Review: Ruger SR-22 Semi-Auto .22LR Pistol A Get-Home Bag Option?

Today’s review is of the Ruger SR-22. Ruger’s advertising bills this gun as the “Do-It-All .22 Pistol, for the shooter who appreciates style and demands reliability!” Does it live up to that hype?

Well…. It depends.

The Ruger SR-22 certainly has a sleek design. It’s a modern double-action and single action pistol, with a 10 round magazine in a very compact frame. It has interchangeable grips, and is has a black anodized aluminum slide. Options include a threaded barrel. I will let you decide whether that is the style you appreciate. (There is also a couple of “distributor exclusive models, one is purple polymer… see the Ruger website for details).

Philosophy Of Use for Preppers:

I am reviewing the Ruger SR-22 as a “prepper” gun, not as a “general plinking” firearm. I see this gun having only one main role for a prepper.

I’m not in any way a fan of using rimfire guns as everyday concealed carry weapons, certainly not semi-automatic ones. This has more to do with the lack of reliability of the .22LR or .22WMR rounds than anything. At least with a revolver, if you have a failure-to-fire, you can just pull the trigger again without “clearing the gun” so it doesn’t cause as much problems.

When you factor in the round’s limited “stopping power”, it’s just not a good choice IMHO. Having said that, I think there is a roll for rimfire in prepping… namely, it becomes a good option for a “get home bag” situation, where weight is at a premium. You can carry a gun like this SR-22 plus an extra magazine and 100 rounds of ammo at a very small weight penalty, especially when housing it in something like the light fabric holster below:

Ruger brags on the gun’s reliability, and I will admit for a .22LR semi-auto the reliability is pretty good. Having said that, “pretty good” is not NEARLY good enough to recommend a gun as a defensive carry gun… add to that the fact that .22LR (while it can be quite deadly) is just not a recommended defensive round.

Additionally, during my ownership of the gun, I have had the barrel “come loose” once, a situation where the screw that holds the barrel in place became loose. It was a quick and easy thing to fix, but the bolt has an “odd” 3/32nd allen wrench size that probably won’t be available to anybody in a “get-home” situation (I now store the proper wrench with the gun, just in case).

I also see this gun as a trainer… this is a good gun to introduce shooters to semi-automatic firearms. It’s ergonomically comfortable for most (people with really big hands won’t like it, but people with normal size hands on down to very small hands like young teens might have will find the fit at least OK for them).

Oddly, it’s a “stand alone” gun in the Ruger line… it’s not a “.22 version” of one of their larger carry guns, which I would have expected. I would have thought Ruger would put out a .22 version of the SR series, keeping the same ergonomics so you could train with the .22 and carry the 9, .40 or .45 while maintaining the same feel. My point on this is that while the gun makes a great “general purpose” trainer, it’s not specifically helpful for Ruger’s “big” guns.

The gun comes with two grips covers, which slide easily on and off but don’t slip. I use the thicker size, but that’s simply what fits my hand better.

Field stripping the gun is extremely easy, drop the mag, check to make sure the gun is safe, throw the take down lever located in front of the trigger, pull the slide back and it lifts right off. The barrel is attached to the frame. Reverse to re-assemble. The whole field strip process takes less than 5 seconds.

Tale Of The Tape:

Capacity: 10+1
Finish: Anodized black
Length: 6.4”
Overall Length: 4.9”
Barrel Length: 3.5”
Front Sight: Post w/dot
Rear Sight: Adjustable w/dots
Weight: 17.5 ounces

Magazines: 10 round single stack. The mags have the side-slide buttons to assist loading.

One beef I have about this gun is magazine cost. Ruger charges a mint for their mags. Mags for this $300 gun are $40 each. That’s crazy.

Shooting:

First, the good

1) The Ruger SR-22 eats most ammo just fine. It like CCI Mini-Mags the best. As a strait blowback gun design, high velocity works best. The gun will shoot just about any .22LR you want to put in it, but for best reliability feed it Mini-Mags or other HV rounds like Remington Thunderbolts. My Ruger SR-22 has never jammed or FTF with either of those two rounds. Spice shot 200 rounds or rotgut horrible Remington Golden Bullet hollow-points last weekend and the gun had 2 failures to fire.

Hitting the little orange square target about 9 shots out of every 10. About 15 yards.

2) The gun is accurate for what it is if you can handle the trigger pull (more on that in a bit). The sights are adjustable for both windage and elevation. The sight picture is quite nice.

3) The ambidextrous safety is nice.

4) Being both a double action and single action pistol, there are two different trigger pulls. You can fire the gun double action for the first round, after that the trigger remains cocked if the safety is in the “fire” position. Flipping the gun to “Safe” decocks it safely (but I would ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS still hold the gun downrange in a safe direction and expect it to fire… you never know).

Now, the “not so good”

1) Single action trigger pull is “blah”, mine breaks over at 6.9 pounds.

2) Double action trigger pull is off my scale, so I don’t know what it is. A lot.

3) Accuracy is just so-so, due to the trigger not being very good.

4) MAGAZINE DISCONNECTS STINK!!!!

5) MAGAZINE DISCONNECTS STINK!!!!

6) MAGAZINE DISCONNECTS STINK!!!

The Bottom Line About The Ruger SR-22:

Ruger obviously looked at the Walther P22 as a gun that needed some market competition, as the SR-22 is very similar to the Walther. It actually is more reliable than the Walther, and is cheaper, but it doesn’t have as good of a trigger.

Do I recommend the Ruger SR-22?

No. I don’t recommend this gun to preppers. The overall reliability and shoot-ability has been good, but that “one screw holding the barrel in” thing really busts my groove reliability wise, I don’t want to have to worry about a gun falling apart on my when my life depends on it.

I’m not opposed to it, but if I had to do it all over again I would skip the Ruger SR-22 and get a Ruger Mark IV, which is about the same money and a much better handgun (and, unlike earlier versions, is MUCH easier to clean).

Still, I’m not sad I own one and am keeping it as I enjoy plinking with it… it’s just not a gun I would buy again or recommend.