Walther released this rimfire pistol in 2002 and it’s been in continuous production since. Here’s how to work on and improve the P22.

by David W. Manney

The Walther P22 has some issues straight out of the box, however, with a little TLC this pistol can be a very fine shooter. A customer brought one into my shop right after deer hunting season complaining that he had had never shot the gun after buying it and it been on his desk for a long time. The first time he put in a magazine to shoot it, it completely failed to fire, and he gave up on it. It sat for another year before he finally brought it to me. I thought it was odd that someone would wait that long to try to shoot a brand new pistol and then wait again to have it fixed, but I guess there are those who can wait.

Once I had a chance to look at this gun, I found the firing pin was leaving very light marks on the rim. After solving the firing problem, I went out on a very cold December morning and tested it. My repair worked and I told the customer to come and pick it up. He picked it up and left happy to try it out. I didn’t think any more of it until he came back in February. Apparently, he had just tried to shoot it with his wife and now it would not cycle properly. Despite it still being below freezing temperatures outside, it was 30 degrees warmer than during my successful test.

What follows is what I had to do to get this pistol to operate reliably. For disassembly of the gun, check out Chick Blood’s “Disassembly and Reassembly of The Walther P22 Pistol” in the June 2009 issue.

Read more in the October 2017 issue.

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