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I'm looking to pick up a rimfire plinker. 99% of it's use will likely be suppressed. Has anyone here got some real world experience with either of these two options? Extra bonus points if you've shot both.
 
With those two? No, however can HIGHLY recommend you consider the Tx22 from Taurus. Best 270$ I have ever spent on any 22 period. For a little more you can get the competition version. Standard version comes with threaded barrel, suppressor ready. 4000+ rds and I dont ever recall a jam. Seriously.

Oh yeah and when suppressed its Hollywood movie quiet. Astoundingly quiet.
 
The FN 502, I have used several times with a can, and really can't say too many bad things about it. Balance and weight is nice and is optic ready. The 502 is actually made by Umarex in Germany for FN. Price point is a bit spendy and it took forever to get one in to my LGS, almost a year, as many were on the waiting list to get one. I got the FDE one with a FDE Rugged Oculus suppressor. .22 suppressed makes it super enjoyable other than the bad fouling the cans get.
 
The FN 502, I have used several times with a can, and really can't say too many bad things about it. Balance and weight is nice and is optic ready. The 502 is actually made by Umarex in Germany for FN. Price point is a bit spendy and it took forever to get one in to my LGS, almost a year, as many were on the waiting list to get one. I got the FDE one with a FDE Rugged Oculus suppressor. .22 suppressed makes it super enjoyable other than the bad fouling the cans get.
This is exactly the reason I dont have mine yet. Still on waiting list for over a year with my go to LGS... dont want to pay the premium for one on gunbroker especially in FDE
 
This is exactly the reason I dont have mine yet. Still on waiting list for over a year with my go to LGS... dont want to pay the premium for one on gunbroker especially in FDE
That sucks. I hope you get one soon. Has your LGS given you any updates? FN stuff in general seems hard to get in anywhere.
After 3 months of waiting, I sort of wrote it off thinking it wasn't going to work, then about a year later, I get a call and went and got it.
At that point, I wished I started the can paperwork sooner, as I probably would have had it around the same time I got the gun.
 
That sucks. I hope you get one soon. Has your LGS given you any updates? FN stuff in general seems hard to get in anywhere.
After 3 months of waiting, I sort of wrote it off thinking it wasn't going to work, then about a year later, I get a call and went and got it.
At that point, I wished I started the can paperwork sooner, as I probably would have had it around the same time I got the gun.
Not trying to hijack this guys thread, but you and I bring up good points to make here- AVALIBILITY. Something like the FN may be harder to get than the P322 for example. Just one of the many things to be aware of, @Elv8DM

That being said, no @Ducati_Meister I haven't heard from my shop but that's mainly because they have stopped doing all transactions due to 114.
 
Owned both, shot both suppressed with multiple different suppressors (Mask, Oculus, El Camino, EA Nyx, EA Nyx Mod2). I no longer own the FN502 as my example at least and my shooting partners were pieces of junk. His stopped functioning on the 2nd 15rd magazine when the trigger reset spring (I think that is what it is called) disappeared. His gun just went dead trigger mid magazine. On mine, the slide was so misaligned from the factory that when you racked it, it wouldn't go forward, it was like last round slide hold open except that the slide catch was not engaged. You would have to tap/push the slide forward till it was seated. While shooting it would sometimes hang up also and you would have to thumb it forward. Put a brick through that piece of junk thinking it just needed to break in and it never got better.

Neither of our FN502's would function properly without running them suppressed which gave us the best chance of getting through an entire mag without a failure to function. Partners FN502 was fixed by FN which handled the situation well and promptly but still should have never happened. The only positive I have to say for them is that they were both very accurate. I wanted to love this gun as the features checked all the boxes I was looking for but I found it to be a complete fail and cut my losses. The other problem I had with the FN502 was the lack of available mags which I now count as a blessing as I didn't waste any more money.

Now lets talk about the P322. This platform also checked all the boxes I was looking for, comes standard with 20rd mags (huge plus) and offers 25 round mags as an additional purchase. Mags have been easy to source for the 20 rounders and if you keep an eye out the 25 rounders have been easy to source the last month though they go out of stock pretty quickly usually. My P322 has been great with no functional issues to date and shows the same accuracy I was getting out of the FN502. I am on my second brick with the P322, running it with a sig optic because I had one laying around from a P365 I upgraded the optic on and run it with either a Dead Air Mask or Rugged Oculus most of the time. I have only had a couple failure to feed/failure to extract incidents but well within acceptable and likely due to the ammo I was using when these occurred which was older federal bulk box that the lube had dried and hardened on. I have had zero issues with newer, quality ammo such as Norma Tac22, CCI standard velocity, etc...

In summary, I won't ever own another FN502 and am happy with my P322. The P322 has been a great addition to my other 22lr pistols and sees equal range time with them. For those who are enjoying and having great success with your FN502 I am happy for you and I hope your ownership experience of it continues to be positive.
 
Suppressor just came in last week. I'll know next week how enjoyable it is.

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I've only put 600 rounds through my P322, but it's been flawless so far. I've seen some reports of excessive lead fouling in the barrel, but I shoot Wallmart special federal 'auto' .22 (tan-ish box of 350rds each) and have had no issues, apart from occasional click-no-bang, which is most likely ammo related.
Don't have a dedicated .22 can yet, but it's super quiet with my 9mm rugged suppressor.

