K22 Long Barrel Pistol from Caledonian Classic Arms- initial review plus Youtube vid

[arsefactor]

Hi folks

Well I treated myself to one of these recently and I have to say it's smashing.

Since it's a .22 blowback version of the Grand Power 9mm pistol, it's based on a proven design. Obviously we've got the stupid length barrel and coathanger but otherwise it's a standard K22.
Frame is polymer and steel with the slide being all steel and running on steel rails. I have the X-Trim version which has a lightened slide, I also went for the large ambi safety, competition trigger, Ellison adjustable sights and enlarged mag release.

The trigger has moderate travel, you can feel the release point if you take a slow shot, it's very predictable. Trigger reset is short so you're not letting the trigger all the way out for the next shot. Very good for rapid fire or double taps, if that's your thing.

The barrel on the x-trim is fluted to reduce weight and is threaded. You can shoot with the shroud on or off, your choice. Centre of gravity with the shroud fitted is right on the trigger, this is by far the best handling LBP in my opinion. I've handled the TSC 1911 and several Buckmark conversions and this K22 simply handles better. It's quite light as well but doesn't feel "plasticky", just well balanced. Everyone who's picked it up immediately says "wow that's nice" or similar.

Mechanism is very simple - barrel is fixed to the frame - and is very accurate - with the blowback reciprocating the slide in the conventional manner. No barrel bushings to worry about here, the barrel doesn't move at all.

The mags are plastic but well made and should handle being dropped. They hold 16 rounds each with higher capacity mags on the way soon. Loading is easy, you can load by hand or if you want an easy option, you can pop a small allen key/screwdriver/whatever through a cut-out in the mag and pull the follower down. I've found I can load a full 16 rounds without pullling the follower. The mags have enlarged bottoms and the magwell is a funnel design making fast mag changes a breeze. Hitting the mag release allows the mag to drop out immediately, you don't need to pull it.

Spent round ejection is positive and I've had nearly 1,000 rounds through it in two weeks without any issues. Gun comes with two recoil springs, for standard and HV ammo. Spring change takes 20 seconds but I've not needed to change mine and have tried CCI standard, Geco, Winchester Laser, R50 and Eley Team and they all performed great.

You get two 13 round mags and hard carry case with the gun so other than ammo you're ready to go.

I've just shot with the iron sights at the moment and off a rest with my rubbish eyes I was pulling a 1.5" group at 20 yards. I know the gun will do better than this.

The gun is very simple to clean and will field strip in seconds. I've done a Youtube video which shows this and talks about the gun ;

http://youtu.be/J_qg6THTEck

I should be fitting a mount and reflex sight soon, I'll pop up another vid when I've done that.

Cheers!
PaulM