https://youtu.be/bxnkg50usCA

A Smith & Wesson Model 41 has always been high on my “do want” list, but outside of my budget. While it may not appeal in quite the same aesthetic manner, S&W’s brand new SW22 Victory .22 LR has a heck of a lot to offer at a much more affordable price point. Putting a few rounds through it at SHOT Show 2016’s Range Day it proved to be an extremely accurate, soft shooting little pistol with an excellent trigger. Check out those hits on steel at 75 yards and the quick change barrel system in the video above, and read on for further details and photos . . .

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MSRP starts at $409 for the model seen above. Go with the threaded barrel and it’s $429.

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Volquartsen is ready to go with a handful of replacement barrels.

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Swapping them out takes just one hex wrench and maybe 90 seconds.

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It ships with the Picatinny rail seen in the photo above, which is easily installed in place of the factory fiber optic rear sight. At the rear of the rail section is a sight notch that works with the factory front.

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The front and rear fiber optic sights that come on the SW22 are excellent. I was surprised to hit my first 4 out of 5 shots on a silhouette target at 75 yards, and then followed that up with a 5-for-5 string. It made me look like a better pistol shot than I actually am.

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93 COMMENTS

  1. Yep, this going to be the hot item in 2016. My LGS already has people coming in to put deposits on the first shipments

    • Well I know I have personally been in the market for a shinier and more expensive version of a 22/45 for quite some time. I think this is just the ticket.

      /sarc

      • Maybe I’m not looking in the right place but according to Rugers website the MSRP for the 22/45 Target is $399 so basically the same price as this pistol. Also every 22/45 I could find on Rugers site with a threaded barrel was significantly more expensive then this one. So this might be shinier but I don’t believe it’s more expensive.

  2. Are these things easier to strip and reassemble than a Ruger or Walther p22? If not, I’m not interested.

    • Yes, they’re VERY easy to strip. Definitely watch the video to see that happen and also make sure to click any advertisements that pop up 😛

      • I watched it all the way through, no ads.

        And who does that smooth guitar riff in your theme music?

    • M’kay, guys. I watched the video. (In my defense, I’m a guy and we don’t like reading instructions.) You had me at captive recoil springs.

      Now, for the 64 dollar question. Will they be available in CA?

      • That’s a really good question, and made me wonder if the microstamp law applies only to centerfire pistols. (Which would make sense, but nothing about California gun law makes any sense). I’ll have to look into that….

        • Nope, the law applies to ALL semiautomatic pistols. And the technology still is not available for “a microscopic array of characters that identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol, etched or otherwise imprinted in two or more places on the interior surface or internal working parts of the pistol, and that are transferred by imprinting on each cartridge case when the firearm is fired…”

        • Actually they updated the California gun ban webpage, they are getting a half page of new models… But I kid you not, 58 PAGES of new banned “non compliant” models. All M&P’s, all Gen 3 or older Glocks, almost every 1911 you can think of are all verboten. That state is so far gone it’s terrifying.

        • Where is a good CA website for used CA guns? The best way to get around the DOJ roster restrictions ( that apply to ‘new’ guns and out of state used guns ) is to do PPT between CA residents. ( I suppose that also applies to LEO transfers). I’ve seen items for sale on Calguns, but not very often. Where do CA gun owners sell their guns? I rarely see any CA guns on auction sites. I’d love to get a Ruger Mark II, but my only chance is something used from a fellow CAian?

      • Brought one home from Cabela’s today. $360 out the door with military discount (veteran).I don’t think that these will fly in California because they do not have a Hillary lock.

    • Funny thing…

      My first firearm was a Ruger Mark III. Read the manual, had zero problems with disassembly and reassembly.

      Until I bought my second pistol, a more “mainstream” design: a CZ SP-01. After that, the Mark III is always a PITA.

      I think it’s just jealousy.

    • The Ruger SR22 is plenty easy to field strip. It isn’t a target type pistol like this (but the Walther P22 that you mentioned isn’t either).

