Walther P22

I took some photos of mine and posted them yesterday.  Now that I go back and look, I realize just how beat up that poor little gun is, and it's simply amazing that it's still running.

I purchased that piece in spring 2006.  I was at Gander Mountain with Dad waiting for him to do the paperwork for a little Ruger .22lr pistol all of us children had pitched in to get him for Father's Day, and the little Walther caught my eye, and felt good for such a tiny gun.  I often joked it was so cute it followed me home.

Since then I have come to despise the plastic sights (seriously, there's no hope in Hell of it holding a zero, the rear stripped out years ago, and the front one pops out if you look at it crosseyed... at least it did until I super-glued it in place.)  The slide wear from the trigger bar and slide stop on the usual spots, and I'm amazed it hasn't cracked in half yet.  It's often just tossed in the top of my range bag going to and from the range, or in a pocket on one of the tacticool rifle cases, so the finish is beat to snot, and the polymer frame is knicked and chewed up all over the place.

It often fails to strip the next round from the mag, and the slide locks back on an empty mag about 40% of the time.  However I clean the thing about as often as I change the oil in my car, that is to say maybe every 3,000 rounds; and even then it still cycles about 90% off of random bulk .22lr.  That's simply amazing for a semi-auto .22lr anything.

I could probably count the number of range trips the little thing hasn't come on with a single hand, and I couldn't even begin to guess how many people have shot that very pistol as their first pistol ever.  It's also taken a handful of rats from my grandpa's scrap pile (probably the best snap-shooting practice I've ever had.)

But even though it's pretty rough and blooded, it's still kind of cute after all these years.  Now if somebody would just make decent aftermarket sights...