Walther P22 - Design Details

Design Details

On the exterior, it resembles the Walther P99, but it is somewhat smaller (75% of the P99's size) and its action chambers the rimfire .22 LR cartridge. The most noticeable exterior difference is the P22's slide mounted, thumb operated, ambidextrous safety and its external hammer. The P22 features a cast polymer grip-frame. Its slide and serial numbered frame receiver inserts are made from MIM (Metal Injection Molding) cast zinc alloy, its barrel consists of a rifled steel insert within a steel barrel sleeve, and its internal lockwork and fire-control parts are a combination of MIM cast steel and steel stampings.

The P22 can be purchased with a 3.4-inch short barrel (pictured to the right), or with a 5-inch barrel which includes a barrel mounted weight compensator matching the profile of the slide. The P22 was originally designed such that the two different length barrel assemblies could be easily interchanged, and "combo" packages including both barrels were offered for sale. All P22's come with an internally threaded barrel which allows the attachment of a sound suppressor or silencer with a separate thread adapter available from Walther.

The P22 is offered in many different color variations of its polymer lower receiver. The pistol is available in black, olive drab, grey, carbon fiber and 3 pink versions. There is now a new lower receiver finish that looks like Damascus steel. The slide assembly will have either a blue-black applied finish or it will be finished with a nickel/stainless look. Along with the new finish for the lower receiver, the slide also has a new finish option of brushed stainless.

The production year is located on the receiver and is visible through the ejection port when the slide is closed. The year is indicated with a two letter code where A=0, B=1, C=2 and so on to I=8 and K=9 ("J" is never used as a year designator). In the image you can see the receiver is labeled with AH indicating a production year of '07.

There are three revisions of the Walther P22 magazine as the original design was prone to feed failures. Walther corrected the issue by modifying the feed ears and adding a short 3/8" slot which allows rounds to stagger as they approach the top of the magazine. The second version of the magazine is designated with an 'A' after the part number. Later versions of the 'A' magazine have an elongated 1" stagger slot which further improves the magazine's performance. Finally Walther has released a 'B' version which is made of thicker steel, has a tall spring retaining nub and retains the 1" stagger slot.

A very different-looking pistol, the Walther SP22, is used by competition target shooters.