The only thing I don't like about it is the 1/2x28 thread adapter. It has to be removed to field strip the pistol.
 
I have fn302, p322, and ruger mark iv 22/45. If you are not stuck on mag size the ruger beats them all in reliability and accuracy.

I had similar problems mentioned above with the 302. It's actually not manufactured by fn. I did a bunch of work to the slide and rails and functions fine now. The sights are thicccccck. So unless you are trying to play with a rimfire and carry a 509, I would not.

I have an early p322. Had issues with light primer strikes 4-6 out of 20rds. Potentially from a roll pin rubbing on the firing pin. This was resolved by placing a very thin washer from a motorcycle carb below the hammer spring. Have not had reliability issues since.

If you are looking for bigger 302 or 322 mags check out highline in Newberg. They have been in stock every time I have been in.

The 302 and 322 are safe queens unless we go with somone who doesn't have a rimfire pistol. The mk IV gets shot weekly!
 
I have no experience with the FN offering and have only shot an acquaintance's Taurus once.

I do own a Sig P322 and shoot with two others who also own Sigs (both purchased after shooting mine a ton). I'm about 8,000 rounds in on my pistol, my friends are around a couple of thousand rounds into theirs. When shooting suppressed, I use an Oculus22 and it's "Hollywood" quite as other's have mentioned.

These guns are accurate and just plain run, with one qualification and one technique issue. My Ruger MK2 Target is more accurate, as are other Ruger's I've shot or seen shot but ... you are dealing with a much heavier pistol and need to be running match grade ($$$) ammo to see a meaningful difference.

So, if I'm shooting formal bullseye type of competition, I'll grab my Ruger Mk2 every time. If I'm shooting pop cans, trail hiking, steel challenge courses of fire (read anything dynamic), teaching a new recoil shy shooter etc. the Sig has moved into first place.

The technique issue is related to the magazine (either the 20 or 25 round versions, which are pretty easy to find in today's market). These are true double stack magazines so you have to be careful loading rimmed cartridges otherwise it may cause a feeding issue.

Using the side buttons or the incredibly well-designed loading tool that is included with the pistol, be careful to pull the follower down just enough to allow the cartridge to slide under the feed lips. When doing this for each round, the rim of the lower rounds stays behind the rim of the newly loaded round and feeding is perfect. It's super easy to do once you get the idea and Sig has a 90-second demo video on their site, showing how it works. Failure to do this can result in the upper rounds rim being positioned behind the lower rounds rim, which is what causes the feeding issue.

In the low-cost ammo category, my pistol shoots CCI standard velocity and Norma Tac-22 quite well, say 50-cent piece sized groups when shot rested at 50 feet. It drops to quarter or dimed sized groups when shooting better stuff from SK, RWS, or Eley. For how I typically use the gun I don't spend the extra money. For shooting steel challenge type if matches I usually run Blazer or Federal bulk, and everything works out great. I'll go with the CCI Standard or Tac-22 if shooting paper and wanting a bit better grouping. Again, if I'm shooting an actual Bullseye / Precision match the Ruger comes out to play.

The only failures I've had were ammo related once I learned the magazine loading trick. Since that time all pistol related failures have disappeared. So, thousands of failure-free rounds fired, suppressed or loud. I clean every brick or so of shooting. Compare that to Glock's factory recommendation that their G44 be cleaned every 100 rounds! You don't believe me, look in the manual!

My friend's pistols mirror mine. They shoot primarily the cheaper Blazer, Federal, Aguilla type of ammo without any feeding issues, getting the accuracy you would expect from this level of ammo, comparable to what I'm getting as detailed a bit earlier in this post.

As noted earlier by @SnowGhost the threaded barrel adapter must be exchanged with the flush fitting thread protector to remove the slide, but it's not a huge deal as it only adds a half-minute to tear-down and reassembly time.

All three Sigs exhibit very similar triggers, which were very nice right out of the boxes and improved with shooting. They don't compare to my match tuned Ruger, but these are not match guns. I was not impressed with the sole TX-22 trigger I have pressed, but even that Taurus is miles ahead of the spongy, "bendy" feeling trigger you get with the Glock 44.

I hope this helps.
 
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Appreciate the info everyone! I ended up buying a 322. I've only shot 50 rounds through it while I wait for my can, but it's been great so far.
 
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I bought a Taurus TX 22 compact recently and threw a holosun 407k on it and the thing is a blast, no regrets on the purchase and it's concealable. High recommend, have not shot it suppressed
 
I know of a pistol that shoots really well suppressed. It's seen high round count to boot.


It's the TX22.
 
I know of a pistol that shoots really well suppressed. It's seen high round count to boot.


It's the TX22.
I know I know, but... Taurus.

Joke's aside, I've heard nothing but great reviews of the TX-22 lineup. I'm not opposed to having one at all, but the Mark IV, 502, & 322 are higher up on the priority list for me.
 
It's always a surprise how much people will spend on a pot metal Umarex or any Taurus when you can still buy a Ruger MkII for under $400.
 

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