New Smith & Wesson M&P 22X 22 LR Gun Review

The Smith & Wesson M&P 22X. Let’s check it out. (Available Here)

 

Today we’re going to take a look at the Smith & Wesson M&P 22X. This goes along their Shield series, their Equalizer, but yet it is an incredibly lightweight handgun in .22 long rifle. Polymer frame, has an aluminum slide, but the big deal with this is it has a 20 round magazine, and with .22, traditionally it’s been 10 rounds. Now we’ve seen a couple of other offerings, and we’ll take a look at those, do a little comparison, but it’s great to have a .22 pistol that has that higher round capacity, and yet in a full size.

And with the fixed barrel, it’s going to be really accurate. So we’re going to check it out, take it down to the range, and see what the 22X is all about. Now a big thank you to Smith & Wesson for sending the M&P 22X for this review.

They’re sending this one for me to keep, but it’s not going to change things. I’m going to tell you what I find. All right guys, we have the Smith & Wesson M&P 22X.

.22 long rifle, has a 20 plus one mag capacity. Now there’s a couple of others, I think Taurus and SIG, they’ve come out with some options as well. But this gives you double the round capacity of your standard 10 plus one that we’ve seen for years.

And the big problem is the rim on the .22 long rifle, and it just doesn’t stack as well. It wants to kind of stack around, and it makes it a little more difficult. But with the new magazine designs they’re coming out with, it makes it a very reliable option.

And man, it gives you a solid full grip on the handgun. So let’s go ahead and make sure the gun’s unloaded. We’re going to drop our magazine.

It does have that extended base plate. They do offer a 10 round magazine as well for states that aren’t so free. And check the chamber, and it’s empty.

But you also get two magazines with the handgun. Now these are polymer magazines, and these do have the little helper here, the little catch to be able to pull this down. So that makes it super easy to load.

I mean, you’re loading 20 rounds of .22, it’s going to get really tight. So this gives you that option. And we’ve seen that on a lot of others.

But it seems to be a pretty sturdy magazine. If it’s .22 long rifle, I’m not so worried about the polymer. With regular centerfire handguns, I like to have metal magazines, or at least metal liners.

Does have a little bit of a bevel at the end of the magazine, so it makes it easy to drop in there, but there’s no beveling. It’s a pretty straight shot, and it does come off just a little bit at the back. Now the texturing on the grip is very nice.

It’s aggressive. One thing though, they’ve kind of toned it down on some of their centerfire options because it can be a little too aggressive, especially next to your skin if you’re carrying this concealed. But this gives you a good solid grip, and you can see with the magazine coming down, I mean, this is going to be really for anyone’s hand.

And the big thing is, it’s really lightweight. And a lot of that has to do with the aluminum slide. And with .22, that’s fine.

We have a stainless steel 4.1 inch barrel, but the slide itself is aluminum, and it makes it easy to bring back. Really nice slide serrations. They are directional, and it does have a little bit of a ledge right here to help just pull that back.

But it is really easy to pull back, so anyone, doesn’t matter their hand strength, is going to be able to manipulate it. No front cocking serrations. And it really has a nice finish on the slide.

It looks like an oxidized finish. It is optics ready, and this will take your shield RMSC, which seems to be really your go-to. The sights are black serrated in the back, and then we have a high-vis fiber optic sight at the front.

And there are other options for this. We’ll look at that in a second. Also, we have a four-slot Picatinny rail.

We do have our takedown lever that is covered, so it doesn’t really get in the way. It stays very slim across the handgun. We have ambidextrous slide stops, and they protrude just a touch, but they need to.

And then we have a frame safety. Typically on .22s, you’ll have frame safeties, but we do have the trigger with the blade safety. And it is pretty much flat face, so it’s going to be that geometry that comes straight back.

With the magazine release, it’s right here, and you can switch it to the other side. Very positive. It allows those magazines just to drop out.

