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Ruger LCP II .22lr Report

MaxStravinsky

MaxStravinsky

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So I finally got a chance to go to the range with my new Ruger LCP II .22lr. I became interested in it because of the ammo shortage, thought searching for 22 would be less expensive than the larger calibers. The gun itself is only the size of a S&W BG380, and it comes with a decent pocket holster.

I read lots of reviews online, and about half of them really didn't like the gun - said there were lots of failures. But enough people really liked it to give me hope. I cleaned it and took CCI Mini-Mag and CCI Velocitor with me to test it/break it in.

I started with Mini-Mags and immediately had problems. I couldn't shoot even 4 in a row without failure to extract. After struggling with about 20 rounds, I switched to Velocitors and everything was great. It LOVES Velocitors. I ended up shooting 50 of each (100 total). I really like the feel of the Velocitors, the Mini-Mags actually felt wimpy in it.

I'm not sure if the failures were ammo or gun related, or my limp wristing. This is the first time I've shot a handgun since breaking my wrist. But the problem seems to have resolved itself so I'm happy.

I don't consider this really broken in yet - I'm thinking 500 rounds should do it. I'm getting some Stingers next week, and I have some Eley Target on the way one of these days. I hope to find some Aguila to try. I really like this gun, enough to even think about getting a backup. I got it from JackO at the Mill[wave]

I wasn't trying for accuracy - just natural pointing and shooting. Next time I'll see what it can do as far as accuracy.
IMG_1288.jpg
 
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I'll admit to not being a fan of pocket .22 LR semi's, they are notably more picky with ammo than larger .22 pistols and I don't like being stuck with a pistol that prefers certain ammo, but not others because there's no guarantee I'll be able to find the ammo or it'll be an ammo that's more affordable or I know has a hollow point bullet that will expand from a handgun.

The LCP II itself is a fine little pistol, but for a rimfire I want an external hammer for the ability to have a second strike, the only time I'll make an exception is for the CP33 because it holds 33 rds in the mag (50 with an extension) and that is so awesome.

I won't speak much to accuracy for the micro pistols, I don't think it matters given the distances they'd be used for, it really comes down to reliability and effect on target. You want penetration and speed and what will give you that is whatever 40 grain bullet is going as fast as possible. In my chronograph testing I've found that Winchester's Hyper Speed is roughly 50 fps faster than Velocitor... but in my .22's it's got some issues cycling. It may not in yours and if you can find some of that ammo, grab it. Nice thing is not only is it faster, it's also cheaper than Velocitor.
 
I will never understand the purpose of a tiny 22lr pistol but if it puts a smile on shooters face then it’s a win. Not sure if any of them are reliable across ammo types. If I’m shooting 22 I want a full size like an SW22 victory, 41, ruger Mk, buckmark etc. IIRC velocitor has a shorter bullet and slightly longer case length so they’re somewhat nonstandard ammo type. I no longer bother with any 22lr lighter than 40 gr projectile.
 
92G said:
I will never understand the purpose of a tiny 22lr pistol but if it puts a smile on shooters face then it’s a win. Not sure if any of them are reliable across ammo types. If I’m shooting 22 I want a full size like an SW22 victory, 41, ruger Mk, buckmark etc. IIRC velocitor has a shorter bullet and slightly longer case length so they’re somewhat nonstandard ammo type. I no longer bother with any 22lr lighter than 40 gr projectile.
Click to expand...
Stinger is the longer case, lighter/shorter bullet. The thing about Stinger is it has a nickel case and I don't think I've ever had a cycling issue with it, but I have found Stinger to be crap for accuracy.

I tend to agree that 40 grain is the best weight for a .22 bullet, but stuff like Yellow Jacket and the 36 gr bulk bricks made by Winchester, Remington, and Federal are still useful based on the price and because the bullets do expand from a rifle.
 
Is 22 more likely to misfire if it's old? I have some federal that was puffing smoke on a few rounds and misfiring. I don't remember this ammo doing that before. I've had it for about 10 years and was wondering with 22 if it matters.

I have shot 30 year old 38 with no problems.
 
When I was looking for a small (light weight) carry pistol, I really liked the reviews & the 'looks' of LCP2 in .380 cal. But I don't think they ever made one for MA.
So, I decided on a BG380 and it was okay for my needs. When the LCP2 .22RF came out a couple years ago, I starting watching the new reviews.
Recently during the apocalypse, I decided the bugs must be worked out by now and purchased one! (Delayed NICS due to TS/SCI/BS etc).
Found a two pack of mags on Ebay, and a neat looking 'DeSantis Gunhide 137, Slim-Tuk' for IWB (on Amazon). Maybe next week I'll get to shoot it!

Anyways, what's the deal on the "Hogue® HandALL® Grip Sleeve"? Won't it get in the way of the mag release? Why was this added?

I have one on my LC9s, because it helps my 75 year old shooting grip. But, don't see the need for this thing on a .22 cal..
Thanks,
Rich
 
Xringer said:
Anyways, what's the deal on the "Hogue® HandALL® Grip Sleeve"? Won't it get in the way of the mag release? Why was this added?


