Range Report

I went to the range today with two objectives. One was to try out the new Walther P22 with both the 3.5 and 5” barrels. The other was to shoot the Cougar 8045 with the recently acquired “D” spring.

Well the range was absolutely packed this morning. I’ve never seen so many people at the pistol range and that many at the range makes me a little nervous. Right next to me was a police office shooting a 1911 with a Glock on his side in a holster (normally holstered guns are not allowed at this range). This guy would go up to the line, when it was cold, and fiddle with the gun. I saw another guy with his muzzle pointing sideways (down the line) insert a mag and rack the slide.

Anyway, I ended up putting about 100 rounds through the P22. Didn’t really concentrate on accuracy, but all 100 rounds stayed within 5” at 15 yards. Not a single failure or malfunction. The only down side to shooting the P22 is loading the magazines. The .22 LR rounds double stack in the mag and sometimes tend to jam up while loading the mag. Not a big deal, just different from other magazines I’ve loaded. Additionally, like other .22 LR magazines I’ve seen, there is a thumb catch for sliding the spring and follower down during loading.

In all I found the P22 to be a fun gun to shoot. I’ve heard a lot of comments about the little Walther’s not shooting straight or being very repeatable, but I did not see that today. I was just shooting fast and for fun without any concentration and managed to keep it on target at 15 yards with 89 Cent/50 Winchester cheapo ammo. I also shot some sub sonic rounds they performed the same.

Sometime during 2005 I plant to start the process of buying and registering a can for the P22. The P22 comes with a threaded barrel and for about $500.00 to $600.00 you can outfit the gun with a decent silencer. The only catch is that you have to get your local police chief or sheriff to sign off on you getting one. The federal government required that you complete a form 4 and have the top local police official sign the form. Then you file the form, along with $200.00, with the BATF for a one time Tax Stamp. Whoever you purchase the can from will normally charge about $100.00 for the transfer and the actual can will cost from $200 to $500.00. If I do decide to attempt this, I’ll keep a log on the process here.

On to the Cougar. I had been thinking about trading the 8045 for something else. While very concealable, the 8045 is a little thick and the trigger was not as smooth as my 8000L Cougar. Well I decided to try a “D” spring in the 8045 and wow… what a difference. The trigger is now like butter. I’m going to keep this for while and continue to shoot it. I was shooting a jagged hole a 15 yards with both the double and single action.