Review: CCI Mini-Mag HP & CCI Stinger

As I posted previously, I put 250 rounds through my Walther P22 and the CCI Mini-Mag HP's & CCI Stingers performed flawlessly. No jams, no fail to fires, no fail to ejects. Being that this was a .22, I was concerned about potential FTF's and rounds not loading properly, but my P22 ate up the CCI ammunition.



I put 200 rounds of the Mini-Mag HP's and 50 rounds of the Stingers through the P22. I can tell you that the Stingers do have more 'kick' to them - the felt recoil was stronger when using the Stingers. I mixed the rounds in the mag and whenever a Stinger was shot, I could definitely feel it. You could see it too as the flash from the Stingers was definitely brighter.

Per CCI's website, the velocity generated by a Stinger vs the Mini-Mag HP:

• At muzzle - 1640 ft/sec vs 1260 ft/sec
  
• At 50 yards - 1292 ft/sec vs 1104 ft/sec
  

The energy generated by a Stinger vs the Mini-Mag HP:

• At muzzle - 191 ft-lbs vs 127 ft-lbs
  
• At 50 yards - 119 ft-lbs vs 97 ft-lbs
  

I realize these measured figures are probably for a rifle, so the numbers will differ for a handgun. However, I definitely felt a difference with the Stingers.

As one of the YouTube videos I embedded on a previous post about the ammo for the Walther P22 suggested, I'll be using the Stinger as a self-defense round only. The P22 is rated for high-velocity ammo, so the Mini-Mag HP is just right for consistent use at the range. The Stingers are "hypervelocity", so I'm going to assume that it packs a bit more powder. At this point, I'm not inclined to shorten the life of the P22 by putting too much pressure through it with the Stingers.

This works for me as 100 rounds of the CCI Mini-Mag HP's at Walmart cost about $6.47, while 50 rounds of the CCI Stingers run about $5.47. For $1 more, I'm getting 50 more rounds and that just means more fun at the range.

Basic Handgun Class

The day finally arrived and I took the Basic Handgun Class offered by Greg Block at Burro Canyon Shooting Park in Azusa, CA.



The class was roughly 6 hours in length:

• 2 hours of lecture - Fundamentals of Firearms Safety, along with the skills necessary to properly handle a revolver and semi-automatic pistol; understanding of what a handgun will do, what it won't do, and why it works the way it works.
  
• 4 hours of shooting - Proper Stance and Grip, Sight Alignment, Sight Picture and Trigger Control; rapid fire/combat shooting with multi-target drills on life-size paper silhouette targets. Every student is required to shoot 250 rounds with their handgun.

I had the smallest caliber gun in the class with my Walther P22 shooting .22lr. Everyone else either had a 38 revolver (as provided by the instructor) or brought their own semi-automatics which were either .45's or .40's. In fact, when one of the instructors (there were 4 instructors for 9 students) pulled out my P22 to inspect it, his exact comment to me was, "Oh, how cute!"

Anyways, my Walther P22 was a champ. It ate up all 250 rounds (200 rounds of CCI Mini Mags and 50 rounds of CCI Stingers). All rounds fired flawlessly - no jams, no FTF, no FTE, etc. I couldn't say the same about the other students' semi-auto handguns: a few jammed, some needed lube half way through, one even got a squib. The cute Walther P22 was just fine....thank you very much!

All in all, it was a very good class. I learned a lot and corrected a lot of things that will help my shooting. The biggest thing for me was my sight alignment (I had a tendency to focus on the target immediately after having acquired the target via the sights) and trigger pull (where I tended to pull the gun slightly to the left when pulling the trigger). As the class progressed, I was able to slowly correct these issues and my shot placement improved to where I was either hitting the target or within an inch of the target.

If you're in Los Angeles and looking for a basic handgun class, I would highly recommend this class. It's well worth the money to pickup these fundamentals and I'm looking forward to my next range session to further hone what I learned from Greg.

PS - If you have never been to Burro Canyon, it's located in the San Gabriel Canyon of the Angeles National Forest. There is absolutely no cell phone signal/reception up there, so be prepared to be away from it all the entire time you are there. Restrooms are just porta potties; and according to the schedule on the doors, they are serviced once per week.

Walther P22 in My Possession!

Well, the 10-day waiting period is finally over and look at what I finally picked up!



That's right - the Walther P22 and all its goodies are finally in my possession! Here's what I got:

• A 'like new' Walther P22
• Walther Lasersight
• Walther Red Dot Scope Sight
• 4 magazines (each holding 10 rounds)
• Walther P22 Case
• Gun lock (not shown)

Here's a close-up of the P22.



As I stated before, this is my first handgun and hopefully not my last. I have my eye on the Walther P99 and figured the P22 would be a great first "training" gun. It feels good in my hand - not too big and not too small; the one magazine with the finger rest makes it even better. I'll have to see if I can get the finger rest plates for the other 3 magazines.

I plan to take a "Basic Handgun" course within the next few weeks to get the fundamentals down. Right now, I'm sitting on 450 rounds of .22lr for the P22 - 400 rounds of CCI Mini-Mag (for shooting at the range) and 50 rounds of CCI Stingers (for self defense). Of course, .22lr caliber doesn't have the "stopping power" that the bigger calibers do, but it will do...for now.