A very straight line at the back of the grip, and then it comes up. Not too much of a beaver tail, but really, again, with .22, you don’t necessarily need it. Rounded-off trigger guard, and there is some texturing, but it’s not as aggressive as the laser etched texturing here at the bottom.

In fact, the whole frame has just a little bit of texture. Easy to grip hold of. And if you’re in the outdoors, you may be gripping it in different places, so it just gives you a little bit of texture.

We have a step down on the slide that just makes it smaller, and again, very thin. We have a loaded chamber indicator here at the top. You’re going to be able to see the brass through this little semicircle.

But this is an internal hammer-fired pistol, and we’ll look at it when we break it down, but it just makes it very reliable, especially with .22 long rifle, which can be finicky. Now, one of the things they’ve mentioned in their owner’s manual is to test different ammos, and that they’ve run through all the major brands, and they seem to function well. But a lot of times with .22, you can have some finicky ammo, or the gun just doesn’t like certain types.

Guys, check out our website at Suits Gear. A link down below in the description, and we do a lot of merch. We have a newsletter.

We do giveaways. A lot of stuff going on over there, so check out Suits Gear. The trigger with that blade safety, you can’t engage it unless you depress it, and you’ll notice that little lever coming back.

And so here, we just come to a wall. And then a really nice crisp break. The break is really well done.

And then, of course, reset very quick. That’s a really nice trigger. And let’s check the trigger pull weight.

With our Lyman trigger gauge from Brownells, about 2.93 ounces. 3.21 ounces. I would say, and I’ve checked it out a number of times, it runs around the three pound mark.

But now, one thing to always be careful of with .22 long rifles, you don’t want to dry fire them too much. The firing pin hits the rim of the cartridge, and that’s the reason why they call it rim fire. And with the way the firing pin is set up, it hits the side of the rim.

And so dry firing it repeatedly can cause problems. But once in a while, it doesn’t hurt. Now, the 4.1 inch barrel is fixed, which gives this a lot of accuracy.

It’s actually fixed to the frame. And we’ll take a look at the design when we break the pistol down. Well, guys, when it comes to the higher capacity .22s, we saw Taurus come out with a 16 plus one.

They do have a 20 round extension. They have a number of different models. This has been a very popular option.

And then we have the SIG P22, same thing, but it’s a 20 round magazine. And then again, the Smith & Wessons coming in at 20 rounds. The SIG is a little shorter in the grip, but it has a thicker slide.

The Taurus does have a thicker slide, has a kind of an unusual out the side ejection port. But guys, honestly, these are three excellent handguns. So it’s great to see that barrier being broken of the 10 plus one.

Also, they did include some high vis fiber optic replacements for different colors. You have red and white. It has one of the green as well.

So you can replace the green. Very simple to do. If this breaks or comes loose, just slide it in, heat the end, and it’ll bond itself to the front.

But again, you can just change those colors. I thought that was a pretty cool touch. Now, when it comes to your red dot sight, again, you have a metal cover plate, and this is 5 64 hex wrench.

Here we have the plate. It comes off. It actually fits in to the front and then to the back.

Here is under the cover plate. Now this plate does not fit without the rear sight removed. So we have to take it off.

It’s actually pretty simple. There is a hex screw here in the back, and you just take it out and the sight will come off. Now here we have the rear sight removed.

The plate can only go in one way because it has to fit over the small little post. Here we have it installed. The screws, actually, there’s plenty of room, so the length does not matter that much.

A little bit of gap at the back, but with 22, it’s not a problem. One thing I would recommend is taking that screw on your back sight and just replacing it to keep it together. Now again, this is a threaded barrel.

It does come with the adapter, and it comes with a wrench to be able to take your thread protector and install your adapter. So when you bring it back and you put it in the slide lock, you’ll notice this little cap, and you’ll see the slots for your wrench. And so you just take it, put it on, and you can take it off and then just install your thread adapter.

