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04-09-16, 10:30
I just received a S&W SW22 Victory pistol as a gift. With the first range session in the bag, I thought I'd post up my findings.
Cliff's Notes:
Accurate
Very Modular (lots of man-Barbie potential)
Easy to strip
Some cheap-feeling bits
Rail attachment looks wonky, but seems to work OK.
http://ptmaynard.com/guns/IMG_6795.JPG
http://ptmaynard.com/guns/IMG_6774.JPG
The gun is clearly made to a price-point, with lots of polymer parts. The grips, Picatinny rail, trigger, sights, and some of the internals are plastic. The safety (a very small, short-throw 1911-style thumb safety) and slide release appear to be plastic, but closer inspection shows them to be metal pieces with plastic covers.
Continuing with the bargain feel, you'll notice that the upper is a piece of stamped sheet metal wrapped into a squared-off tubular receiver, although the fit and finish are excellent - don't think Yugo AK stamping quality.
In general, the gun has some very clever bits to make it accurate, simple, cheap, and easy to work on. It has the vibe of a Savage bolt gun, for those familiar with them. For instance, there's a single screw that holds on the top rail or sight assembly. There's a wedge that holds the rear in place, and then a screw to hold the front down and press the back against the wedge. It's surprisingly positive, and with the low recoil of a heavy 22, it's probably fine. However, I'm sure a second screw, JB-Weld bedding, or other aftermarket mods will be common, especially when mounting a scope. I can feel a little movement of the back of the rail if I push on it, but I was unable to measure this with my calipers. This is mostly due to not having a good surface to index off. Just 0.003" of play would be 1" of error at 25yd, so I will keep an eye on this.
http://ptmaynard.com/guns/IMG_6772.JPG
Similarly, there is one screw to remove the upper from the lower (see the hole in front of the trigger guard). The bolt then pops out. Re-assembly is just as easy. For those used to Ruger 22 handguns... THANK GOD! One more screw pops off the barrel, which, like the upper and the rail, has a very clever, precision-machined interface for securing it. This whole gun is designed around being modular, and they have had Volquartsen working with them since the early development of the gun, to ensure a large aftermarket. A cheap gun with lots of plastic parts, which is easy to customize with zero gunsmithing skill... think that could be popular? I am suddenly thinking more highly of S&W management, of which I've been rather critical lately!
Finish is a nice satin silver, with noticeable roughness on the cast parts, which are the lower receiver and the bolt. Both are clearly cast, with a few critical dimensions machined after that. The cocking ridges on the bolt are cast-in, making them more rounded and less-positive than the machined cuts on most guns.
This shows the finish of the various metals pretty well:
http://ptmaynard.com/guns/IMG_6771.JPG
To summarize the feel of the gun - it's not an heirloom gun like my 66-1, but it's a cleverly designed piece with no obvious weaknesses from a reliability standpoint.
I mounted a Vortex Venom red dot. The dot is advertised as 3MOA, but I measure more like 4 MOA, even turned down all the way. That is, it neatly subtends a 1" target center at 25yd, which is 3.8MOA. That's very dim, with zero bloom, and almost impossible to pick up visually. I was only able to shoot at that low setting off bags, moving the gun to find the dot. Off-hand I needed it up a couple clicks, which bloomed a bit, but made it easy to pick up.
It was slightly breezy, upper 20's, and snowing rather heavily. I shot off bags. I am not a great red-dot shooter, and can't ever seem to group less than 2MOA with a dot. I fired a bunch of 10-shot groups, and they were very consistent. Here is a typical sample: CCI Standard Velocity solid LRN on the left, and Federal bulk junk on the right. Every group of CCI was less than 2" at 25yd, and every group of Federal was under 3". I am confident this barrel could make 1" 5-shot groups pretty consistently with the right ammo and shooter (certainly with a scope). Since I'll be shooting this mostly off-hand, where 4" is about as good as I ever manage, my accuracy research is done.
http://ptmaynard.com/guns/IMG_6770.JPG
The grip angle is like a Ruger MkII/III, not a steep 1911 angle. Being used to modern carry/combat guns, I kept pulling up with the barrel pointed too low. For a target gun... whatever. The slide release and safety work well enough - not awesome, but it's not a carry gun, so I won't bash them. The trigger is pretty good - there's an overtravel screw which the manual claimed was set at the factory, but it clearly wasn't. I tweaked that before the session. The trigger has a long take-up, and then a light, smooth, but long break. The sear is a piece of sheet metal that probably wouldn't take a set screw unless it was pretty tiny - but I might try anyway. The hammer could certainly be filed down to reduce engagement without changing the angle easily enough. The angles feel great, and I wouldn't touch them!
I should note that the gun will not fire with the mag out. The piece which provides this function is a long spring-loaded arm which appears to be easily removed. It pulls the trigger bar down so it won't engage the sear - without the mag safety bar, the trigger bar will automatically go up and work properly. Also, the trigger bar has a lump on top which looks like the same sort of thing that engages the firing pin safety on a Glock-style action. In this case, however, it fits into a groove in the bolt, preventing the bar from pulling the sear if the bolt is out-of-battery.
Waiting for me at my brother's house is a Volquartsen carbon-wrapped barrel. It shouldn't shoot any worse than this barrel, and it will be longer and lighter, and also threaded to accept the Spectre II that's in NFA jail right now. I can borrow a Sparrow to use - probably next weekend I'll try that with the new barrel.
