22 Target Pistol

[velocette]

S&W M41. The best US made .22 target pistol, the most expensive and worth it. Here's a well used one

 

[bluetopper]

Any of these ought to do too.

 

[Onmilo]

S&W Model 41

 

[BCRider]

I have to agree about the need to define "good". Do you want absolute accuracy, dead nutz reliable with any ammo, feels the best in your hands or is a decently accurate, decently reliable gun for the buck? There's some that excel at one, two or three of these but precious few that hit the mark on all four. So some give and take is needed.

For decently accurate, very reliable, decent looks and good pricing I'll toss in my own favourites, the S&W 422 or 2206. These are kissing cousins from the lower side of the tracks to the S&W 41.

 

[welldoya]

I have heard great things about the S&W 41 but have never had the pleasure of shooting one. I can vouch for the Colt Match Target though, as well as the standard Colt Woodsman. They aren't cheap though and can easily cost more than a new Model 41.

 

[CSA 357]

for the money the mk2 cant be beat

 

[DickM]

I shoot in a couple of Gallery Pistol leagues. Leaving out the high-end, and expensive, imports (Pardini, Walther GSP & SSP, Hammerli, and a few others), what you'll see on the line are Rugers and Smith 41s. Every now and again somebody will show up with a Smith Mod 22 or Buckmark or something similar, but they are rarely, in my experience, serious competitors. I think that's as good an indicator as any of what would be considered "good" target pistols.

If you can afford it, my advice would be to find a gently used Model 41 and immediately get some good target grips that fit your hand - I like Rinks, but there are others. That should set you back a bit over $1K or so. If you don't want to spend that much, then go with the Ruger. There are matches won every day in our leagues by guys shooting Rugers.

I shot a 41 for years and eventually replaced it with a GSP, which I dearly love, but it has no more usable accuracy than the 41, just a bit more dependability. The 41s can be fussy about ammo and need to be kept clean to run well - most of the alibis we get are guys shooting 41s that haven't been cleaned in a while. (By comparison, I clean my Walther about once a year, which means once every several thousand rounds, and I've never had a failure to fire either in practice or in competition). But if you keep up with the maintenance on the 41, it's as competitive as anything out there and a very good gun for the money.

 

[giggitygiggity]

A Walther GSP is a high quality and accurate and reliable target pistol. For more applications, a Ruger MKII or MKIII or Browning Buckmark is suitable (higher magazine capacity and easy to suppress).

 

[win71]

Any one of these

You may get more bang for your buck with a decent older colt, high standard, or browning. Although I've never owned a S&W 41 I would none the less include it.

 

[SwampWolf]

Another vote for the Smith Model 41. However, the "best buy" imo is the Ruger MKII.