Smith & Wesson’s new M&P22 Compact .22LR pistol equipped with a SilencerCo Sparrow suppressor.
This nifty combo just took over 1st place in my safe as the ultimate plinking pistol. It’s a Smith & Wesson M&P22 Compact .22LR. We reviewed that recently and you can read about it here. It comes with a threaded barrel, but you’ll need an adapter to convert the thread size and pitch to standard silencer mount size and for necessary extension past the slide. EWK Arms makes an inexpensive adapter that gives you what you need to mount most .22LR silencers. The one shown here is a SilencerCo Sparrow. As you can see, size proportions are perfect between the pistol and suppressor. Feel and balance are also perfect with this combo – both pistol and silencer are equal proportions and lightweight. The best part? The standard sights on the M&P22 Compact are visible over the top of the Sparrow silencer.
Federal’s Target Grade Performance .22LR ammunition, shown here, is a great match for this combo. Th 40 grain lead bullets cruised out the business end of this pistol at 949 feet per second (unsuppressed) which is well below the speed of sound. It’s a sooper-dooper quiet combination.
If you want to have a little bit of structured plinking competition, check out the new Battleship Game targets from Birchwood Casey. Like the classic board game, you shoot each other’s battleships until sunk. Who says .22’s aren’t powerful?
To qualify as the ultimate plinking pistol the gun should have ammo that is commonly available at an affordable price.
Otherwise I agree.
Yep… At least match grade 22 is easy to find. Cheap bulk stuff is harder to find than POTUS’s college records.
Agreed, Tom. At least I’m finding SOME .22LR, even if it is at double or triple the real price, as opposed to 6 months ago when finding it was like going to the Klondike today to find gold.