    • It looks easier to disassemble than the Ruger but not necessarily the Walther…. My P-22 target model disassembled itself when the slide shattered and hit me in the face. It doesn’t get much “easier” than that. 😛

  3. OK, somebody got it right. In this age of bolt on accessories this should make a big splash. Easy to disassemble, easy to customize, and ripe for a whole host of 3rd party add ons or just leave it plain. All at a somewhat reasonable price. The only thing I can see that might change my mind is the grip angle. It appears to be closer to Glock angle than a 1911. I never could make that switch. Now, what it needs is some nice custom wood grips.

    • Bought mine 2 /29 for $359 plus tax…nice pistol,also have a Ruger Mark 111. The S&w grips feel a bit like 1911 grips, I will get custom grips asap.Ruger has better feel in my left hand, but S&w is much more flexible to customize…,stable to shoot, but only ran one mag through so far….btw, I shoot left handed…,Ha Ha..tomahawke

    • Altamont has very nice aftermarket wood grips. Have six pair for different handguns and am well pleased.

    • If .22 becomes plentiful again I will be comparing street values of these with a buckmark. I have the buckmark I wrote the article for already.

      • “If .22 becomes plentiful again….”

        Up until last week I hadn’t seen .22 on the shelves of the local Wal-Mart in three years. That’s because it’s on the shelves of all the local gun shops for twice the price Wal-Mart charges.

        Ever wonder why CDNN Sports, PSA, and similar vendors are slashing prices on .22 firearms? Because no one wants to buy them because they can’t find ammo or won’t pay neckbeard prices for it.

  8. My grandpa gave my Dad his old model 41. Seemingly out of the blue. I don’t think we’ve got it out more than a couple times. Was fun seeing how much he paid for it in the 80’s vs what they go for now.

    Also HOLY CRAP is that thing amazing to shoot. Seriously.

    This new gun could be interesting. I’m not sure I’m that much into .22 target shooting, though, heh. We are more plinkers than anything else.

    • Yea, most people who haven’t shot a 41 don’t understand why it owns the competitive .22 target shooting market in the US, even to this day – until they shoot one. Then they understand.

      • I’ll never ever part with my model 41. It is easily the best shooting handgun I have ever owned. Glass is jealous of how that trigger breaks.

      • “Yea, most people who haven’t shot a 41 don’t understand why it owns the competitive .22 target shooting market in the US, even to this day – until they shoot one.”

        I’m curious of your opinion on the older Hi-Standard .22lr target pistols…

        • My model 41 dates back to the 1970’s. High Standard made several grades of .22 LR semi-auto pistols at that time and the higher grade pistols were excellent in quality and accuracy. In fact after a year of failing to find a model 41 or a store that would order one for me, I tried to buy a High Standard one evening when told they didn’t have one, but would I take a model 41 instead? It was that close as to what I got.

  9. Meh. Pulling the barrel off of a Model 41 is easier. Pull down the trigger guard, tip off the barrel.

    I’d be curious to see how this groups with match ammo off a Ransom rest. Two-handed holds aren’t allowed in bullseye target shooting. My 41 is customized with target wood grips and a Clark Custom barrel.

  11. They should have called it the SW22 A-Team, because it looks like it was assembled from a collection of mismatched parts. I mean, if you met a guy at the range who showed it to you and said he made it from scratch himself, you’d be very impressed. But you’d think Smith & Wesson could make it look just a little bit less like a community college metal-shop project.

    I kinda want one, though.

    • Frankly, I have no idea what you are talking about. It’s an extremely nice looking pistol. Clean lines. Outstanding fit and finish.

  13. I will submit that the browning Medalist is a superior pistol for this class for the same money.

  15. Lol, as if .22 was a real caliber of ammunition that a person could actually buy….silly gun companies, I guess they never actually take a look at the shelves in the stores where their guns are sold.

  16. My first pistol was a SW22a that I’ve about shot to death. If I could actually find .22lr on a regular basis, I’d love to have one of these so my 22a could slip quietly into retirement

  17. I found one locally and purchased it yesterday. Every review and video I’ve seen has been overwhelmingly positive. The gun feels great in the hand, it all appears very solid. Hoping to get it to the range today.

