The Walther P22 is a great .22 caliber pistol as it is, but like many things, there's always room for improvement. There are a few modifications that can be made to the P22 fairly painlessly that eliminate some of its shortcomings and turn it into a truly awesome addition to a sportsman's collection of firearms.
Before I start talking about the modifications, it's important to understand a few key points. First, firearms aren't toys. If you don't feel comfortable modifying your Walther P22, then don't do it. Take it to a gunsmith and ask them to perform the work. It won't cost you too much and the result will be a P22 that functions better but is still perfectly safe. That's a much better result than you attempting the work and rendering the pistol inoperable, or worse, unsafe. Before you do anything to a firearm, make sure that it is unloaded and that ammunition is stowed far away from your work area, preferably in a cabinet or drawer.
Now that we've got the formalities out of the way, let's look at some modifications that will make your P22 a better pistol. If you would like more detailed instructions on any of the modifications described in this article, click on over to SpentBrass or look up the Walther P22 Bible.
To perform the following modifications you will need to disassemble your P22 to varying degrees depending on the modifications that you want to perform. Again, the following to references mentioned earlier will show you how to do this in detail.
The trigger bar "ears" of a stock P22 are often too wide and have jagged or sharp edges that damage the underside of the slide when a round is fired. There is often easy to recognize evidence of this on the slide. Remove the slide from your P22 and look for shiny spots near the trigger bar ramp where zinc is being scraped off. The problem is caused by the trigger bar not sitting correctly against ramp in the slide. To correct the problem, use fine grit emery paper to lightly round the edges of the trigger bar ears.
The next modification helps the P22 to shoot hollow point ammunition without the annoying partially chambered rounds. The problem is that the hole in the center of the lead bullet in a hollow point round catches on the bottom lip of the P22's chamber. Luckily, there's a pretty easy fix. Use a high speed Dremel tool to lightly round the bottom chamber lip. Be very careful not to remove too much metal. You only need to remove the edge of the lip, nothing more.
Then last modification that I'll touch upon improves the P22's ejection of rounds. It will make the action and direction of ejected rounds more consistent. To do this, remove the extractor from the breech block. Once removed, place the extractor on a hard surface like a flat anvil and gently tap the extractor's claw with a hammer. Be very gently. The material is tough but brittle, and hitting too hard will create fractures in the metal. The object is to bend the claw closer to the body of the extractor. Once you've accomplished this, use 400-grit emery paper to remove the hammed marks and to polish the extractor.
