10 Best .22 LR Pistols Ranked: Which Ones Run Best?

same money, 10 times the trigger time. That’s the entire reason 22 pistols are selling like crazy right now. And almost nobody says it out loud. Everybody wants to talk about optic cuts and 20 round magazines. Fine. But here’s the part that actually decides whether you like your rimfire or you sell it in 6 months.

Bulk ammo. Cheap. 22 is dirty. It’s inconsistent. And the rim thickness varies from round to round. A 22 pistol that only runs on the expensive stuff isn’t saving you anything. So, I ranked these 10 by one question. How forgiving is the feed? Some of these guns you already love are going to land lower than you expect.

Tell me in the comments what bulk ammo your gun actually eats because that data helps everybody watching. Let’s go. Number 10, Walther P22Q. Starting with the one that gets dismissed the most, and honestly, some of that is earned. The P22Q runs a 3.42 in barrel, about 6.3 in overall, roughly 16 o, 10 rounds, and a double-action single-action trigger. It’s tiny.

That’s the whole appeal. Here’s my take. The P22Q was the gun that convinced the industry a rimfire could look like a duty pistol instead of a target gun. And the entire polymer trainer category is standing on that. Credit where it’s due. But that short slide and light recoil spring mean it’s the pickiest gun on this list about ammo.

Feed it bargain bin stuff and it’ll tell you about it. Feed it decent high velocity, keep it clean, and it’s a genuinely fun little pistol. Last place isn’t an insult, it’s a warning about expectations. Number nine, Kel-Tech CP33. Now, the weirdest gun on the list, and I mean that as a compliment. 33 rounds in a pistol, a 5.

5 in threaded barrel, about 10 1/2 in overall, roughly a 9 in sight radius, a rail on top, and a trigger around 4 lb. Kel-Tech’s own manual specifically calls for high velocity ammo. Read that last part again because it’s the whole story. This gun is spectacular when it’s fed correctly and frustrating when it isn’t. 33 rounds means you stop shooting little five shot groups and start shooting actual sequences on steel.

Nothing else here does that. But under my bulk ammo rule, a gun that names its diet in the owner’s manual can’t rank higher. If you buy one, buy the good ammo. Budget for it upfront. Number eight, Retay RXP22. Small company, genuinely smart gun, and hardly anybody’s talking about it. The RXP22 is hammer fired, traditional double-action with a thumb safety, a 4-in barrel with threaded options, and it’s around 7 1/2 in long at roughly 24 o.

The slide takes both RMR and RMSC optic plates, and Retay offers 10, 13, and 18 round magazines. Two things stand out to me. First, the weighted magazine. Somebody on that design team actually cared what a reload feels like, and that’s a detail you only add if you shoot. Second, dual optic footprints. You pick the dot you already own instead of buying one to match the gun.

It’s dense in the hand. It’s calm and it feels like a real pistol shrunk down rather than a toy scaled up. The catch is parts and aftermarket support, which is thin compared to the big names. Buy it because you like it, not because you plan to modify it. Number seven, Smith and Wesson M&P 22X. Here’s where I’m going to lose some of you.

Spec-wise, this thing is loaded. A 4.1 in stainless barrel with an Armanite finish, 20 round magazines, two of them, an optic ready aluminum slide, an internal hammer with a flatface trigger, and a halfx 28 thread adapter in the box. It’s 7.25 in long and about 16.3 O. That is a lot of gun for the money.

And if you carry an M&P, the controls transfer over cleanly. No argument. So why seventh? Because it’s still a light reciprocating slide feeding rimmed cartridges. And that’s the hardest job in this whole category. It’s a solid performer, but it isn’t doing anything structurally different from the other polymer trainers here. It’s the best equipped gun in a crowded lane. Not a gun that escaped the lane.

Come fight me about it. I’ll be reading. Number six, Taurus TX22 Gen 2 Toro. The value king, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Polymer frame, aluminum slide, about 17.3 O, roughly 7 in overall, a threaded barrel, just over 4 in, 22 rounds in the mag with a 16 rounder also included. Single action, and the Shield RMSC footprint cuts straight into the slide.

22 rounds for this price is absurd and Taurus deserves the sales it’s getting where I’ll push back on the internet consensus. The TX22 built its reputation on running everything and Gen 2 owners report the same thing. That’s real. But this gun rewards cleaning more than most people admit. Let carbon build up past a few hundred rounds and the light slide starts getting lazy.

Clean it every range trip and it’s arguably the best dollar per round gun made. That’s the deal. Number five, Sig Sauer P322. 20 + 1, a 4-in barrel, about 7 in overall, and a Romeo Zero that mounts directly with no plate. Reviewers have measured the trigger around 3.3 lb. That trigger is the reason it’s here. It’s the best press of any polymer rim fire on this list, and it isn’t close.

