Another month, another Smith. Shifting from the Equalizer, a small and light handgun firing a standard sized bullet, I’m now turning toward a standard sized handgun firing a small and light bullet. It’s the SW22 “Victory,” a lovely target plinker which rather looks like the child of a Ruger Mark III and a .44 Automag. This is something I never expected to say.
A quick note I wish to make up front. While “Victory” is part of this gun’s official name I will refer to it as the SW22 as the name Victory had already been used on a line of .38 special revolvers back in…the 1970’s, I think? They’re also nice guns but are not the focus of this review.
What we have here is a stainless .22 Long Rifle chambered pistol which legitimately does look like an evolution of the Ruger Mark series, or a forgotten branch within the family tree. Many of the features are the same from the single stack ten round magazines complete with buttons you can use to aid in loading, fixed bull barrel, and a small exposed section of the bolt at the very back for charging. The weight and dimensions also seem comparable between the two.
Now here’s the proof we’re living in interesting times. Do you know how difficult the Rugers used to be to take down? The new push button Mark IV’s manage to disassemble EASIER than the SW22 which requires a single hex bolt to be removed. One point to Ruger there!
I thought it was funny, give me a break.
Smith & Wesson have a number of factory configurations available for the SW22, anything from no frills black on black sights to higher end models with flat triggers, carbon fiber barrels, compensators and red dot sights. One model can be had dressed in camo. There are Performance Center versions, versions with blacked out bolts, some models with built in thumb rests for right handed shooters, threaded and non-threaded barrels, some have fantastic adjustable green fiber optic sights, there’s a lot to choose from. I believe all of them come from the factory with a spare top plate which swaps out the rear sight for a generously sized Picatinny rail for optic use which is simply awesome and I love to see it. You can keep your pistol clean or deck it out however you like without having compromises like those exposed little screws in a drilled and tapped receiver.
According to S&W the barrel is interchangeable and the trigger stop is adjustable but I have no experience in these areas.
For models with a threaded barrel they come installed with a rubber O-ring which provides sufficient tension to keep the thread protector from backing off during operation. After having to constantly tighten down the protector on a Ruger 22/45 which sees quite a lot of use I was very pleased to see the SW22 stepping into the arena ready to rumble. Great attention to detail on Smith’s part here.
But what is the thread pitch, I hear you ask? Why, 1/2×28 of course! Slap an AR-15 muzzle brake on the sucker if you’re feeling saucy.
Magazines are released with a traditional thumb button. The slide locks open on the last round fired with an easily accessed catch/release while further back is a manual thumb safety. Sorry Lefties, as far as I’m aware these guns are only set up for right handed use and none of the controls can be swapped. In fact, the right grip panel completely covers up where the mag release would have been.
Being made of solid steel with a bull barrel, the SW22 is a fairly hefty gun but this is great for staying on and returning to target. The fiber optic sights offer a clean, crisp, and precise aim with the front dot being larger than the back two. If you’re interested in a SW22 and don’t have your heart set on blacked out sights I would very highly recommend going for the fiber optic set, they’re perfect for this platform.
The safety is ever so slightly confusing on the SW22 and I one hundred percent blame the complete lack of an indicator. Safeties always have some sort of marking, usually a red mark and a white mark or a red one at the very least. Not this gun! It keeps you guessing as both positions are not marked in any shape or form. A good way to remember is to treat it like a 1911. Swipe down with your thumb when you’re ready to rock.
The standard factory trigger is quite good, having a short but sliiightly heavy initial take-up followed by another teensy bit of travel before it breaks. There’s zero over-travel, however the second stage does have just enough resistance where you could stage it if you were really careful. This might smooth out with time, the example I am reviewing has had fewer than a hundred rounds through it.
So, it’s a great gun! It’s got nice heft, it looks beautiful and somehow feels both modern and classic at the same time, the cocking serrations are nice and easy to work with a slightly angled shape to give you an easier time, the sights are ideal, it’s just a darn good solid fun gun to shoot!
Aah–not so fast! It’s me, so you know I have to find something I don’t agree with. In the SW22 it’s all about the grips. You see, this lovely front-heavy chunk of metal takes a bit more effort to keep upright. Being blunt, the factory grips are so not up to this task. The thumb shelf model provides slightly better hold but the factory grips are too darn slippery! They look better than they work. Granted the gun has almost zero recoil but you still have to hold it on target and the SW22’s weight will eventually win out.
Fortunately, there is a solution. Normally I don’t like to focus on aftermarket upgrades when reviewing the gun itself but I genuinely feel the SW22 is not complete without swapping out the grips. TandemKross has a couple of versions available but for this one the decision had been to go with the “Veloce” model from LOK Grips. Both of these companies are awesome by the way, said purely from my own experiences. The Veloce grips on an SW22 are, in my mind, perfect. Initially they can feel rather aggressive but when aiming the SW22 it’s like the gun is welded to your palm. No dipping of the barrel, no sliding around. They look good, too! As an added bonus they’re somehow contoured better than the factory grips which makes it much easier to reach the mag release. Gotta say, I’m a big fan of this upgrade.
Overall the SW22 is an enjoyable target/plinker rimfire which I would absolutely recommend with the caveats of having the factory fiber optic sights if you want to run irons and some new grips if you plan on holding the thing. The included factory Picatinny rail is great added value and the gun itself is as functional as it is good looking. It is no surprise to me why these guns have become so popular. Ruger has some serious competition coming from Smith & Wesson.
