2 Questions from a new P22 Owner

Just put the O ring in the center of the spring. It floats as needed when firing. The only problem you might have is if the O ring slides too far to the rear it can get on top of the take down lever and prevent you from pressing it up. If this happens, just move the O ring back toward the muzzle a 1/4 of an inch and then press the take down lever all the way up. BTW, the Ruger SR22 benefits from the same O ring buffer solution.

If you take a moment to observe how your pistol functions.....you will see that the inside surface of the slide where the recoil spring sits simply slams into the face of the take down lever. That is the purpose of the lever....to stop the slide from moving any further rearward until you want to remove the slide.

All the O ring does is sit between the muzzle cup and the front of the take down lever where it acts as a buffer and dampens the impact. You cannot use a thicker O ring or two of them. If you do the slide won't be able to move far enough rearward to be mounted onto the frame nor will the hold open arm engage the slide properly when the mag is empty. 1917

Walther originally had the trigger bar ears properly designed. Then they began to stamp the trigger bar out of plate steel. The stamping process leaves the bottom edge sharp. Unfortunately, when the trigger bar was formed into shape the sharp edge of the ears was on the up side which is where the rearward moving slide impacts the trigger bar to disengage it from the sear after each shot. These sharp steel ears would eat into the much softer zinc slide. Walther has made some progress in recent years of reducing this by adding an additional stamping of the top of the ears which rounds the sharp edge off a bit. My QD was acceptable. But, I re-profiled the ears anyway. I'll put up some pictures to illustrate as soon as I remember my imgur password. Happens to old peeps.....a lot. 1917



Some years ago this is what a typical trigger bar ear would look like. That top, front edge is the only part that the slide engages and that sharp edge from the stamping process would chew on the knockdown ramps pretty quickly. This is what my mod was about, getting rid of that sharp edge. Later I would determine that if the lever was flipped upside down, and the ears sanded off a bit on some emery paper that the resulting slant would exactly match the slant of the knock down ramp under the slide. This all but eliminates any ear damage to the slide.



Above is a picture of the underside of my slide on a target P22. 2,000 rounds and no cleaning or lubing. Will do a thread one day on it. What is of note in my opinion is the impact area where the ears are hit by the slide. This slide has appx. 12,000 cycles on it. Compare it to yours if you will. My ear re-profiling all but eliminates any deformation of the slide ramps. The light impact areas you see above are simply where the ears have burnished off the spent powder and smoke marks. Walther had this right in the beginning....then dropped it.



This is what two minutes of work makes the ears look like. No sharp edge, the front slope on the ear matches the slope of the ramps on the slide. This is from turning the trigger bar upside down, front of the arms on some glass, ears resting on the edge of some 360 grit emery, slide the ears back and forth until the sharp edge is gone, then rub the ears back and forth front to rear on some 600 grit and this is what you will get. Pretty easy but customer service isn't always happy with home smithin'. You really don't need to even go to this much effort...just get rid of the sharp edge if your trigger bar has them. Or let them chew on the slide and Walther can sort it out....lifetime warranty.



Above is a photo of what the ears can do to the knock down ramps under the slide....and this was with some ears that had been rounded a bit. If you look at the earlier picture you can see that the slanted back ears really minimize this swaging of the zinc as compared to just rounding the ear off a slight amt. I don't remember which slide that was but it probably had 15K or 25K cycles on it.

It doesn't matter what P22 you have. They are all the same with regard to what the O ring can do.





Here is a #83 O ring from Lowes resting on the muzzle cup. All you do is slip the O ring over the center of the recoil spring assembly so the guide rod and spring go through the center of the O ring. Lube it a little and install the slide. It will float along the spring as the slide moves back and forth. The O ring will then sit between the portion of the muzzle cup that hits the take down lever. In this position it acts as a rubber bumper between the two hard parts. This softens the rearward stop of the fast moving slide. Just make sure you don't let it fall to the very rear or you won't be able to shove the take down lever up. Solution to that, just move the O ring forward. Hopefully, less cracked slides. Anyway, about 10 of these costs a couple of dollars and last for 1,000 to 2,000 rounds or more each. I don't call it a mod....just an addition of a buffer. 1917

Regardless of year of a P22 I suggest putting the O ring over the guide rod just as shown before assembly. When firing the ring will float along the length of the recoil spring assembly and it doesn't really matter where it sits after each shot. I should get a better picture....a really, really old P22 above and with the grip off. I shoot em, and have experimented with this and that along the way. Remember those active dampers clamped onto the muzzle.....those were some contraptions but they actually reduced muzzle jump quite a bit. Then there was the time I hung a full 1 gal bucket of paint on the end of the add on damper. Rested the pistol and the muzzle didn't jump at all........but, er, ah...the rear of the pistol dropped with each shot. Mother physics is hard to beat. 1917