We can’t do that because of YouTube policy, but it’s a very simple process. And of course, obviously, the threads need to go on the outside. You’ll need to take this off though if you’re going to disassemble the firearm.

And it’s half by 28 threads, and a perfect pairing with our Banish 22. All right, the weight on the 22X, 17.83 ounces. That’s really lightweight.

And a big thank you to Fiocchi for sponsoring our ammunition, all made right here in the USA, one of the biggest suppliers of ammunition in the country. But we’re also shooting some CCI subsonics, and so we wanted to test out the suppressor and CCI’s good quality. Smith & Wesson 22X, we’re bringing it out to the range.

I’ll tell you, we tried it out with suppressors first, and with subsonic, it was so quiet. Of course, that has a lot to do with the suppressor. We had the Banish 22.

I mean, it just was no noise except you could hear the bank being hit by the bullet. We put in the supersonics, and it was hearing safe. I mean, it was really quiet as well.

But it’s just really great to have that threaded option. You don’t want to go with it, it’s fine. But if you do, it makes it a great choice.

Plus, we were running the Red Dot from Olight, the SE, and it’s just a great optic as well. But we wanted to shoot it just as it comes in the box. The texturing is very grippable.

Of course, there’s not any recoil, so that’s not really a problem. But you’ve got a good full grip if you ever have any kind of wet or adverse conditions. Sights, they show up very well with the fiber optic.

And overall, it’s a very comfortable gun. It’s super lightweight, but you’ll see there’s very little recoil. I mean, it’s just really cool to shoot.

Now, it has that frame safety, you got to remember, but it makes it nice to take people that are inexperienced out. Having that frame safety could be a big plus. 20 rounds, so you’ve got a lot of capacity.

You know, we just shot a few, but man, it just feels like this thing is just gonna load on Sunday, shoot till Monday. The light rail, we didn’t put a light on it, but this thing is full featured. I mean, you can go with your optic, your light, and go with suppressor.

So it gives you pretty much anything you need with a little .22 pistol. And man, they’re just fun to shoot. Honestly, when it comes down to it, .22 is one of my favorite calibers just to take to the range and just to shoot.

Plus, it’s cheap. And you better remember to take that safety off. We’ve had no malfunctions, not all, at all, nothing.

It just ran. Now, we were running Fiocchi, which is really good ammo, and then we’re using the CCI subsonic. Sometimes when you’re running subsonics, you can have some issues with the slide coming back.

But with this aluminum slide, it’s just so less slide mass coming back. So that’s definitely gonna also aid in minimal felt recoil. Full size, you get that full size grip.

Just a great little .22 to take to the range. And guys, there are a lot of choices out there. But this makes a great option.

It’s so thin, and that’s what I like. It’s thinner than most of its competitors. And it’s good Smith & Wesson quality.

What do you think? Fire. Smooth. It is smooth.

There’s just no recoil. Now, this is usually where we show accuracy. And we did get the shooting part as far as the gun.

But for some reason, I forgot to put a camera on the target. And I will tell you that it was a nice group. It’s just a little bit over to the left.

And I mean a half inch over. And it was consistent. And so with that fixed barrel, you’re gonna get good accuracy.

But typically, I like to show accuracy. But again, you’re gonna have to take my word for it. But it put all those rounds together in about an inch group.

All right, for disassembly, we’re gonna drop our magazine, bring the slide back into slide lock. And then we’re gonna bring our takedown lever into the down position just like this. Now with a .22, again, we have a fixed barrel.

So we’re gonna take this down a little differently. You’re gonna bring your slide all the way to the rear and then lift up at the back. And this is just gonna release it.

Here we have our recoil spring and guide rod assembly. This slide is incredibly lightweight. And then of course, our barrel is fixed.

We have our locking block and this is just attached. Very nice feed ramp is polished. You can see the internals.

This has not been cleaned yet. I’m gonna need to wipe this down because it has that lubricant from the factory. But right here is your hammer.

