A Year Later — What Do I Think Now?

By Roy Huntington

I was fortunate enough to attend the launch of this nifty .22 some time ago, and later we were sent the guns we used at the factory, to have on-hand for articles and more testing. S&W wanted us to really wring them out and tell them any bad news. A bit more than a year later, with well over 2,500 rounds through the gun (and zero cleaning, but just a touch of lube), I don’t have any bad news to tell.

Honest.

Several of us on-staff here have them now and have shot them extensively. So far, nobody is complaining. That Victory moniker harkens to the famous “Victory” S&W .38 revolver (a Model 10, basically) from the WWII era. S&W’s choice to name guns after famous models from the past (M&P, for instance) is smart and tends to get a head-start in product recognition. And there’s no small amount of “feel-good” marketing there too. I like it.

Lots Of Good Ideas

The SW22 is all stainless steel and weighs about 32 ounces (an all-steel 5″ 1911 is about 39 ounces, for perspective). That’s fairly hefty but instead of complaining about it, enjoy it since it helps the gun to hang very steadily in the hand. Holding 10+1, the polymer grips fit well and my small to medium hand feels just fine in a firing grip. It comes with a green fiber optic front sight and adjustable fiber optic rear. It comes with an easy to install rail for scope/dot sight mounting too.

It also has one of the finest trigger pulls I’ve ever felt on a factory gun, period. It’s crisp and feels like a good quality 1911 trigger. “Snick” and the gun goes off, with a quick, short re-set so you can do it again. Frankly, I was amazed when I felt it. You’ll smile every time you press this trigger.

Other than the trigger, maybe the best part is the fact once you unscrew a single hex screw just forward of the trigger guard, the gun takes-down breezily fast. Literally, you can take it down to “cleaning” component parts in about 15 seconds. Another screw holds the barrel snugly in the receiver, and it’s a quick-change to one of several optional barrels. You could, if you wanted, change a barrel from a field or sport barrel to a long target barrel (like the long Volquartsen one shown) in about one minute. One measly minute, no fooling. And it holds zero. Ha!

Here, the 7.5″ with “Forward Blow Comp” (top) and Carbon Fiber
6.75″ (threaded) are shown. Change-out takes about one minute
and zeros hold.

S&W offers this excellent field holster for the Victory
and the extra-mag set-up is handy. Holster is by Triple K.

S&W’s SW22 Victory .22 LR Semi-Auto shown with custom Ahrends grips,
Matchdot II sight and Volquartsen custom barrel.

What About That Zero?

I have the standard 5.5″ barrel, along with a 7.5″ stainless/comped and threaded one from Volquartsen, and a very cool Carbon Fiber 6.75″ one (using their barrel “tension” technology from their rifle barrels), also from Volquartsen. Both exhibit superior workmanship and are surprisingly affordable. The 7.5″ fluted one (with Forward Blow Comp, which really works!) is about $295, with the Carbon Fiber one pricing out at $215. Remember these are custom barrels.

The factory job delivers around the 1.5″ range at 25 yards, and at times a bit better depending upon ammo. The basic gun and sights pretty much will likely outshoot most of us. The Carbon Fiber barrel is more accurate, but really excels and ramps up the fun meter when you screw a suppressor onto it!

For sheer delight in shooting, the 7.5″ fluted stainless barrel with the comp is simply magical. Using the pictured Matchdot II “Ultradot” sight, and sticking with CCI ammo for a test, the largest group (using Velocitor high velocity ammo, 1,435 fps from a rifle) was just a tad under 1″. Stingers (1,640 fps rifle velocity) delivered 0.75″ (with three rounds into 0.45″!), CCI’s new “Quiet 22” (sub-sonic, at about 710 fps) delivered 0.55″ (the slide had to be hand-cycled, but what a load for a suppressor!), and standard, classic Mini-Mag HP ammo (1,260 rifle velocity) gave the most consistent groups, averaging around .75″ with a couple hitting the .35″ to .45″ mark.

It was like having a laser blaster in your hand. Put the dot on the target, break that crisp trigger and a hole would appear magically exactly where you were aiming. I did some targeting at 100 for grins, and on a non-windy day, using that Mini-Mag ammo and long barrel, I was averaging about 4″, but that dot sight makes it hard to hold precisely. I’m going to mount a cross-hair scope on it and do some more shooting “out there” to see what happens. Who needs a rifle?

You get all this for an MSRP of $409 for the basic set-up. Add the target barrel and a decent dot sight and you’re at about $800 or a bit less. You’d be unstoppable then!
I think there’s victory in the air.

Gunsite 40th Raffle Gun

To help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Gunsite (funny, but this is Handgunner’s 40th anniversary issue too!), Dave Lauck of DL Sports built this elegant custom 1911. It’s going to be raffled and the proceeds donated to the Jeff Cooper Foundation. The pistol is similar to one Dave built for Cooper in the 1990’s, which is now part of the Buffalo Bill Museum collection in Cody, Wyo. Tickets are $20 for the raffle gun and available by calling the Gunsite Pro Shop at (928) 636-9512. The drawing will be at Gunsite Oct. 1st, 2016.

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