Rich
Click to expand...
I'm sure it had something to do with getting MA approved. Extra girth lets them designate the gun a certain way.
 
I was in Boston today and decided to check out fsguns to see if they still had any of these. They did and now they have 1 less. $385 OTD cash price. No mini mags though.

Weight with magazine after removing hand-all is 10.9 oz.

Just looking at it now. First thing I did was remove the hand-all. Holster and loader was a nice touch. Before you laugh about a loader for a 22, this magazine is difficult to load without it.

Trigger pull was 6.5lbs. It felt heavier. I thought it was closer to 8 but my gauge says 6.5.
 
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MaxStravinsky said:
So I finally got a chance to go to the range with my new Ruger LCP II .22lr. I became interested in it because of the ammo shortage, thought searching for 22 would be less expensive than the larger calibers. The gun itself is only the size of a S&W BG380, and it comes with a decent pocket holster.

I read lots of reviews online, and about half of them really didn't like the gun - said there were lots of failures. But enough people really liked it to give me hope. I cleaned it and took CCI Mini-Mag and CCI Velocitor with me to test it/break it in.

I started with Mini-Mags and immediately had problems. I couldn't shoot even 4 in a row without failure to extract. After struggling with about 20 rounds, I switched to Velocitors and everything was great. It LOVES Velocitors. I ended up shooting 50 of each (100 total). I really like the feel of the Velocitors, the Mini-Mags actually felt wimpy in it.

I'm not sure if the failures were ammo or gun related, or my limp wristing. This is the first time I've shot a handgun since breaking my wrist. But the problem seems to have resolved itself so I'm happy.

I don't consider this really broken in yet - I'm thinking 500 rounds should do it. I'm getting some Stingers next week, and I have some Eley Target on the way one of these days. I hope to find some Aguila to try. I really like this gun, enough to even think about getting a backup. I got it from JackO at the Mill[wave]

I wasn't trying for accuracy - just natural pointing and shooting. Next time I'll see what it can do as far as accuracy.
View attachment 449892
Click to expand...
Thata the country pond fish and game indoor range right?
 
I've put a few hundred rds through mine and it is perfect with MiniMags. Winchester & Remington Golden bullets not too good. Federal Amer Eagle and Aquila ran perfect. I bought some Herter's from Cabelas and had 2 FTF's in 20 rds.
 
Shot one this past week. A club member bought one and wanted me to try it. It's small so the recoil is significantly more than a target 22 I've been shooting. Not 9mm type of recoil but recoil enough to mess up your sight picture. Speaking of sight picture: the sights are TINY which makes proper aiming a crapshoot. I get better grouping with my regular 40 cal Glock at 50 ft than with LCP 22 at 30ft. This brings me to another point: 22LR bullets are SOOO inconsistent unless you go with the expensive competition level stuff but at that point, you are into almost 35cpr.
Not everything is bad about this gun. The trigger is SUPER nice. The break is crisp and the wall where it breaks is SO easy to find shot after shot after shot...
Another nice thing about the gun is that it feels bigger in your hands than it actually is! It reminded me a lot of H&K VP9 grip.
Finally, I shot quite a few mags through it, and not a single failure to feed or stovepipe ejection issue and I was shooting regular bulk 22LR range ammo most of the time! Whatever Ruger did to this gun to make it work well with junk ammo, they nailed it!
And finally, the price makes it an inexpensive, fun at-the-range type of gun or a gun to introduce people to shooting with.

All in all, it's a decent gun but a home run it is not.
 
BigAl23 said:
I've put a few hundred rds through mine and it is perfect with MiniMags. Winchester & Remington Golden bullets not too good. Federal Amer Eagle and Aquila ran perfect. I bought some Herter's from Cabelas and had 2 FTF's in 20 rds.
Click to expand...
Darn on the golden bullets not working well as I have a few boxes. I did snag 500 mini mags today though.
 
Sammy said:
Shot one this past week. A club member bought one and wanted me to try it. It's small so the recoil is significantly more than a target 22 I've been shooting. Not 9mm type of recoil but recoil enough to mess up your sight picture. Speaking of sight picture: the sights are TINY which makes proper aiming a crapshoot. I get better grouping with my regular 40 cal Glock at 50 ft than with LCP 22 at 30ft. This brings me to another point: 22LR bullets are SOOO inconsistent unless you go with the expensive competition level stuff but at that point, you are into almost 35cpr.
Not everything is bad about this gun. The trigger is SUPER nice. The break is crisp and the wall where it breaks is SO easy to find shot after shot after shot...
Another nice thing about the gun is that it feels bigger in your hands than it actually is! It reminded me a lot of H&K VP9 grip.
Finally, I shot quite a few mags through it, and not a single failure to feed or stovepipe ejection issue and I was shooting regular bulk 22LR range ammo most of the time! Whatever Ruger did to this gun to make it work well with junk ammo, they nailed it!
And finally, the price makes it an inexpensive, fun at-the-range type of gun or a gun to introduce people to shooting with.

