It’s always fun picking up guns at my FFL. When I opened the box with the Walther 22 WMP (Walther Magnum Pistol), a staff member said, “That’s a .22? Ohhh, it’s a magnum!” I heard that phrase repeated several more times as other people walked by and looked at it. After I shot the gun, I realized why the magnum matters.
That’s the first thing you notice is that the gun is larger than most .22 pistols, so that’s part of why it was surprising to see. Honestly, I was a little concerned with the size of the grip and how well it would work with my small hands. However, it’s a good size for people with larger hands.
Details of the gun include the following:
A couple of really nice features shows Walther is thinking about left-handed shooters – it comes with an ambidextrous slide lock as well as an ambidextrous mag release.
As always, I took it apart to clean it first thing. This was literally the easiest handgun I’ve ever disassembled, cleaned and reassembled. After making sure the gun is unloaded and there is no ammo in the room with you, you simply pull back and lock the slide open, twist the disassembly latch down, pull the slide back then forward off the gun. That’s it. Then put back together in reverse. No extra steps, no pulling the trigger, nothing.
I took it down to my indoor range to try it out. I was a little concerned that after racking it, the reach to the trigger was a bit long for me, but I adjusted my hand and pulled the trigger and hit the target just fine. The next shot did not have that longer length of pull so I was able just to continue shooting without any concern. I found the thickness of the grip was also not the issue that I thought it might be.
The ammunition I shot included the following:
First off, I shot the Personal Defense Punch. I admit, I was a bit startled by the boom and muzzle flash. When you’re used to a little .22LR, it’s not the same. I would say it kicked slightly more though, but not a lot. It produced quite the muzzle flash, which was really fun. I had zero issues with this ammunition.
Now here’s the really cool thing; I shot the WMP while standing, freehand – at seven yards – just to see what it would do right out of the box. I was very impressed with the group size and accuracy, without any work on making sure it was sighted in first.
Next, I tried the Federal 22 WMR Small Game. It performed well also.
Then I shot the CCI Maxi Mag 22 WMR. First off, it felt more like the 22LR, which is not surprising since it’s only 40 grain. I noticed I was expecting a little more of a kick like the others, but there was none. However, apparently the WMP needs that kick, because it didn’t care for this ammo. I had five failures to feed with it. I wanted to make sure it was the ammo and not the gun, so I switched back to the Personal Defense ammunition and it again ran flawlessly.
As usual, it was a fun gun to shoot, as Walthers tend to be. I think the one thing in particular this gun could be used for is “bridging” a newer shooter from a very low recoil .22LR to a little more recoil – without moving up to the bigger bang of a larger caliber. Sometimes, those incremental steps can be the very thing needed to keep someone moving forward in a journey of learning to shoot. Also, since it packs more punch, it could be more effectively used as a personal defense weapon than a 22LR.
Check out the Walther WMP at Walther’s website.
MSRP: $549
Nancy Keaton is a retired college administrator, president of her local gun club, competitive shooter and freelance writer whose work has appeared in A Girl and A Gun Women’s Shooting League, "American Shooting Journal," "American Concealed," "Northwest Meetings + Events," and other publications. She enjoys writing about a wide variety of topics and interviewing ordinary people doing amazing things. To see a compilation of her writing, check out her website at www.nancykeaton.com. View all posts by Nancy Keaton
