You like the Smith & Wesson M&P22 Compact? I do. First becoming aware of the great utility of the little pistol from the writings of Claude Werner, I jumped at the chance to get one and start using it. The one I got has the threaded barrel – for which I have no use as I don’t own a suppressor.
Shortly after my purchase and use of the little heater, I became aware that people had trouble removing the barrel nut/thread protectors on these little guns. Stories of factory-supplied wrenches breaking and extreme measures following. Some wouldn’t field strip to clean the gun, just doing as best as they could to get at the grime with the slide locked open.
Surely it couldn’t be that bad, I figured. Then I broke the wrench.
Searching the internet, I found that people were buying a specialty wrench – and, at that, they had to use a ‘cheater’ bar to get the offending part clear – a risky proposition at best. At least one user replaced the factory barrel nut on the barrel and found – surprisingly – he couldn’t get it off again!
I bought the wrench and a replacement thread protector. The wrench and replacement cap came from EWK Arms. Based on the ease of ordering and the quick fulfillment, I’m liking this company.
The company advertises parts, tools and barrel threading services for a number of guns. Check them out.
And no, I still couldn’t get the factory part broken free. Calling on a friend with more experience than I, the components were turned over to him for his tender care.
And no, I won’t tell you what he did to get the offending part removed. Let’s just say that it took some Herculean effort, bad words and soaking in a special potion.
Once the factory barrel nut was removed, it went into a plastic bag. Someone else can muck about it with after I’m through with it.
The replacement was installed making the pistol look like a non-threaded barrel; the new barrel nut doesn’t extend from the face of the slide.
It remained only to check the work and I could best do that by shooting the fine little heater. Except for that barrel contraption, I always found the pistol very pleasant and fun to shoot.
In my estimation, the best way to get any semiauto pistol to choke is to hold it loosely when firing, shooting it one-handed. With a 22 pistol, bulk ammo seems to have the most variation in velocity round-to-round, so I use value priced ammo for this chore. It doesn’t hurt to check for reliability after a pistol has had some work done on it.
There’s also the potential – since we’re messing with the barrel at the muzzle – that accuracy could be affected.
I used Federal AutoMatch for function testing and some Winchester Super-X for accuracy. The function was 100%. From 15 yards, I was easily keeping hits on a half-sheet of copy paper. I finished by closing in to around five yards and put five rounds into the barcode on a bullseye target.
A pint-sized trainer for experienced shooters and newcomers alike, the repaired M&P22 Compact was ready for service. I’d note that there are some folks out there who’ve never had this trouble with the barrel nut on their M&P22 Compact pistols.
It’s just my luck.
-- Rich Grassi
