I've never really spent much time with .22 pistols. A couple of years ago, PSA enticed me to buy a GSG Firefly, just because it was so cheap. Reviews were mixed but for $150, plus transfer fee, I thought why not? When it arrived I promptly threw it in the safe and forgot about it. Recently, I've had plenty of opportunity finally to shoot said pistol and I have not been disappointed. So long as I use quality, hi velocity ammo (Mini Mags, Stingers) it is very reliable. It is also very loud for a .22 and I have years of stockpiled .22 ammo, not all of which is high velocity. Plus, I like wheel guns. Enter the cheapest .22 revolver money can buy, the Heritage Rough Rider. Again from PSA, $147 with transfer when all is said and done. Also impressed. I can shoot any .22 ammo I want from it, from wife pleasing subsonics to .22 mag should I want to spend $30 on another cylinder. Strangely, my wife tells me that even when shooting high velocity, the revolver is much quieter than the auto. Accuracy for both seems good but I have nothing empirical other than some beer cans with holes in them, shot at about wherever I feel like yards. The revolver does seem more accurate that the auto. Triggers on both are good given the price, the Rough Rider winning out in SA. DA on the Firefly is just so so.
Along with this cheap fun miracle, I've also had a holster miracle! A few years back, Mr. Bucolic sent me a lovely black leather S&W long barrel revolver holster that absolutely did not fit my 29-2. Bottom of the safe it went. Years before that, I purchased a beautiful black leather Czech Police holster for CZ 75 Compact. It was intended for my Tanfoglio Witness, which does indeed fit, sort of. My Witness is not compact and the end of the barrel and the slide protrude in a way I never cared for. I also never holster that gun. So the Rough Rider fits the revolver Holster and the Firefly fits the CZ 75 Holster. I do sometimes holster one or the other around the farm, lest I happen across something that looks like it might need to be shot. So all is good and right in the world and some bottom of the safe, island of misfit holsters have purpose again.
I have no issue recommending either of these guns. In fact, I'd go as far as to say if you're into shooting there is little reason NOT to own one or both of these, particularly the Rough Rider. I would certainly recommend the Rough Rider as a first handgun for someone just curious about firearms.
And of course this thread would be incomplete without pics. Some quick snaps as I unpacked last night.
An Ode to Cheap .22 Handguns
1'Sorry stupid people but there are some definite disadvantages to being stupid."
-John Cleese
-John Cleese