  21. I use a Browning Buckmark with a red dot and custom grips for bullseye competition. I aspire to a Model 41 at some point when I can justify the funds. I’d like to try this one. Nice to see someone else entering this market.

  22. Blah, I liked it the last time I saw it. The S&W 22a-1 mine is a tack driver/ match igniter. Bull barrel/ oversized grip w / pic rail on top. How much are the mags? Also where did the get all the .22 ammo??? 🙂

    *** one of the reasons I got the 22a is it will cycle subsonic ammo no problem,(and 60gr possum smashers) where my 22/45 ruger would not without buying more springs and fiddling around.

    • This pistol isn’t even remotely in the same category of pistol as a Woodsman or Hi-Standard.

      If you’re buying with an idea towards building a piece of a collection, buy a Woodsman in the best possible condition, preferably with the original box and magazines.

      If you’re looking more for a shooter, trend towards the Hi-Standard, and I’d look at the pistols made in CT before 1984. If you have questions about a particular model, ask. Look for a 5.5 or 7″ barrel.

      • and when you take the grips off the Colt and it has M.C. written under it, you can retire. 🙂

    • My ’54 Woodsman Target will shoot circles around this gun. The accuracy of this gun is like buying a Porsche and getting a Kia engine put in it. Looks awesome, but it’ll leave you less than impressed performance-wise. I got this one for my kids to compete with to save the wear and tear on the Woodsman. Looks like the Victory will end up being an accessory covered toy. To be fair, I have the standard threaded bull barrel, not one of the $250 specialty upgrade barrels. An upgraded barrel model would be in the lower Woodsman price value range.

  24. “MSRP starts at $409.”
    I would have thought they’d make it $399 instead. Kinda like selling ice cream in the supermarket for $3.99 instead of $4.09 per carton. It’s just a little less revenue to the company but it sounds like a lot less money to the customer.

  25. Wow. I have a severe case of “I want” after watching the video. I have a Buckmark that I love but you can never have too many 22 pistols.

  26. So many .22s on my want list.. now another! I like the way it looks except the grip. But, that would be covered by my hand most of the time. 😉

  27. Saw it…bought it…love it. Traded my Ruger Mark II 22/45 that was having ejectile dysfunction. No regrets. Feels great in the hand and an awesome trigger. Oh yeah……no E. D.

    • Felt that exact same way. Saw it, asked to see it, handled it, saw the Brand, (great!). Price (unreal) bought it. Now a proud papa of a new arrival.

  28. I looked at one at the local shop today (A Lotus Guns branch). I was surprised they already had one. I liked it except the trigger had a whole lot of creep. Relatively smooth creep but a whole lot of it. I’m not talking about take up. Now that I think about it I don’t recall the take up, but the creep was very surprisingly long. Otherwise I was quite taken with it.

  30. Does this work with the Mcfadden bulk loader?

    That loader is the reason that I go though about 500 rounds each week with my Ruger mark III target, and my 22/45 Lite.

    If yes, then a threaded version is definitely on the top of my list.

  31. Saw one, Held one, Shot one & Bought one. This thing eats anything I feed it with no
    FTE’s or FTF’s & is more accurate with crap ammo than my Ruger’s with match ammo.
    I like it a lot!!!! Thanks S&W 🙂

  32. I was lucky and found one at a local gun shop. I love the ease of breakdown. I own a ruger mark iii. Breaking it down, cleaning and reassembly is at least a 4-6 hour project for me. ThE Victory gun is one screw out and it comes apart. As easy as field stripping a glock. And the accuracy is fabulous, probably as good or a litte bit better than my mark iii. My eyes are old and I put a vortex venom red dot on it before I took my first shot. I also had a red dot on my markiii. The provided fiber optics sight look like they are of high quality, I just know for me the red dot works better.

  33. I want one with the carbon fiber barrel. But I also want a set of carbon fiber grips to match the barrel. That would look amazing. Maybe a carbon fiber Picatinny rail as well! Let’s see… I also need a matching holster, and a matching carry case for extra magazines and … well, you get the idea. These are going to be great sellers.