Flat face, clean brake, and it makes your dot work look better than it is. The P322 also had a well publicized rocky start with a safety recall early in its life, and SIG addressed it. I’d rather tell you that than pretend it didn’t happen. Current guns are running. What it proved is that ambi controls, tall sights, and native optic mounting weren’t premium features in rimfire.

They were the baseline. Everything after this had to match it. Now, we leave the slide guns entirely, and the rankings change fast. Number four, Browning Buckmark Plus Vision fixed barrel. That’s the switch flipping. In the suppressor ready vision trim, Browning lists a 5.9 in barrel, 9.

9 in overall, 27 oz, 10 rounds, and an 8.25 in sight radius, alloy shroud, adjustable sights, and that gold trigger everybody describes the same way. Short and clean. Here’s why fixed barrel matters for my whole argument. The barrel never moves relative to your sights. and the feed path stays consistent shot to shot. You get fewer of those weird bulk ammo hiccups that come from a barrel and slide unlocking together.

That long sight radius is almost unfair. The front sight just stops drifting and your groups tighten without you doing anything smarter. The trade-off is honest. 10 rounds and no carry gun mimicry. This is a marksmanship tool. Judge it that way. Number three, Smith and Wesson SW22 Victory. The quiet one that outlives trends.

Stainless frame, blowback action, a 5.5 inch match barrel, 10 rounds, about 36 ounces on the target model, and a barrel you can swap with one screw. Independent testers keep measuring the trigger around 3 12 lb. The reference numbers you’ll see quoted online are often lighter than what shows up on an actual gauge. That weight is the secret.

36 o of stainless soaks up everything. and slow steel work with this gun feels almost mechanical. But the real reason it ranks this high is the aftermarket. Barrels, triggers, sights, grips. The ecosystem is enormous, and ecosystems only grow around guns that owners trust. Nobody builds parts for a platform that lets them down.

If you want 122 that’ll still be relevant in 15 years, this is a very hard pick to argue with. Number two, Ruger MarkV 2245 Elite. Ruger lists a 4.4 in threaded barrel, halfx 28, 8.4 in overall, 25 oz, aluminum receiver, polymer 2245 grip frame, 10 + 1, adjustable rear sight, and a factory Pikatin rail. But the number that matters isn’t on the spec sheet.

It’s the internal bolt riding inside a fixed receiver with the barrel locked solid. Your dot and your barrel are permanently on speaking terms. Nothing up top is throwing itself back and forth under your optic. That architecture is why Mark series guns have a reputation for eating whatever’s cheap.

60 plus years of refinement on a design that was already right. And the one button takedown fixed the only real complaint anyone had. If you learned to reassemble an old Mark III, you know exactly what I mean. And you probably still have feelings about it. Light, quiet with a can, dead reliable. Only one gun edges it out.

Number one, Beretta B22 Jaguar Tac Metal. This is Beretta looking at the entire polymer trainer arms race and going a completely different direction. The specs, a 5.25 in barrel threaded half by 28, 8.85 in overall, 33.6 6 O empty, a 7-in sight radius, two 15 round magazines, a fulllength 1913 rail, and toolless takedown.

Blowback operation with a concealed hammer and a bolt cycling inside the upper receiver instead of a big slide flying around. Here’s why it takes the top spot on my list. It’s the only gun here that gets the old school fixed barrel feed geometry and modern ergonomics and real capacity and a top rail all in one package.

Everybody else picked two or three of those. Beretta took all four. 33 ounces of metal means recoil basically disappears. So you can actually watch your dot instead of guessing where it went. And the feed angle into a fixed chamber is the single most forgiving setup for cheap rimfire ammo you can buy right now at around $749. Is it heavy? Yes.

Does it feel like your carry gun? No, it’s not trying to. So, here’s the pattern once you line all 10 up. The polymer guns win on familiarity. The fixed barrel guns win on reliability. And which one belongs in your safe depends entirely on whether you’re buying a training tool or a shooting tool. Those are two different purchases.

And half the arguments online happen because people don’t say which one they’re making. If you want reps that transfer to your carry gun, get a P322 or a TX22 and budget for cleaning. If you want a pistol that just runs and runs on whatever brick is on sale, get the Beretta, the Ruger, or the Victory. Two questions for the comments.

Which gun on this list do you think I ranked way too low? And what’s the cheapest 22 ammo your pistol actually digests without a single stoppage? That second one is genuinely useful, so be specific about the brand. If you want more of these where the ranking is based on something other than the spec sheet, subscribe.

Next up, I’m doing the 22 rifles, and one very famous name is not going to enjoy where it lands.

