The Smith & Wesson M&P 22X is one of the newest entries in the increasingly crowded .22 trainer pistol category, but it’s made a very strong first impression. In this installment of Project Rimfire, we take a closer look at the 22X’s features, accuracy, ergonomics, and overall shootability. Along the way, we also compare it to the older M&P 22 Compact and talk about what makes a good rimfire trainer in the first place.
Details are in the video below, or keep scrolling to read the full transcript.
Hey everybody, I am Chris Baker from Lucky Gunner and today we’re looking at the Smith & Wesson M&P 22X.
Oh. My. Goodness. It’s another installment of Project Rimfire where I am reviewing a ridiculous number of handguns all chambered for .22 LR. We’re looking at a few highlights from the trainer pistol category – our largest category in this series.
A Modern .22 Trainer
The 22X was released last summer making it the newest pistol in this category. It has all the features we’ve come to expect from trainer-style .22s from the last few years: double stack mags, threaded barrel, and optic-ready slide.
The 22X is not exactly patterned after any specific centerfire M&P pistol. It’s like a scaled-down version of the M&P 5.7 and .22 Mag pistols. Similar proportions. The barrel is shorter as well as the grip from front to back. The grip shape is really unlike any other Smith & Wesson pistol. But aside from that, the controls and the overall feel of the 22X should be familiar to dedicated M&P users. It’s got the same grip texture you’re used to. Ambi manual safety and slide stop, and a reversible mag release.
Another Rimfire M&P?
This is not the first .22 LR pistol in the M&P series. In 2011, they released the full size M&P 22 that was actually designed and produced by Walther/Umarex. Opinions have been very mixed on that one and it was eventually discontinued a few years ago. In 2013, Smith released the M&P 22 Compact. It’s a completely different design that Smith makes in-house. It’s still in production and overall seems to have a better reputation than the full size.
I bought one of the very early M&P 22 Compacts. It’s been a great pistol. Probably the most reliable .22 handgun I’ve owned. So I was happy to see that the 22X looks very similar design-wise. And it’s really not much bigger, either. If the 22X runs like the 22 Compact but with optics and double the mag capacity, I could be a big fan.
M&P 22X Features
So let’s take a closer look at the basics. The 22X weighs 16.3 ounces empty, 20.2 ounces loaded. The standard mags have a 20-round capacity. They are all-polymer and stick out about a half inch from the bottom of the frame. The 4.1-inch barrel is threaded and comes with a 1/2×28 thread extender for suppressors.
The front sight is a green fiber optic and it comes with a few extra rods of different colors. The rear sight is adjustable for windage but not elevation. There’s a screw you can access from the bottom of the slide to loosen the sight and adjust it left or right. Or you can remove the screw entirely and the sight comes right off along with this cover so you can direct-mount optics with an RMSc footprint.
I did most of my shooting with the 22X with a Gideon Judge red dot optic mounted. Huge thanks to Gideon for providing all the optics we’re using in Project Rimfire. The Judge is not bad for this size optic, but long-term, for a non-carry gun, I’d probably go with something like the Judge XL, which has a full size optic window with the same compact footprint. There are also some third party adapter plates available for the 22X if you want to mount a larger format optic.
The manual safety is kind of a low-profile design. Personally, I prefer the wider safety levers you can rest your thumb on like on the 22 Compact and the duty-size M&Ps. But this is not bad. It has a positive “click” and it’s easy to flip on and off. It’s far more usable than the little safety nub on the Shield and Bodyguard 2.0.
Like most pistols in this category, the 22X is single action only with an internal hammer. The trigger itself looks like the striker-fired M&Ps, but it definitely has more of a single action feel. There’s some takeup and then a crisp break I measured at about 3.5 pounds. That’s a couple of pounds lighter than a centerfire M&P but heavier than a target .22 trigger.
MSRP is $499. We paid $430 plus tax for this one. It’s not the most expensive .22 trainer, but it’s at the higher end of the range. Does it offer premium performance to go with the price tag?
Accuracy
Let’s start with accuracy. From a bench rest at 25 yards, I got an average 5-shot group size of 2.2 inches across all ammo types. It shot Eley Tenex the best with a 1.6-inch average.
That’s not going to beat the typical target-style .22, but it’s a little better than average for the trainer category.
Reliability
What I found a lot more impressive was reliability. With CCI Standard Velocity, I got one failure to fire toward the end of my first 100 rounds. I fired another 200 rounds with no other issues, half of that suppressed. Most of these trainer pistols run a little better with CCI Mini Mags. So I decided I would shoot those until I ran into a stoppage of some kind. After 600 trouble-free rounds, there was enough fouling in the barrel that the bullets started keyholing, but the gun was still running. I cleaned the barrel, fired another 200 rounds. Then I had to go home for dinner, so I stopped at 800.
That’s a combined total of 1000 consecutive rounds without a malfunction. That’s about as reliable as you’re going to get with a rimfire pistol.
Shootability
I’m probably not going to put that many rounds through every gun in this category, but it was easy to do with the 22X for a couple of reasons. First, the magazines are super easy to load to full capacity. They have studs on both sides of the follower, so you just push it down and drop the rounds in. The last round can be a little tight when the mags are new, but it’s not too bad. This might seem like a small thing, but I’ve been shooting a whole lot of 22s lately, and the magazine design is a major part of whether it’s fun or feels like a chore.
The other thing that made it easy are the overall controls and ergonomics. The trigger is nice, the slide stop, mag release, and safety lever are all easy to reach and right where they’re supposed to be. The grip shape is a little unusual. It feels kind of square. I like the texture, but I prefer the slimmer grip of the 22 Compact. But what I think they’ve done here is make a grip that can fit a double stack magazine but still has a small enough overall circumference to work for people with small hands.
That’s really important for pistols in this category. A lot of shooters are using trainer 22s to introduce their friends and family members to handguns. They need to be user-friendly for a wide range of people and ideally, they should look and feel as close as possible to the centerfire pistols that they might move on to later. The M&P 22X does this very well. I think it’s a worthy successor to the 22 Compact and it has just about everything I would personally look for in a modern 22 trainer.
Is it Worth It?
But it’s not the only gun in this category that is both reliable and user-friendly. Is the 22X objectively better than other trainer 22s that cost less? I can’t tell you because I honestly don’t know yet — I need to do a lot more shooting with these guns. I will have an answer for you by the time we get to our big 22 trainer pistol roundup comparison video in a few weeks.
But we’re not quite ready for that yet. Next time, we’re looking at the rimfire trainer the Internet can’t shut up about: the Taurus TX-22. Make sure you are subscribed to our channel so you don’t miss it and next time you need some ammo, be sure to get it from us with lightning fast shipping at Lucky Gunner.
