Member Review: Grand Power K22 Xtrim

The Grand Powers K22 Xtrim – If you listen to Slamfire Radio or New Shooter Canada, you might have heard Trevor and George complain about my compensated 22 with a red dot or the cheater gun(it’s not a cheater gun!) winning the last two Charity Shoot Zombie matches….with or without me shooting the gun.

My Ruger Mk111 22/45 is a nice gun, but it did not come that way from the factor. Out of the box the trigger pull was a heavy 9lbs. The trigger face was very narrow and the grips……well there were no grips, just the factory molded checkering. It was very uncomfortable to hold and the trigger was horrible. l ended up spending a lot of money ordering replacement parts, springs and custom made grips just to make the gun shootable.

Last year l had the opportunity to try new Slovakian made Grand Power K22 Xtrim 22LR pistol. Out of box this gun is perfect and does not require any further work or money out of your pocket. Unless you need more than the two supplied magazine. Ok knowing me…..maybe a comp since the barrel is threaded.

What surprised me the most was the factory trigger. Its single action pull was clean breaking 3lbs, with the shortest reset l have ever seen. The double action pull was a smooth and non stacking 8lbs. It felt more like a tuned revolver trigger, than a DA pistol. Very nice indeed.

Four interchangeable back straps are included to fit any size hand. The largest grip worked best for me, but is easily changed out for smaller hands. All of the controls are ambidextrous and very easy to reach. It also has a speed feed feature, for super fast mag changes and it does not have the dreaded magazine disconnect either.

The sights are fully adjustable Elliason target sights, with a fibre optic insert in the front. A very nice sight picture for precision target shooting. There is also a rail on the dust cover for a light or optic mount. Although Grand Power does not offer an optics mount…..yet! People have modified other mounts to work.

Grand Powers K22 X-TRIM model comes with a highly fluted and lightened steel slide. No aluminum or pot metal in this blowback gun. Except for some light machining swirls at the bottom of each lightening cut, the fit and finish was very well executed. Speaking of finishes, GP uses the highly corrosion resistant Tennifer finish to protect the metal. The slides surfaces were very nicely polished with a deep blue/black colour.

Similar to the Beretta slide, there is no side ejection port for your rounds to get caught up in either. Actually the base model K22 slide look like a scaled down Beretta slide.

The guns steel sub frame is easily removable and reminds me of a 2011 design. And being a blowback design, its threaded barrel 5 inch is fixed.

At the range, l brought some Aquila standard and high velocity 22s as test ammo. l set up two targets at 23 yards and fired 10 shots at each target…….well 11 shots on my first target. l did not expect the trigger to be as light as it was and l inadvertently had a negligent discharge before l was properly lined up. My shot was still on target, but not when l was ready to shoot. So l topped up the mag and tried again.

After shooting the two mags, l walked down the range to check my two targets. l stood looking dumbfounded at my two targets for a few minutes. Those were the best two open sighted targets l had ever shot with my aging eyes. l saw no need for further accuracy testing and packed up my gear and left. When l got home…..l ordered a K22 Xtrim!

*note-The l only failures l have had were self induced. Being a 22 blowback, there’s not much recoil in the traditional sense. But the gun only weighs 740g with an empty mag. And even though the slide has been lightened, it’s still solid steel riding on top of a light polymer frame. There is a little muzzle flip with hotter 22 loads, so you can induce a limp wristing failure with an improper grip.

About the author: newshootcanada

Tell us something about yourself.