M&P 15-22 first impressions

[shibumiseeker]

I posted in another thread about picking one up last night. I had been debating a standard ar15 upper receiver in .22lr, or this. I now have had a chance to thoroughly inspect mine. I had researched it some before buying, but there's nothing like hands-on:

Things I was happy about:

Full length quad rail.
Easy bolt removal and cleaning (the bane of most .22lrs)
Comes with removable BUIS.
Inner trigger group appears to be identical to standard ar15 parts.
Gun is very light.
Bolt locking open on last shot.
Identical controls to an AR.
It looks like I will be able to replace the A2 hand grip. All my ARs wear the Magpul MIAD grip as it fits my hand very well and I like the storage. Should be able to fit quite a bit of .22 ammo in the handle

Things I was a little disappointed about:

Milspec buffer tube was part of the molded lower receiver, IE not removable. I'm also concerned about this part of the weapon being a weak point if I bang it too hard. It also means I may not be able to put a single point sling attachment point.

Trigger is gritty. It feels like a standard cheap ar15 trigger before any work has been done to it. It really doesn't take much work to smooth out a trigger and I'm surprised S&W would not take a little extra time on this detail as it's one of the more obvious areas where a user will gain impressions of the gun. I know it'll smooth up with use, and if I lightly polish the surfaces, but it's mildly disappointing.

Lower trigger guard is part of the lower cast and not replaceable. It is a little curved so should have room for a gloved finger.

Overall before shooting:

I like it, it felt very familiar right out of the box. The balance was good, and the fit and finish (other than the trigger) seems superb. I paid $430 plus tax and feel like it was worth what I paid for it. This gun eventually will wear a light and a laser and be my late night varmit gun as well as a little squirrel hunting, so sharing controls with my home defense rifles are a plus for me as both will be ones I will grab in the middle of the night when I've been asleep.



I'll be shooting it in a little bit this morning and will post back once I've put a couple hundred rounds through it. And no, I don't have any pics. It looks like any other stock M&P 15-22 for which there are thousands of images out there.

 

[alexanjl12]

I just purchased one this weekend from a fellow INGO member. He had put in a trigger spring kit in it. I took it to the range yesterday and absolutely loved it. See as how its my first and as of right now, only semi-auto, I really cant compare it to anything, but I will say I had an absolute blast shooting it. It was hard to put down, it was so fun and cheap on the wallet to shoot. It ate the federal bulk like candy

 

[shibumiseeker]

I just put a hundred rounds through it, using all three magazines. I didn't do anything to the gun out of the box other than to make sure there were no barrel obstructions. All ammo was the Winchester 555 bulk pack. The first magazine was flawless. The second magazine had one failure about round 18, the brass didn't eject all the way and got crunched, but the next round had loaded. It wasn't a failure to extract the brass from the chamber, it did that fine. It also had one failure to fire, but that was ammo related since there was a healthy primer strike. I lubed the gun up and ran that same magazine through again with no problems. The third magazine was more problematic, with three of the failures to fully eject the same way the second magazine did.

Considering that this is a .22lr stock out of the box I am not at all unhappy with its feeding, though we'll see what it does as it breaks in some. It's a little better performance than most .22lrs I've owned over the years, especially considering its 25 round magazine; I've never had good luck with larger magazines for .22lrs. I'm going to put another hundred or so downrange a little later this morning.

As far as shooting, the bad news is that it was FUN to shoot. I'm not a rapid fire kinda guy, but it made it so EASY to do. This is going to be an excellent training gun, and I can already see that I'm going to have to increase my .22 ammo stock.

I was firing for function this time but was still able to maintain about a 5" circle at 50' standing and rapid firing, next time I'll fire for accuracy from a rest and see what the gun can do.

In all, thus far I'm still pretty happy with it.

 

[alexanjl12]

As far as shooting, the bad news is that it was FUN to shoot. I'm not a rapid fire kinda guy, but it made it so EASY to do. This is going to be an excellent training gun, and I can already see that I'm going to have to increase my .22 ammo stock.
quote]


I know exactly what you mean...I couldnt help myself but to pull the trigger as fast as I could on a few mags.

Are you planning on leaving it stock for now and just increasing your ammo amount? or are you planning on adding some stuff to it?