All in all, it's a decent gun but a home run it is not.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't expect the LCP to be on target at 50 ft, heck, you're talking about a barrel that's only 2.75 and a gun that weighs 10 oz. Barely fits in the hand to keep it steady. I will say it's pretty great at 10-15 ft.
 
My first trip to the range was disappointing, due to Standard Velocity ammo.. So, when I found my high velocity bulk ammo, I went back shot a quick bunch of ammo and it was great. Zero failures. I wasn't trying to shoot good groups. I was quickly shooting 3 mags and reloading them to repeat the process. This ammo is darn good! rapidfire.jpg
 
I’ve had a similar experience that others have had with my Ruger LCP II Lite. The firearm really hates CCI Mini-mags. I didn’t have any FTE. I did have some FTF...but the most plaguing issue was consistent light primer strikes! I read on Ruger Pistol Forums this could be from the Firing Pin. They send replacements frequently. I need to switch ammo today at the range to see if the Mini-mags were the main culprit, but I suspect that the underlying issue is mechanical in nature and must be dealt with by replacing some parts.

www.rugerpistolforums.com

Light Strikes in LCP II .22lr

www.rugerpistolforums.com www.rugerpistolforums.com
 
Rocco Mozz said:
I’ve had a similar experience that others have had with my Ruger LCP II Lite. The firearm really hates CCI Mini-mags. I didn’t have any FTE. I did have some FTF...but the most plaguing issue was consistent light primer strikes! I read on Ruger Pistol Forums this could be from the Firing Pin. They send replacements frequently. I need to switch ammo today at the range to see if the Mini-mags were the main culprit, but I suspect that the underlying issue is mechanical in nature and must be dealt with by replacing some parts.

www.rugerpistolforums.com

Light Strikes in LCP II .22lr

www.rugerpistolforums.com www.rugerpistolforums.com
Click to expand...
I did try that lcp Ruger and quite happy about the advantage arms g17 kit I got instead. Feels and shoots way better. To each his own.
 
Xringer said:
My first trip to the range was disappointing, due to Standard Velocity ammo.. So, when I found my high velocity bulk ammo, I went back shot a quick bunch of ammo and it was great. Zero failures. I wasn't trying to shoot good groups. I was quickly shooting 3 mags and reloading them to repeat the process. This ammo is darn good! View attachment 461092
Click to expand...
I don't understand why you would think this is "great". You discovered your 22 only cycles reliably on high velocity ammo. A "great" 22lr handgun will cycle standard velocity ammo in my opinion. If this were my situation I'd be pissed as both of my current 22 handguns will cycle any 22lr perfectly.....that would be great. But that's just me.
 
whacko said:
I don't understand why you would think this is "great". You discovered your 22 only cycles reliably on high velocity ammo. A "great" 22lr handgun will cycle standard velocity ammo in my opinion. If this were my situation I'd be pissed as both of my current 22 handguns will cycle any 22lr perfectly.....that would be great. But that's just me.
Click to expand...
I remember going down to visit in Texas many years ago and borrowing my cousin's expensive brand new Browning SA-22 rifle. I purchased a bunch of CCI standard velocity.
The same stuff I used when in small bore rifle matches, and also in my old .22 pistols.
It turned out there were a lot of failures to feed. My cousin told me to go buy cheap Bulk Federal High velocity. I did and it worked great.

My other .22 pistols shoot everything but CB caps and .22 Shorts. I knew this Easy-Rack pistol required HV ammo, before I decided to buy it.
The only reason I still have a lot of standard velocity .22 ammo is because I didn't care if it was standard or HV ammo. I never owned a pistol that needed HV only.
The reason I think this pistol is "great", because it's very reliable (so far) with the bulk Federal HV ammo that I have in my safe.

I've seen reviews on YouTube where they tested the LCP2.22LR out of the box will all kinds of ammo and it worked fine. But those are rare.
Most of the reviews show that HV works fine and standard or low velocity will fail most of the time.
 
I have one of the original .380’s and it’s a good gun. Yeah the trigger is long, but the size and weight make up for it. I never bothered worrying about accuracy beyond 15’ as that is the role of the gun. I prefer to ankle carry it as a back up, but it’s also great for smuggling into concerts and such. Never had it found on a pat down
 
In God We Trust said:
I have one of the original .380’s and it’s a good gun. Yeah the trigger is long, but the size and weight make up for it. I never bothered worrying about accuracy beyond 15’ as that is the role of the gun. I prefer to ankle carry it as a back up, but it’s also great for smuggling into concerts and such. Never had it found on a pat down
Click to expand...
I like those long trigger pulls too. But, my old 1990s KelTec P11 was the worse ever! (In the 15 lbs. range) After decades of sitting in the safe, I replaced some springs and the trigger..
Now it's actually a fun shooter. I can even keep them in the black now!
 

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