[ShooterGranny]

I enjoy my S&W .22 compacts, but I enjoy my Browning 1911-22 even more, and no one has posted a picture of that one yet, so here it is - this is the "full size" model, which is 85% the size of a full size regular 1911.

There is very little support for these guns, but a very nice friend made me a wonderful custom leather "hang from the belt" and curved to my body holster for range use. It is the ideal combination!

I would like to see and handle one of those Keltec's. For a couple bucks that could be a fun addition to my group, if my hands think it will be fun. They are picky about fit and trigger pull, not to mention guns pointing naturally. I've eliminated every other .22 on the market that I know of and I can not shoot revolvers anymore, so that eliminates all of those.

OH YEAH - I also bought a Mark IV Light but wound up hating it for a lot of reasons so it is now hubby's fun, fun, fun gun. It ONLY likes CCI mini mags.

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ETA: I did find a Keltec P17 in a local store. I bought it. Then I bought another one. For a very few bucks, they are FUN range toys. Said with a smile because they do look like toys - but they shoot "for real!"

 

[ShooterGranny]

Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, hubby and I made the rounds of the Local Gun Stores. One actually had two Keltec P17's in stock - one in the case and one in the box from the manufacturer. They were both OD green which I think is about the nastiest thing you can do to a gun, but the gun fits my hands well and the trigger pull was not bad other than a BIG LOUD CLICK at the reset point, and if you insert an empty mag, the slide locks itself back when you pull it. The slide is not all that bad to rack back even without an empty magazine. For my weak hands and arms, it is a challenge, but doable. My solution is to lock the slide back while I still have one empty magazine. Ta da.

So I now own a truly ugly OD Green gun. It shoots well, or it will after I finally get used to the clickiness of the trigger and the fact that the bright fiber optic front sight makes a major challenge for me to line up the tops of the sights correctly. And the owners manual is very specific about how you have to load the mags IF you want the gun to work.

So far, two sessions: One shooting 30 rounds and one session shooting 60 rounds. I'm doing it in steps to see how many rounds I can shoot before it gets really dirty. The inside of the barrel collects more crud, faster, than my other .22's do. Only one failure, and that was a round trying to get into the chamber but getting stuck. I'm sure that was a magazine loading issue.

Will I continue to use this gun as a range toy? Sure. Would I buy this gun again? No. But I'm probably spoiled by the better quality ones I have. OOPS - I spoke too soon. I did buy another one - in black - because that green one is SOooooo ugly. It still looks like a toy but at lest it is a black toy-looking gun. LOL AND since there are no magazines available, the quickest way to get my "usual" six mags was to just buy another gun. (Limp excuse, right?) They are fun to shoot!