  34. Just got mine today. It was $369 with non-threaded barrel plus tax. Now to get the carbon fiber barrel. Does anybody know of any good carry gear for it?

    • Although it won’t be a “carry” gun for me, I was wondering if any of the Cordura holsters for the Ruger might fit it well enough for wandering around in the woods.

  35. I bought one about the end of February. Unfortunately, I didn’t inspect the bore before I brought it home.

    I’ve never seen a worse-looking bore in my life. I sent it in to S&W, and they received it a little over two weeks ago. No word from them yet, but I’m hoping they are able to produce a better barrel and send it back. I’m anxious to try it out.

    Another guy I know looked at two of them at a gun show, and said the bores looked something like reptile scales.

    If they get their act together with regard to the rifling process, I think these will be very fun, and very popular.

    The easy take-down, in-the-box sight rail, availability of aftermarket barrels, etc., should really push sales.

    Reports from a number of people are also that the gun stays amazingly clean, which is interesting and encouraging.

    But there are also a lot of reports of the shell casings being quite bulged at the area of the feedramp. S&W has told those who’ve asked that this is normal and nothing to worry about. I hope so! I’ve never had a .22 that bulged the cases.

  36. I bought one of these last week. 4 failure to extracts in the first 100 rounds using Remington Golden Sabers. Sight out of the box was off. Way off. Like 4″ up and 3″ right at 20 yards off. Elevation and windage are adjustable on the rear sight, but who wants to start a new relationship with that much work? It’s beautiful to look at and feels wonderful in the hand, very light trigger, easy to shoot, but after 150 rounds and 20+ sight clicks back and forth, I’m hitting open sight patterns of 2-3″ at 10 yards (I quit trying for 20 yards. Too ambitious apparently for a bullet with a mile range.) while using a table and rest. If your goal is to knock over cans and scare birds away, you’ll look great doing it. Don’t bet any money on your shots though.

    I bought this gun for my kids to use in competition. At $400 after tax, I figured they’d at least be competitive. Can’t have FTEs in speed shooting, can’t have 2-3″ patterns for accuracy. I mean, I can drop another $250 on a Volzquartsen 7″ barrel, but I could get a decent Woodsman for that price range and shoot circles around this gun. Guess I’ll try to trade it in as down payment on a Buckmark. All those paid reviewers hyped the heck out of this gun. Sigh. So disappointed.

    • I agree with Ryan. I bought one a few weeks ago—already traded the piece of junk off for good gun–a M & P shield 9mm. The Victory could not be sighted in. It was all over the paper. Very disappointed in it. My next .22 will be a Ruger.

      • Having hell of a good time with mine. Acquired a Tactical red/green dot sometime ago, decided to use it on this to help me focus. It sure shows how much l tremble. Even resting on something l jiggle. Shooting paper plates at 25 yds. I spread out 4-5 in. Mags are easy to load, gun is fun to run. Will try working with small weights to strengthen my wrists, forearms to calm the movement.

  37. I purchased my S@W Victory 22 from Gallery of Guns 2 weeks ago. I first cleaned it before going to my range. A good practice. I just returned from my 2nd trip to the range with te Victory 22. I will compare this to 2 target pistols that I like. The Ruger Mark series and the Browning Buckmark Camper. Both excellent pistols, but not the easiest to breakdown and clean. This Victory 22 is incredible. Everything is high quality, good looking, incredibly accurate, and with loosening 1 screw very easy to breakdown and clean. I still very much like my Rugers and Buckmarks; but, this new S&W Victory 22 is everything, plus better accuracy and easy to breakdown and clean. I highly recommend adding this excellent pistol to your collection. You will be quickly pleased!

  38. I don’t understand all the “designed for third-party add-ons” comments in reviews. According to the manual using any non-S&W parts voids the warranty.
    Not the I really care, since I ought mine second hand and that also voids the warranty.