Cliff's Notes:
Accurate
Very Modular (lots of man-Barbie potential)
Easy to strip
Some cheap-feeling bits
Rail attachment looks wonky, but seems to work OK.
http://ptmaynard.com/guns/IMG_6795.JPG
http://ptmaynard.com/guns/IMG_6774.JPG
The gun is clearly made to a price-point, with lots of polymer parts. The grips, Picatinny rail, trigger, sights, and some of the internals are plastic. The safety (a very small, short-throw 1911-style thumb safety) and slide release appear to be plastic, but closer inspection shows them to be metal pieces with plastic covers.
Continuing with the bargain feel, you'll notice that the upper is a piece of stamped sheet metal wrapped into a squared-off tubular receiver, although the fit and finish are excellent - don't think Yugo AK stamping quality.
In general, the gun has some very clever bits to make it accurate, simple, cheap, and easy to work on. It has the vibe of a Savage bolt gun, for those familiar with them. For instance, there's a single screw that holds on the top rail or sight assembly. There's a wedge that holds the rear in place, and then a screw to hold the front down and press the back against the wedge. It's surprisingly positive, and with the low recoil of a heavy 22, it's probably fine. However, I'm sure a second screw, JB-Weld bedding, or other aftermarket mods will be common, especially when mounting a scope. I can feel a little movement of the back of the rail if I push on it, but I was unable to measure this with my calipers. This is mostly due to not having a good surface to index off. Just 0.003" of play would be 1" of error at 25yd, so I will keep an eye on this.
http://ptmaynard.com/guns/IMG_6772.JPG
Similarly, there is one screw to remove the upper from the lower (see the hole in front of the trigger guard). The bolt then pops out. Re-assembly is just as easy. For those used to Ruger 22 handguns... THANK GOD! One more screw pops off the barrel, which, like the upper and the rail, has a very clever, precision-machined interface for securing it. This whole gun is designed around being modular, and they have had Volquartsen working with them since the early development of the gun, to ensure a large aftermarket. A cheap gun with lots of plastic parts, which is easy to customize with zero gunsmithing skill... think that could be popular? I am suddenly thinking more highly of S&W management, of which I've been rather critical lately!
Finish is a nice satin silver, with noticeable roughness on the cast parts, which are the lower receiver and the bolt. Both are clearly cast, with a few critical dimensions machined after that. The cocking ridges on the bolt are cast-in, making them more rounded and less-positive than the machined cuts on most guns.
This shows the finish of the various metals pretty well:
http://ptmaynard.com/guns/IMG_6771.JPG
To summarize the feel of the gun - it's not an heirloom gun like my 66-1, but it's a cleverly designed piece with no obvious weaknesses from a reliability standpoint.
I mounted a Vortex Venom red dot. The dot is advertised as 3MOA, but I measure more like 4 MOA, even turned down all the way. That is, it neatly subtends a 1" target center at 25yd, which is 3.8MOA. That's very dim, with zero bloom, and almost impossible to pick up visually. I was only able to shoot at that low setting off bags, moving the gun to find the dot. Off-hand I needed it up a couple clicks, which bloomed a bit, but made it easy to pick up.
It was slightly breezy, upper 20's, and snowing rather heavily. I shot off bags. I am not a great red-dot shooter, and can't ever seem to group less than 2MOA with a dot. I fired a bunch of 10-shot groups, and they were very consistent. Here is a typical sample: CCI Standard Velocity solid LRN on the left, and Federal bulk junk on the right. Every group of CCI was less than 2" at 25yd, and every group of Federal was under 3". I am confident this barrel could make 1" 5-shot groups pretty consistently with the right ammo and shooter (certainly with a scope). Since I'll be shooting this mostly off-hand, where 4" is about as good as I ever manage, my accuracy research is done.
http://ptmaynard.com/guns/IMG_6770.JPG
The grip angle is like a Ruger MkII/III, not a steep 1911 angle. Being used to modern carry/combat guns, I kept pulling up with the barrel pointed too low. For a target gun... whatever. The slide release and safety work well enough - not awesome, but it's not a carry gun, so I won't bash them. The trigger is pretty good - there's an overtravel screw which the manual claimed was set at the factory, but it clearly wasn't. I tweaked that before the session. The trigger has a long take-up, and then a light, smooth, but long break. The sear is a piece of sheet metal that probably wouldn't take a set screw unless it was pretty tiny - but I might try anyway. The hammer could certainly be filed down to reduce engagement without changing the angle easily enough. The angles feel great, and I wouldn't touch them!
I should note that the gun will not fire with the mag out. The piece which provides this function is a long spring-loaded arm which appears to be easily removed. It pulls the trigger bar down so it won't engage the sear - without the mag safety bar, the trigger bar will automatically go up and work properly. Also, the trigger bar has a lump on top which looks like the same sort of thing that engages the firing pin safety on a Glock-style action. In this case, however, it fits into a groove in the bolt, preventing the bar from pulling the sear if the bolt is out-of-battery.
Waiting for me at my brother's house is a Volquartsen carbon-wrapped barrel. It shouldn't shoot any worse than this barrel, and it will be longer and lighter, and also threaded to accept the Spectre II that's in NFA jail right now. I can borrow a Sparrow to use - probably next weekend I'll try that with the new barrel.