the rear sight is windage adjustable using an Allen Wrench that also came with the gun. The Walther barrel is threaded and capped and comes with a wrench to allow attaching a compensator or blast re-directer or suppressor.
All three easily fit in a pocket, all have a manual safety, all have a button magazine release but the Bobcat is located in the left rear grip while the other two have the magazine release in a more conventional location.
All were comfortable enough to use over a moderate range session and all were accurate enough to put a shot on target at 25 yards but none were fun to shoot at distance.
The only issue that came up was one I was already aware of, the trigger pin in the Taurus will move slightly to the right over a range session. It's never come out or caused any issues and it is easy to simply push back in place.
We all know that 22LR, even today's more powerful and reliable 22LR, is not the best choice for self defense but these three little jewels were so intuitive, so easy to put and maintain on target and with ammo they like so reliable and accurate that I'd be comfortable with any one of them as a primary carry handgun.
In summary, the Bobcat with CCI Mini Mag ammo was the easiest to conceal, easiest to shoot, most reliable over all without a single failure to feed, failure to eject or failure to fire. Next was the Walther. While it's the heaviest and has by far the heaviest DA trigger pull (think vintage S&W J frame trigger pull) it was smooth and had no staging or hesitations and the SA trigger on the Walther was simply fantastic. It was a short pull with crisp break and almost immediate reset. The Taurus was the least pleasant with a trigger that is too curved, too rounded and somewhat vague. It works though and it's only when directly compared to others during a single session I find issues.
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