10 Best .22 LR Pistols Ranked: Which Ones Run Best?

same money, 10 times the trigger time. That’s the entire reason 22 pistols are selling like crazy right now. And almost nobody says it out loud. Everybody wants to talk about optic cuts and 20 round magazines. Fine. But here’s the part that actually decides whether you like your rimfire or you sell it in 6 months.

Bulk ammo. Cheap. 22 is dirty. It’s inconsistent. And the rim thickness varies from round to round. A 22 pistol that only runs on the expensive stuff isn’t saving you anything. So, I ranked these 10 by one question. How forgiving is the feed? Some of these guns you already love are going to land lower than you expect.

Tell me in the comments what bulk ammo your gun actually eats because that data helps everybody watching. Let’s go. Number 10, Walther P22Q. Starting with the one that gets dismissed the most, and honestly, some of that is earned. The P22Q runs a 3.42 in barrel, about 6.3 in overall, roughly 16 o, 10 rounds, and a double-action single-action trigger. It’s tiny.

That’s the whole appeal. Here’s my take. The P22Q was the gun that convinced the industry a rimfire could look like a duty pistol instead of a target gun. And the entire polymer trainer category is standing on that. Credit where it’s due. But that short slide and light recoil spring mean it’s the pickiest gun on this list about ammo.

Feed it bargain bin stuff and it’ll tell you about it. Feed it decent high velocity, keep it clean, and it’s a genuinely fun little pistol. Last place isn’t an insult, it’s a warning about expectations. Number nine, Kel-Tech CP33. Now, the weirdest gun on the list, and I mean that as a compliment. 33 rounds in a pistol, a 5.

5 in threaded barrel, about 10 1/2 in overall, roughly a 9 in sight radius, a rail on top, and a trigger around 4 lb. Kel-Tech’s own manual specifically calls for high velocity ammo. Read that last part again because it’s the whole story. This gun is spectacular when it’s fed correctly and frustrating when it isn’t. 33 rounds means you stop shooting little five shot groups and start shooting actual sequences on steel.

Nothing else here does that. But under my bulk ammo rule, a gun that names its diet in the owner’s manual can’t rank higher. If you buy one, buy the good ammo. Budget for it upfront. Number eight, Retay RXP22. Small company, genuinely smart gun, and hardly anybody’s talking about it. The RXP22 is hammer fired, traditional double-action with a thumb safety, a 4-in barrel with threaded options, and it’s around 7 1/2 in long at roughly 24 o.

The slide takes both RMR and RMSC optic plates, and Retay offers 10, 13, and 18 round magazines. Two things stand out to me. First, the weighted magazine. Somebody on that design team actually cared what a reload feels like, and that’s a detail you only add if you shoot. Second, dual optic footprints. You pick the dot you already own instead of buying one to match the gun.

It’s dense in the hand. It’s calm and it feels like a real pistol shrunk down rather than a toy scaled up. The catch is parts and aftermarket support, which is thin compared to the big names. Buy it because you like it, not because you plan to modify it. Number seven, Smith and Wesson M&P 22X. Here’s where I’m going to lose some of you.

Spec-wise, this thing is loaded. A 4.1 in stainless barrel with an Armanite finish, 20 round magazines, two of them, an optic ready aluminum slide, an internal hammer with a flatface trigger, and a halfx 28 thread adapter in the box. It’s 7.25 in long and about 16.3 O. That is a lot of gun for the money.

And if you carry an M&P, the controls transfer over cleanly. No argument. So why seventh? Because it’s still a light reciprocating slide feeding rimmed cartridges. And that’s the hardest job in this whole category. It’s a solid performer, but it isn’t doing anything structurally different from the other polymer trainers here. It’s the best equipped gun in a crowded lane. Not a gun that escaped the lane.

Come fight me about it. I’ll be reading. Number six, Taurus TX22 Gen 2 Toro. The value king, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Polymer frame, aluminum slide, about 17.3 O, roughly 7 in overall, a threaded barrel, just over 4 in, 22 rounds in the mag with a 16 rounder also included. Single action, and the Shield RMSC footprint cuts straight into the slide.

22 rounds for this price is absurd and Taurus deserves the sales it’s getting where I’ll push back on the internet consensus. The TX22 built its reputation on running everything and Gen 2 owners report the same thing. That’s real. But this gun rewards cleaning more than most people admit. Let carbon build up past a few hundred rounds and the light slide starts getting lazy.

Clean it every range trip and it’s arguably the best dollar per round gun made. That’s the deal. Number five, Sig Sauer P322. 20 + 1, a 4-in barrel, about 7 in overall, and a Romeo Zero that mounts directly with no plate. Reviewers have measured the trigger around 3.3 lb. That trigger is the reason it’s here. It’s the best press of any polymer rim fire on this list, and it isn’t close.