 

[shibumiseeker]

As far as shooting, the bad news is that it was FUN to shoot. I'm not a rapid fire kinda guy, but it made it so EASY to do. This is going to be an excellent training gun, and I can already see that I'm going to have to increase my .22 ammo stock.
quote]


I know exactly what you mean...I couldnt help myself but to pull the trigger as fast as I could on a few mags.

Are you planning on leaving it stock for now and just increasing your ammo amount? or are you planning on adding some stuff to it?

Other than the light/laser and the Magpul MIAD grip I mention in my OP, I'm going to leave it stock. I've got several tens of k rounds of .22, so I'm not too worried about depleting my stock yet

I'm still going to get a dedicated .22lr upper and work on it to build a precision rig, but for now I'm really happy with the decision to get the 15-22 first.


I have the Ceiner kit which resides in my BOB, and I take it out and use it in my to-go AR15 from time to time, but then I spend forever cleaning the gas tube and bolt in my AR.

 

[sj kahr k40]

I've put about 3000 rounds thru mine, other than a few FTE, shell came out of bore but didn't leave the rifle, with the first couple of mags mine has worked fine

 

[Naptown]

thanks for the info!

 

[shibumiseeker]

thanks for the info!

Your welcome!

I and Dr. Falken shot it another hundred or so rounds today and had a couple more failure to fully eject and one light primer strike. Both of us like it pretty well though, maybe he'll get on here and give his impressions. I'm going to run some CCIs through it and see how they perform.

The more I've shot it the better I like it.

 

[Fenway]

Thanks for the review +rep

 

[INMIline]

Now you need a can on the end of that thing!

 

[shibumiseeker]

Now you need a can on the end of that thing!

Ha! You NFA people have been tempting me ever closer to a can. I think though that my first can will sit on a .223 AR15...

 

[Principal Skinr]

What would a decent can cost, with the tax stamp or whatever is required?

 

[Aggar]

Thanks for the info. I've been wanting one for a while. Just cheaper to plink and it looks like a hell of a lot of fun. The only thing I can see is grabbing the wrong one in a hurry and going pop instead of bang!

 

[Clay]

What would a decent can cost, with the tax stamp or whatever is required?

Around $400 give or take a little.

and it does look sweet hanging off the end of my M&P15-22!

 

[bigus_D]

Around $400 give or take a little.

and it does look sweet hanging off the end of my M&P15-22!

+1!

Though, my M&P15-22 is in transit back to Smith & Wesson. I experienced frequent jamming... more importantly, it sent two or three rounds down range on a single trigger pull during my last range trip. A quick call to S&W and a couple of days later I had a FedEx return label.

 

[shibumiseeker]

This morning and early afternoon I put another 150 rounds through it and only had 2 of the failure to eject type problems. My guess is that it's at least somewhat ammo dependent. I'll be getting some CCIs and see if they do it as well. Mind you, I'm not unhappy, it's still pretty decent performance for a .22lr semiauto.

While I haven't had a chance to put it in a rest to see how it does, I did shoot from the bench with the front of the gun supported by my hand on a rest and I was happy with the accuracy. At 50' all 25 rounds went into a 2" group, and I suspect much of that was me, not the gun.


So, I'm going to conclude this thread with the fact that I am glad I got it, and I've had fun shooting it. I certainly recommend this gun, and I'll be selling the Remington 597 which I just don't like to shoot, but keeping my 10/22 since, well, everyone should have one, right?

 

[Clay]

It will get better, well, at least mine has been flawless. I bought it used off of a member of INGO. He said it had a couple thousand rounds through it if I remember correctly.

Ive run another 500 or 600 through it with out one problem. This includes CCI mini mags, federal bulk, rem bulk, cci stingers, remington sub sonics, and some winchesters of some sort. all of those also shot suppressed, with no issues.

 

[LLDJR]

There is a "how to" link below on adjusting the Extractor, outs worked great after I did this below,,, we have shot 3k rounds sicne

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO76HC9tD4g]YouTube - Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22 Ejector (Extractor) Fix[/ame]

 

[shibumiseeker]

There is a "how to" link below on adjusting the Extractor, outs worked great after I did this below,,, we have shot 3k rounds sicne

Good find, and repped!

 

[jwh7399]

Great review, thanks!