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Walther’s SP22 and Shooting Steel
Posted by Junior Shooters
By: Hannah Bowers
(Junior Writer For Kids By Kids)
Have you ever shot in a Steel Challenge Match? 
A Steel Challenge Match consists of shooting at five steel targets at each of five stages, with speed and accuracy as the goal. You can shoot rimfire or centerfire and limited or open categories. The open category means that a scope and/or compensator may be used on the pistol. You normally shoot Steel Challenge competitions with pistols, either semi-autos, or revolvers, though I haven’t yet seen many people using a revolver.
My name is Hannah Bowers and I am 12 years old. My dad was talking to Andy, the Editor-In-Chief of Junior Shooters magazine, and he asked if we wanted to get involved in shooting guns, competitions, and writing articles, and we said, “We’d like to.”
We were already shooting air rifle, small bore, and high power with AR-15s, and this was a great opportunity to get involved in pistol shooting and new shooting sports. One of my first times shooting a Steel Challenge Match was with a Walther SP22. The Walther SP22 semi-automatic pistol looks cool, with a sleek silver barrel, comfortable black grips that fit my hand, and post sights. The pistol I shot was a basic version with a 4″ standard barrel, a “Hi-Grip” polymer grip of medium size, adjustable steel sights with a triangular front sight and a two stage trigger with an adjustable trigger stop. At first it was a little difficult to get the magazine in because I wasn’t used to the straight angle grip in comparison to that of the last pistol I had shot, but after a while I got the hang of it and started having fun. 
I liked the design of the slide, which is on the muzzle end of the barrel and seems to be a good design for someone with a small hand. My mom thought this was great, because she has always had trouble operating the slide on most semi-automatic pistols. I shot several steel target stages at my second steel match, getting better and faster as I got more acquainted with the operation of the Walther.
The sights were easy to see and I could see the target well, as there was a pretty large space on either side of the post allowing me to get an accurate sight picture. This helped me to have pretty good accuracy and I hit most of my targets with the first shot. 
The trigger pull seemed good. It wasn’t too hard even though the pistol was right out of the box and we hadn’t had any gunsmithing done on it prior to shooting. The curve of the trigger fit my finger comfortably.
Andy looked all over for a holster to fit the Walther. He couldn’t find anything that fit because the slide handles on the pistol stick out hence, catching on the holster, so I’d have to work on finding the right holster for this pistol.
All in all, I’d say the Walther P-22 is a good small bore pistol for juniors and adults. I’d like to try it on paper targets at an indoor range sometime soon, because I think it would make a great gallery pistol. Once we do that, and I can get group sizes with various types of ammunition, maybe I can follow up on this article.
By the way, I really have fun shooting steel. I enjoy it because I get better each time I shoot and my time gets better and better and I miss fewer targets. I like the immediate feedback of hitting the steel target and hearing it ring instead of just shooting paper. 
I also shot the Walther at a local International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) match. It was fun but not quite as much fun as shooting steel. Steel Challenge is owned and managed by the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA). You can find out more information about Steel Challenge at www.steelchallenge.com.
Contact Information:
Walther: imported by Smith & Wesson
Copyright & Published by Junior Shooters & Junior Sports Magazines Inc. Feb 2009
Reprinted From Junior Shooters Volume 4 Fall 2008 Page 20, https://www.juniorshooters.net/Documents/JS4.1.pdf
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