Flat face, clean brake, and it makes your dot work look better than it is. The P322 also had a well publicized rocky start with a safety recall early in its life, and SIG addressed it. I’d rather tell you that than pretend it didn’t happen. Current guns are running. What it proved is that ambi controls, tall sights, and native optic mounting weren’t premium features in rimfire.

They were the baseline. Everything after this had to match it. Now, we leave the slide guns entirely, and the rankings change fast. Number four, Browning Buckmark Plus Vision fixed barrel. That’s the switch flipping. In the suppressor ready vision trim, Browning lists a 5.9 in barrel, 9.

9 in overall, 27 oz, 10 rounds, and an 8.25 in sight radius, alloy shroud, adjustable sights, and that gold trigger everybody describes the same way. Short and clean. Here’s why fixed barrel matters for my whole argument. The barrel never moves relative to your sights. and the feed path stays consistent shot to shot. You get fewer of those weird bulk ammo hiccups that come from a barrel and slide unlocking together.

That long sight radius is almost unfair. The front sight just stops drifting and your groups tighten without you doing anything smarter. The trade-off is honest. 10 rounds and no carry gun mimicry. This is a marksmanship tool. Judge it that way. Number three, Smith and Wesson SW22 Victory. The quiet one that outlives trends.

Stainless frame, blowback action, a 5.5 inch match barrel, 10 rounds, about 36 ounces on the target model, and a barrel you can swap with one screw. Independent testers keep measuring the trigger around 3 12 lb. The reference numbers you’ll see quoted online are often lighter than what shows up on an actual gauge. That weight is the secret.

36 o of stainless soaks up everything. and slow steel work with this gun feels almost mechanical. But the real reason it ranks this high is the aftermarket. Barrels, triggers, sights, grips. The ecosystem is enormous, and ecosystems only grow around guns that owners trust. Nobody builds parts for a platform that lets them down.

If you want 122 that’ll still be relevant in 15 years, this is a very hard pick to argue with. Number two, Ruger MarkV 2245 Elite. Ruger lists a 4.4 in threaded barrel, halfx 28, 8.4 in overall, 25 oz, aluminum receiver, polymer 2245 grip frame, 10 + 1, adjustable rear sight, and a factory Pikatin rail. But the number that matters isn’t on the spec sheet.

It’s the internal bolt riding inside a fixed receiver with the barrel locked solid. Your dot and your barrel are permanently on speaking terms. Nothing up top is throwing itself back and forth under your optic. That architecture is why Mark series guns have a reputation for eating whatever’s cheap.

60 plus years of refinement on a design that was already right. And the one button takedown fixed the only real complaint anyone had. If you learned to reassemble an old Mark III, you know exactly what I mean. And you probably still have feelings about it. Light, quiet with a can, dead reliable. Only one gun edges it out.

Number one, Beretta B22 Jaguar Tac Metal. This is Beretta looking at the entire polymer trainer arms race and going a completely different direction. The specs, a 5.25 in barrel threaded half by 28, 8.85 in overall, 33.6 6 O empty, a 7-in sight radius, two 15 round magazines, a fulllength 1913 rail, and toolless takedown.

Blowback operation with a concealed hammer and a bolt cycling inside the upper receiver instead of a big slide flying around. Here’s why it takes the top spot on my list. It’s the only gun here that gets the old school fixed barrel feed geometry and modern ergonomics and real capacity and a top rail all in one package.

Everybody else picked two or three of those. Beretta took all four. 33 ounces of metal means recoil basically disappears. So you can actually watch your dot instead of guessing where it went. And the feed angle into a fixed chamber is the single most forgiving setup for cheap rimfire ammo you can buy right now at around $749. Is it heavy? Yes.

Does it feel like your carry gun? No, it’s not trying to. So, here’s the pattern once you line all 10 up. The polymer guns win on familiarity. The fixed barrel guns win on reliability. And which one belongs in your safe depends entirely on whether you’re buying a training tool or a shooting tool. Those are two different purchases.

And half the arguments online happen because people don’t say which one they’re making. If you want reps that transfer to your carry gun, get a P322 or a TX22 and budget for cleaning. If you want a pistol that just runs and runs on whatever brick is on sale, get the Beretta, the Ruger, or the Victory. Two questions for the comments.

Which gun on this list do you think I ranked way too low? And what’s the cheapest 22 ammo your pistol actually digests without a single stoppage? That second one is genuinely useful, so be specific about the brand. If you want more of these where the ranking is based on something other than the spec sheet, subscribe.

Next up, I’m doing the 22 rifles, and one very famous name is not going to enjoy where it lands.