The Rimfire Report: First 1,000 Rounds – S&W M&P 22X

Last summer, I had a chance to head out to Smith & Wesson’s Maryville, TN, facility to check out a bunch of new guns, including an at-the-time prototype version of the  M&P 22X. To be frank, I wasn’t that impressed with the prototype version, and to be fair, it was in pretty rough, fast-prototyped condition (read, 3D printed). What has come out on the other side of that, since the official release of the 22X, is probably one of the best new entries into this specific genre of 22LR pistol I’ve seen since SIG released the P322. I’ve recently been able to acquire a copy of the new Smith & Wesson plinker and have been able to put about 1,000 rounds of various ammo through it over two range sessions over the last week. Today, I’ll be giving you guys my thoughts so far on Smith & Wesson’s newest semi-auto rimfire pistol.

More Rimfire Report @ TFB:

• The Rimfire Report: Back to Basics With the 10/22 & CCI Standard
• The Rimfire Report: An Ode To The Marlin Model 29 Pump Action
• The Rimfire Report: Federal Classic 40 gr CPRN - Still Good?

Specifications:

• Width: 1.13 in
• Length: 7.25 in
• Height: 5.75 in
• Weight: 16.32 oz
• Caliber: 22 LR
• Size: Full
• Capacity: 20
• Action: Internal hammer fired
• Barrel Length: 4.1 in
• Grip: Polymer
• Sights: Fiber optic
• Optic Ready: Yes
• Safety: Thumb safety
• Color/Finish: Black
• State Compliance: N/A
• Threaded Barrel: Yes
• Barrel Material: Stainless steel
• Laser: No
• Number of magazines: 2
• 10 lb trigger: No
• Model: M&P 22X
• Frame Material: Polymer
• MSRP: $499.00

While the new M&P 22X shares the same naming convention as the original M&P 22 line, the M&P 22X is more of a spiritual successor, in my opinion. Directly compared with the legacy model M&P 22 pistols, the 22X features a larger, entirely new grip frame design, out-of-the-box optics-ready capability with an RMSc pattern or Holosun K-pattern (RMR) footprint optics. I eventually attached a spare SIG Romeo Zero Elite, as it is one of the lightest red dots I had sitting around, and I figured this would impact the cycling of the slide the least for better performance across ammo types. I also noticed that the 22X has a steel breech face that is held in place by a roll pin, with the breech face itself featuring a small cutout that serves as a handy way to see if the chamber is loaded.

The grip features a very nice blend of smoothness and grit in areas where you want it, giving you positive control of the pistol even in humid conditions. This isn’t as aggressive as some of the centerfire M&P 2.0 pistols, but it’s good for the pistol's power level and weight.

Trigger and Controls

Some of you may remember that last time a 22LR pistol like this came out, I was extremely excited. As stated earlier, I was sort of underwhelmed by the prototype that I saw last summer, but the production model not only feels and looks a lot better, but it genuinely does have a quality construction feel to it while still feeling a bit like an airsoft toy due to how light it is.

The M&P 22X, as mentioned above, comes with two 20-round magazines, both of which feature loading tabs on either side of the magazine body. These greatly speed up and assist the loading process, and I found it rather easy to get all 20-rounds into the magazines with the last round requiring a decent amount of force to get set. This, however, eased up as testing went on. What’s interesting is that while SIG’s 20-rounders allow you to secretly stuff up to 25-rounds in their factory 20-round mags, the 22X mags do genuinely top out at exactly 20-rounds.

The First 1,000 Rounds

Before I was able to get my camera out and a red dot on the gun, I went ahead and slapped on a prototype suppressor from Zer0 & Sons, who kindly sent out a few of their 3D printed suppressors just to break the pistol in a bit before I mounted a red dot and a light on it. The sound signature, at least for the first couple of hundred rounds, with the combo was quite pleasant at first, but got drastically louder as I ran more rounds through the pistol. Keep in mind the point here was to get some lead down the barrel, and some fouling in the gun to see if it at least ran right out of the box - it did. However, in the process of shooting the first 200 rounds or so, I ended up destroying the 3D printed core of the Zer0 & Sons 1225 Suppressor. Luckily, I can just 3D print a new one. You’ll be seeing what that process is like, and a more detailed look at the 1225 in a future Rimfire Report article.

After the 1225 shot plastic spaghetti out of the front of it, I decided it was time to add an optic and switch up suppressors for some more testing. Angstadt Arms was also kind enough to send out their new Reticent 22LR suppressor which is not only one of the lightest 22LR suppressors I’ve ever seen, but also one of the quietest - again, we’ll have a closer look at the Reticent 22 in a future article but for what it's worth, Angstadt’s fancy suppressor combined with the 22X has to be my new favorite “sporter” 22LR pistol combo.