And so this is, again, an internal hammer fired pistol. I would highly recommend wiping this down though before you take it to the range. A lot of times, I’ll just take them down and shoot them as is.

But with .22, it does produce a lot of debris and gunpowder and sometimes shavings, lead shavings. And so you’re gonna want to keep that clean because this will attract all of that and it could cause reliability problems. But really, that’s all you need to do to field strip the handgun.

And guys, when it comes to .22, you’re gonna need to make sure that the gun is clean. That’s one problem that happens a lot of times is they do foul up some. And so it takes a little more cleaning than your standard centerfire pistol.

Now, as far as threaded barrel, this is, again, your thread protector. And you have your little place for your slots to be able to use the wrench. But if you have the adapter on here, you’re gonna have to take it off before you disassemble.

Now, for reassembly, we’re gonna take our guide rod and spring and it only goes in one way. In fact, the curved area goes to the bottom. This goes to the top.

And it is very easy just to slide in. And then you just want to make sure that it’s in place. And then we’re gonna bring our slide.

Now, with this, again, we’re gonna take our barrel, go through the slide, and then we’re gonna keep it raised. And then when we get it back, there are two slots that lock into your slide rails. Now, once you lock it in, go ahead and bring it back and put it into slide lock.

If you go too far back, it’ll start to rise again. So just be careful. And then take your takedown lever and just push it up.

And then we’ll bring our slide back. And we’re gonna test for function. And we’re back in business.

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The MSRP on the Smith & Wesson M&P 22X is $499, typically market price is going to be less. Now let’s talk about some pros and cons. First off, it’s 20 plus one.

That’s a big pro. You do get two magazines. It’s a super lightweight handgun, internal hammer fired, and a really nice trigger.

I mean, exceptional trigger. Full grip. So you have a full size handgun.

I like the fiber optic front sight with the blacked out rear. And we have our Shield RMSC footprint for optics. And again, threaded barrel, already ready to go.

And you do have the adapter that’s included and the tool to break it down. Now, as far as cons, there are a couple. And really, honestly, this is pretty nitpicky, but the frame safeties, they’re very small.

They’re easy to manipulate, but I’m just not a fan of frame safeties. I mean, you have your trigger safety here, but a lot of people do prefer to have a frame safety. Just gives them a little more confidence when carrying it.

But for me, I did forget a couple of times to actually disengage the safety because I’m so used to striker fire pistols without it. Also, I’m not really a fan of having to remove the back sight. Now, what I do love is how easy it is.

It’s definitely simple and you really don’t have a lot of real estate here. So I understand why, but I’m just typically not a fan of taking that off. I like to have a rear sight.

So if something were to happen to my red dot, I would be able to see, but it was just one of the design features. Another thing, and this is really more subjective, is it’s so lightweight. And because of the aluminum slide, it just feels really, I’m not going to say fragile, but it could be perceived that way.

I mean, we have the aluminum slide. It’s going to be strong. We have the polymer.

It’s just a super lightweight firearm. And with the polymer magazines, that just makes it light as well. Now you fill that up with 20 plus rounds and it’s going to give it a little bit of heft.

But overall, those are just small nitpicky things. This is a fantastic 22 rimfire pistol to take out no matter what the conditions. And one of the things I love about 22 is that because the pressures are so low, you can have that super lightweight, even aluminum slide and still have a very reliable handgun.

Guys, if you’re looking for a 22 long rifle pistol, which I highly recommend. They’re a lot of fun. They’re low report, low recoil.

They’re just cheap to shoot and just makes a great day at the range. And anyone can shoot this. So check out the Smith & Wesson M&P 22X with the higher round capacity and just the quality of Smith & Wesson.

This is a great handgun to add to your arsenal. And did I mention cheap to shoot? Because that makes it even that more fun. And again, a big thank you to Smith & Wesson for sending the M&P 22X for this review.

Be strong, be of good courage. God bless America. Long live the Republic.

 

-Don