Smith and Wesson 22-4, Reviewed by Daniel Balderas

You don’t get many do-overs in life. Second chances just don’t come around often. Recently I had the chance to buy my second first gun and I decided that, unlike last time, there would be no compromises. I would do the research and get what I wanted. Buying any firearm is a very opinionated and subjective thing, but I’m going to share with you my thoughts and the process I went through in choosing a new handgun.

After I got out of the Air Force in 2007, money was tight. I had to sell my meager gun collection. It was a disappointment but, with so many other things going, I just had to do it. A year later things were more stable and I started looking into getting another handgun.

I decided to start with caliber choice. For me, that was easy: .45 Long Colt. I fell in love with .45 LC the first time I shot it. A double action six gun in .45 LC would be fantastic but, with the very high cost of ammo and limited availability, I knew it wasn’t a realistic possibility. So, after doing some research and going on my experiences with other firearms, I decided on .45ACP. It is widely available everywhere, it has a pretty broad variety of ammo, and it is a proven caliber choice. 45 ACP has a rich history that doesn’t need to berepeated here. I’m able to shoot it a bit easier then .357 Magnum, and it is a larger bullet then 9mm. (.357 and 9mm were my other two choices.)

The size of your carry gun can be a touchy subject. I see a lot of things written about it in magazines and on web forums. I’m of the opinion that you should always carry a full-size gun. It just makes sense. The whole concept of carrying a firearm is about being able to stack the odds in your favor. You stack those odds even further by carrying something that you can more easily shoot and with which you will be more accurate. For me it wasn’t even a choice. This gun would be my one gun for an unknown amount of time, so it had to be full size.

The next decision I faced was what type of gun I wanted. To answer that I had to first determine what I intended to use it for. Self defense was one obvious answer, but beyond that, what expectations did I have? Being one that likes to prepare for the worst, I wanted something I didn’t have to worry would fail. Reliability is all important and for me a close second is shootability. I’ve always shot revolvers better then semi-autos, but being able to carry 8-12 rounds in a single magazine isn’t something to be ignored. In the end I went with my inner cowboy and decided that I wanted a revolver, but that didn’t mean I could get one.

Revolvers in 45 ACP are available, but they are not cheap. Money is an issue for everyone and I didn’t have a lot to drop on a really expensive gun. What does this mean for my quest to be armed? It means I flip flopped back and forth over what I should buy. A used Glock 17 can be had for $300 -$400 pretty easily and 9mm is just as available as 45 ACP — probably more so, and it costs less. If you want more power, the Ruger Six Series in .357 Magnum is still available online for about $350. So what was I waiting for? These are two fantastic guns that could easily see a person through the zombie apocalypse, so why hesitate? The fact was, I had a .45 ACP itch that had to be scratched.

I started looking at the 1911 — the famed and venerable veteran of many conflicts, the divinely inspired child of the genius of John Moses Browning, the gun, the myth, the legend, the 1911. Going by what you hear on the Net, when you carry a 1911, you can either have an accurate gun that jams all the time or a gun that will fire anything but shoots 14” groups. Well obviously it’s not quite that bad, but there are reliability issues that can happen with the various versions of the 1911. Like many others I think I would have been well served by the choice of one, but in the end it just wasn’t what I wanted.

After all this back and forth, all this indecision, I thought to myself, “Fuck it. Just get what you know you want.”

Smith and Wesson was my only choice when it came to a big bore six gun. Taurus also makes what I have heard is a good gun, but I don’t want to have to deal with customer support that is not in the country. S&W makes quite a few guns in .45 ACP, but they have somewhat recently released the Classics series. These are re-releases of the guns they made once upon a time. I knew I had to have one. Maybe I watched too many cowboy movies, maybe I’ve read too much John Taffin, but either way, I knew that I had found my second first gun.

The Smith and Wesson model 22-4 is an N-frame .45 ACP revolver. Because there is no rim on the cartridge cases, the gun is loaded by using moon clips. This makes loading the gun much faster than it would normally be with a revolver. In fact it was the use of moon clips that sealed the deal for me when deciding between this and a semi-auto. The revolver is also not sensitive to the type of ammo it is loaded with: ball, hollow point, lead semi-wadcutters… it can shoot them all. The Smith and Wesson 22-4 can even fire .45 Super. It has reliability, it has shootability, it offers quick reloads, a wide variety of ammo is available for it. These factors all make the Model 22-4 a serious and effective full-sized sixgun.

Not long after I purchased the gun, I was able to get to the range for some test firing. After much of your typical gun guy banter with the gentlemen that work there, I headed to my stall. I didn’t have as much ammo as I would have liked, only 54 rounds, but I felt like it would be enough to get a feel for the gun. I had 48 rounds of Remington 230gr ball ammo and 6 of Hornady XTP +P hollowpoint ammo.

I had a couple of expectations going into it. I figured that my performance would be very poor due to the fact that I hadn’t been to a range since about 2005. I also assumed the stock wood grips would hurt my hands. I have frequently read that the stock grips on classic S&W revolvers were painful.

I was wrong on both counts. The grips didn’t hurt at all. In fact, I felt like I shot fairly well with them, and I wasn’t as bad as I expected. My first volley of double action was just that; I was all over the place. After making some adjustments to my grip and stance I was able to narrow it down.

All told I averaged about a 5” group. There is much room for improvement, but my best group of six shot single action was about 1 ¾” and my best group firing double action was about 3 ¾” — all at 21 feet. That’s not fantastic, but I’m not embarrassed.

Next, I lined up the silhouette target and had some fun. Rapid fire is not allowed at this range, but I snuck in 12 quick ones. I basically pulled the trigger as soon as I had a good sight picture and reloaded as quickly as I could. I was able to keep everything inside the eight ring.

The revolver felt like it was true to aim. I didn’t feel like it was drifting in one direction or the other. One thing that surprised me was the recoil. Even as heavy as it is, it recoiled more than I expected. I wouldn’t call it punishing recoil by any stretch, but it was more then I thought I would feel.

I officially have my second first gun. It is a familiar and reliable operating system that is comfortable to shoot. I shoot it well. It is a proven and widely available caliber. Do I feel under-armed with only six shots? Hell no. I feel prepared once again.

For men like me and for all the martialists reading this, guns aren’t just a hobby. I feel like I have a moral obligation to be armed, an obligation to myself and to my loved ones to be there to protect and defend them when needed. There is still much work to be done, but I have started on the path again and it feels good.