  39. Just a word of caution to folks. Couldn’t wait to get my hands on one of these. It looks like a Buckmark and a MkIII got together and had a kid. And it lived up to all the expectations….except one. The part about how easy it is to take the gun down with the removal of a single screw. This is indeed true….IF YOU CAN GET THE SCREW OUT. My new Victory is sitting on a bench somewhere at S&W, to have the screw removed. I broke the hex wrench that came with the gun for that purpose. Snapped it clean off. Not the screw. The wrench. I bent another hex wrench until it looked like paper clip. And the shank on my t-wrench now has a twist in it. Nothing would budge that screw. I soaked it overnight in WD40. No joy. I heated the screw as hot as I dared. Nothing.

    According to S&W, I’m not the first one with this problem. Apparently there were complaints that early guns would have the the screw come loose on it’s own while firing. So it appears they solved the problem by setting the screws with a jack hammer. Welding perhaps? Either way, there’s NO danger that screw would ever come loose. The problem is, it’s supposed to.

    • Mine works just fine. I fear over tightening it tho. When u get this shooter back l’m certain u r going to be pleased. I surely sympathize. Brand new gat and all that anticipation and gotta ship it back and now wait and wait. Damn. This is hell of a nice piece and once returned to u will give plenty of rewarding times at the range.

    • Got it back today, with a brand new take down screw installed. It was kind of comical actually. Because when I went to check the screw, it hadn’t even been tightened. It was barely snug. I guess, after my experience, they decided to leave tightening it to me.

      And yes, I’m expecting a lot of good times with this gun. Now that I can actually take it down that is. There is a lot to like about this gun, and very little to not like.

      I guess the only real disappointment is that it can’t be dry fired. I’m a firm believer in “practice makes perfect”. And dry firing drills can go a long way in developing handling and trigger skills. And the simple fact is there is no excuse for a gun to be damaged by dry firing in this day and age. Many new .22 guns today have stops designed in the firing pin to prevent it from impacting the breach face and damaging it. But even on some of these, repeated dry firing can deform or even break the firing pin. But it CAN be done right. You can dry fire a Beretta Neos all day, every day. Not only is the firing pin restrained from hitting the breach face, but it’s solid and robust enough to be dry fired endless times with no damage whatsoever.

      • I just bought the SW22 Victory and tried to field strip it as described in the owners manual. I couldn’t get the hex screw out. No luck with WD-40 either. I ended up turning two hex wrenches into small candy canes and the screw never came out. I sent their customer service an email and am waiting to hear back from them.

        • You might want to try a hex bit and a socket wrench. Worked with mine after twisting up one hex wrench and stripping another. Bought a set of small impact bits.
          I’ve heard of others that were even tighter.

    • I used a skill drill adaptor with a 1/8 inch Allen bit. Inserted in 18 volt drill. Reverse direction, started at 8 setting, finally had to go to 20 setting before it broke lose. No damage to screw. Going to try rubber o ring or Vc-3 thread lock for reassemble.

  40. I like this pistol but I couldn’t get the screw loose with the hex wrench provided. Smith said to send it in, that a lot of them were overtorqued before they left factory. So I’m without a gun for a month unless I can free up the screw. Bummer.

  41. I won one of these victory pistols in a gun of the month give away at my local gun shop. Having owned and shot Mark I, II, and III’ s over the years and hating the disassembly procedure, I was really excited to pick up and shoot my new S&W pistol.

    The take down screw was fused in place and impossible to remove until I remembered a trick that I used on a cross threaded bolt once or twice. Place the long arm of the Allen wrench into the Hex bolt and duct tape it to the barrel to hold it in place. Then lock a set of vice grips on the short arm of the Allen wrench. Brace the pistol on a couch cushion with one hand and with the other hand push the vise-grips in a downward twisting motion (counterclockwise) toward the floor using body weight and gravity as an aid. Apply even pressure on the Allen wrench so it bends like a pretzel but does not break. And you will hear a loud crack when it breaks free.
    This has worked for me multiple times when a screw or bolt was stuck.
    Best of luck I really love my pistol now.

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