Today’s review is the ISSC M-22, the “.22 Glock Clone” whose purpose in the preppers/survivalists arsenal is to be an inexpensive trainer for Glock owners who can shoot .22LR instead of the more expensive center fire ammo that Glocks eat.
Does it do the job well? Read on.
Here’s what the gun looks like:
From manufacturer’s website: I sold mine before I thought to take a picture of it for a review
ISSC M-22 Philosophy Of Use:
This gun is designed specifically to be a range/plinking gun, a trainer for the Glock style of European polymer handguns. It has the look and feel of a Glock, and it’s designed to let you train with inexpensive .22LR ammo. This is NOT a self-defense gun (more on this later), rather it is simply a trainer.
ISSC M-22 Design:
The ISSC M-22 certainly “looks” “Glock-ish” but how does it feel? Frankly, it feels VERY “Glock-ish”, it sits in your hand nearly identically to a Glock 19. There are differences in the operation of the gun (external hammer, hammer-block safety) but they don’t really change the feel of the gun. The gun has an interesting legal history, but that’s beyond the scope of this review. Feel free to Google ISSC lawsuit if you are interested.
The gun is so close in external dimensions that it fits comfortably and locks into Glock 19 holsters, making it a good choice for draw practice. It’s a poor choice, however, for draw and fire, as I will explain later.
The gun is a simple blow back design, so functionally it’s quite different than a Glock, but the blow back (using high velocity rounds) somewhat even simulates the feel of a Glock.
It has a single-stack 10 round magazine, and the gun only comes with one (Others are HIDEOUSLY expensive for what they are, street price is $40).
One major difference…
The gun features an external hammer that must be cocked before the gun can be fired, making this pistol a true single-action gun. The main safety on the gun is the hammer block, which also serves as a de-cocker, so when you activate the safety, the gun is de-cocked and the hammer falls.
What this means in practical terms is that you cannot carry this gun cocked and locked, which makes it pretty much impossible for a sane person to carry it for self defense (not that it makes any sense to carry a .22LR semi-auto handgun as a self-defense gun in the first place).
Other safety features on the include a loaded chamber indicator, an external trigger lock for storage, a Glock-like trigger safety and a magazine disconnect (I hate those things, but that’s a personal preference). The trigger safety looks and feels like a Glock.
The sights are kinda-sorta Glock like, to the point where I hear they are interchangeable with Glock sites. I know for a fact the front sight IS interchangeable. The gun comes with several front sights, ostensibly so that you can choose which height best fits the gun’s shooting and your style.
Realistically, the act of firing the gun causes the poorly designed front sight to fall off, and I view these others as spares. After losing two of the things in my first day of ownership, I replaced them with the front sight off of one of my Glocks (all of my Glocks have tritium night sights, so I have a bunch of “regular” Glock sights sitting around. Unlike the rear sight of a Glock, the M-22’s rear sight can easily be adjusted for windage, it’s a completely different design than what Glock uses, although it looks very similar in sight picture.
Tale Of The Tape:
Caliber: .22lr
Action: SA
Advertised Trigger weight: 4 lbs
Trigger weight as tested: 4 pounds 9 oz
Trigger travel: 0,15″
Capacity: 10 rds.
Dimensions: (L/H/W) 7,1″/5″/1″
Barrel length: 4″
Sight length: 5,5″
Width rear sight: 0,16″
Width front sight: 0,14″
Weight w/o magazine: 20,5 ozs.
Weight empty magazine: 2.7 ozs.
Shooting the ISSC M-22:
When I first got this gun, I have to admit I was so frustrated with it that I just about threw it in the ditch. The issue? Jams, mostly stovepiping and feeding issues. Eventually I was able to get the gun to shoot reliably, but at first, it was ANNOYING to say the least.
The ISSC M-22 has a “mixed” reputation as far as jamming goes. Some of them seem to be perfect out of the factory, and some seem to have real issues. Mine had issues.
The first thing I did to solve them was spend time polishing up the feed ramp and the chamber area. This was a pain in the butt. I used a dremel on slow speed to do the feed ramp, then I used polishing compound and Q-tips to do the fine work, plus the chamber area. After I completed this, the failure to feed issues were completely fixed as long as I use solid-tipped bullets.
The stovepiping can be fixed two ways… the first is to get a different recoil spring, a shorter spring that is less strong (thereby throwing the slide back harder and leaving the ejection area open longer while at the same time adding some energy to the ejection process) and/or by using the hottest .22 rounds you can find.
A combination of high velocity rounds and a less strong spring stops the stovepiping issues once and for all.
Ammo can help the Jamming? Yes, sort of…
That brings me to ammo choice. Many/most .22LR semi-autos have ammo that they like to eat, and ammo that they don’t. The ISSC M-22 is no exception. Mine liked to eat CCI Mini Mags, and it also likes to eat Remington Thunderbolts. It didn’t like to eat pretty much anything else. With either of these two rounds, it functions flawlessly as in 100 out of 100 rounds fired with no jamming.
Accuracy is good, surprisingly so for what it is. There is virtually no recoil (as with pretty much all .22’s)
Obviously, with the external hammer (which must be cocked either by chambering a round or by thumb) it’s not just like a Glock at the start of the firing sequence, but other than that and the safety mounting, it works (and, importantly, feels) just like a Glock.
Verdict:
Would I recommend this gun for a Glock owning prepper?
No. I wouldn’t.
The ISSC M-22 is not cheap to purchase ($280 street price), plus magazines are stupidly expensive for what they are, $40.The gun, two spare mags, and when all’s said and done you’ve dropped $350 into a weapon that really only likes to eat specific (and expensive) .22 ammo.
When I got the ISSC M-22, after I got the jamming issues squared away, I was happy with it… but then Sandy Hook hit and going to the store for a brick of Mini Mags became impossible. Same with the cheaper Thunderbolts.
To make buying a ISSC M-22 cost effective, if you buy the two extra mags you need, you would have to fire 72 bricks of 100 CCI Mini Mags vs the same amount of shooting steel case out of your Glock just to break even.
Skip the ISSC M-22 and buy yourself some inexpensive 9mm steel cased ammo and train with it.
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I acquired a .22 conversion kit for a Glock to use much as this firearm is intended. My experience was much like you describe in this article. After lots of polishing I got it to run okay with just the right ammo. I am curious if you have tried a conversion kit and how you might rate this firearm vs. the conversion kit.
I’ve not tried one of them on a Glock, no… I’ve been curious though. My curiosity was tamed quite a bit by the difficulty of getting .22LR ammo up until recently. I have a friend who has one, I think I will ask him to loan it to me for a review.
I do, however, have a CMMG .22LR AR conversion, I will be doing a review on it… I compiled the data before I sold my AR’s (I am now an AR-free household, sort of… I do still have one fully built lower/stock that I will probably build out some day… unless I sell it).
I don’t hate AR’s, but I don’t use them as my self defense rifles (I am an AK guy) and Spice is all-in on her Tavor… the second one of those is on order at the moment.
I will be interested in both the AR conversion and Glock conversion reviews.