Accuracy

During the first 1,000 rounds, I also took the time to put some 10-round groups on a ReNine Safety silhouette target, which has just enough bullseye targets to allow me to test a bunch of ammo head to head on the same target. Since this is what I’d consider a “sport” 22LR pistol and not a genuine target pistol, I’m mostly looking for good accuracy at about 15 yards, which is the mean average distance of Steel Challenge targets. If the pistol and ammo can give me a roughly 2” group at that distance, I’m pretty satisfied as long as it runs reliably. Here’s a breakdown of how each 10-round group turned out, plus any notes I had about how the ammo worked, or didn’t, out of the pistol.

CCI Standard 40-gr

This was a great group for fairly cheap ammo. The dispersal was pretty even across the roughly 1” sized circular group (the circles on the targets are 1” in diameter), and despite its relatively conservative load, CCI Standard ran the pistol just fine every time and had very reliable ignition for 2 out of the 3 50-round boxes I tested out of it. The third box must have been left outside overnight at some point, as I had quite a few failures to fire out of that ammo during my second range session. CCI Standard 40gr suppresses very well out of virtually any gun/suppressor combo, but the Angstadt Reticent and Faxon TwentyToucan in particular handled this load out of the pistol very well. 

CCI Mini-Mag 36-gr Hollow Point

Since the 22X is a rimfire pistol and can easily mount a red dot, many people might want to use it for some light-duty pest control or small game hunting. Mini-Mag 36-grain hollow points deliver great terminal performance, and also some okay accuracy out of the 22X, with one out of the ten rounds landing well outside of the mean group. Since this is a higher velocity ammo, it was much louder but still hearing safe out of any of the suppressors, and extremely reliable, as are most CCI Mini-Mags. I experienced no failures to fire out of this particular load.

CCI Clean-22 Sub-Sonic 40-gr

I fired 10 rounds of CCI Clean Sub-Sonic through the gun to evaluate both sound suppression and accuracy—something I forgot to do with the ELEY Contact. The results were satisfying: aside from one flyer (likely my own fault, as with the CCI Mini-Mags), the group measured about an inch vertically. Overall, I’d definitely recommend this ammo if you’re after a truly “Hollywood quiet” experience and appreciate the extra attention CCI puts into their premium sub-sonic 40-grain .22LR line. I experienced no failures to fire out of this particular load.

CCI Clean-22 High Velocity 40-gr

I managed to squeak in a sub-1” group out of this load, and I think the ammo itself allowed me to slightly out-shoot myself when compared to the CCI Standard. Being that CCI Clean-22 High-Velocity is marketed directly towards steel challenge shooters like myself, I was pretty happy with the results, as it definitely produced on the accuracy side of things, even if it did have to sacrifice quite a bit of the noise comfort that CCI Standard gives you. I experienced no failures to fire out of this particular load.

Blazer 22 Long Rifle 40-gr

This is the last of my legacy Blazer ammunition, and I thought that the 22X was a good excuse to shoot it up before it became unusable. While it produced a curiously shaped group, it was still a nominal 1.2” in size, and I still think that’s pretty good even when compared to the more circular groups that we’ve seen so far from the other loads. Blazer 22LR was also pretty quiet, perhaps just a smidge louder than the CCI Standard. I experienced no failures to fire out of this particular load.

Federal Champion 36-gr Hollow Point

As the name suggests, at least for today and in this pistol, the Federal Champion 36-grain is the champion in terms of accuracy in my 22X. While it’s not the quietest load, it proved extremely reliable and impressively precise for a budget bulk ammo that is a nominal $0.06 per round. The group measured just under an inch, trending about an inch lower than the higher-velocity CCI loads and roughly half an inch higher than the CCI Sub-Sonic.

For those who may not know, Remington Thunderbolts often get a lot of playful nicknames (some of which I like) because users frequently report issues with reliability or excessive fouling. In the past, Thunderbolts have indeed led up some of my rimfire plinkers faster than other uncoated lead loads. But Remington appears to have updated the formula, likely around the time they launched their newer 22LR lines, and this newer‑production box of Thunderbolts showed no obvious excessive leading, with only two or three duds in the entire 500‑round box.

All that said, the new Smith & Wesson 22X earns a solid pass from me. I was pleasantly surprised by just how well put together this package is and how well it did with all of the suppressors, including the Fletcher Rifle Works Taquito. Alongside Taurus and SIG, Smith & Wesson has now given us another modern 22LR plinker that offers larger magazine capacity, the ability to mount muzzle devices, lights, and optics, and is significantly more budget-friendly than expensive all-metal target pistols.