Stick with high quality, high-velocity ammunition with your Walther P22. Stay away from low quality, low velocity ammo. Brands of ammunition from CCI such as Mini Mags, Velociters and Stingers are consistent high performers, while bulk ammunition form Federal, low velocity rounds from Aguila and Remington Thunderbolts will cause frustrating failures.
In addition to using the correct type of ammunition, performing a few modifications will help to increase the reliability of the P22. There are modifications that can be done to a Walther P22 to reduce if not eliminate the issue of hollow points round catching on the chamber lip, rounds not fully ejecting and rounds failing to feed or chamber completely.
Performing modifications to a firearm is serious business. The suggestions in this article will require much more research and instruction to perform these modifications correctly. If you don’t feel comfortable performing this work, don’t do it at all or take your pistol to a licensed gunsmith for service.
Hollow points have a tendency to catch the sharp lower edge of the chamber thereby stopping the action. To fix this issue, use a file to gently smooth and slightly deepen the bottom rear of the chamber ramp to remove the sharp edge that catches the lead of hollow point rounds.
Another issue with the P22 is that rounds can sometimes partially eject. This issue is sometimes referred to as “stove piping” because the spent casing sits vertically in the action between the chamber and the slide and smokes. Creating a small ark in the ejector of the P22 will help to reduce or eliminate this issue. Remove the ejector arm from your P22 pistol and use a hammer to very gently strike the part of the ejector arm that contacts the spent casing to creating a negative angle from the arm to the casing. This allows the ejector to have a longer follow through and to eject the round with slightly more force.