Rock Island Armory AL22 Revolvers

I am not sure what passes for required reading in high schools these days, however in my time many of the classics were required reading. I well remember Ivanhoe, Silas Marner and definitely large doses of William Shakespeare. I also recall the latter had rare insight into the human character. One of his passages I have never forgotten has to do with the “Seven Stages of Man.” The bard notes we started out in this life helpless, then go through a period of growth followed by our declining years, and if we live long enough, we end up the same way we started — namely helpless and requiring constant care.

Time Catches All

As I look back on my shooting life I find the same pattern. Until a few years ago it was my practice to shoot two or three times a week, sometimes all day. Then the “all day” sessions were cut to half days, and now it is usually three hours with a maximum of 300 rounds fired. I now shoot the “serious” stuff once a week and the other morning is dedicated to nothing but .22 rifles and handguns and shooting with my two daughters. I am certainly not quite at the end of the trail yet and I hope I have several more years of shooting ahead of me. By confining much of my shooting to .22s and reasonable big-bores, I hope to pace myself. All this brings us to the subject at hand, a pair of new .22 sixguns from Rock Island Armory.

Rock Island Armory is the American face of Armscor which is based in the Philippines. Located in Pahrump, Nev., the official company name is Armscor Precision International/ Rock Island Armory. They are known for quality firearms at most reasonable prices as well as such innovations as the .22 TCM. Armscor is the number one manufacturer of 1911 semi-automatic pistols in the world and RIA has now brought out their first lineup of revolvers including those chambered in .22 Long Rifle and .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire. When these were first announced I naturally thought they were being made in the Philippines but this is not the case. These .22 revolvers are marked with three companies, namely RIA for Rock Island Armory, APINTL for Armscor Precision International, and then the actual place of manufacture, which is the Czech Republic. The official model numbers are AL22 and AL22M.

Two Of A Kind

These two revolvers are identical except for the chambering and caliber markings, “22 l.r.” and “22 WMR” on the left side of the barrel below the front sight. I found it interesting they use small letters for Long Rifle and capital letters for Winchester Magnum Rimfire. The only other difference is the cylinder capacity — nine rounds for the .22 LR and eight rounds for the .22 WMR. Construction is all stainless steel resulting in a weight of just under 39 oz. for these K-Frame sized sixguns. The stainless steel matched with rubber grips equals a .22 suited for heavy outdoor use with no worry about the weather. At this stage of my life they certainly will handle much worse weather than I want to be out and about in.

The barrel is actually a two-piece affair consisting of a barrel proper and a shroud. The heavy underlug design encloses and protects the ejector rod. This is very well carried out and one has to look carefully, or read the manual, to discover this is the case. The stainless steel is nicely polished and it’s obvious some good thought went into this model. Although the construction is all stainless steel, the fully adjustable rear sight and a front sight with a red insert are both black and easy to see.

The grips are black pebble-grained rubber with finger grooves and provide a secure and comfortable feeling. Instead of having one screw all the way through, each panel has its own screw and is completely supported by the grip frame. This is also an excellent idea as I have seen more than one new revolver come through with the singular grip screw tightened to the point of cracking the grip panel.

These sixguns are traditional double-action, meaning they can be fired either by simply pulling the trigger or, if one wants a more precise shot, by cocking the hammer first. The single-action pull is smooth and measures 4 lbs. on my Brownells Trigger Gauge and the double-action pull likewise slick at 12½ lbs. When shooting double-action, care is needed to make sure the trigger resets by going all the way forward. Failure to do so will lock up the action.

As mentioned above, these are K-Frame size and perfectly fit holsters I have on hand consisting of a home crafted thumb break design as well as a Safariland basket weave finished holster with a traditional safety strap. Either holster works well for secure carry in the field. The weight may be more than most would opt for in a concealed carry gun, however with the self-defense-specific .22 Magnum ammunition now available, the Magnum model results in an easy-to-use revolver with virtually no recoil. The .22 Long Rifle version, especially when loaded with such as the CCI Mini-Mag +V hollow points, is also a possibility for defensive use and once again with literally no recoil.

Details

Rock Island Armory offers both of these .22 sixguns in blue or stainless finish and barrel lengths of 3″, 4″ and 6″. They also have centerfire versions with the same specification in .357 Magnum, .38 Special and one chambering I have not seen offered as a new sixgun for decades, namely .32 S&W Long. This is a grand little cartridge for target shooting, small game and varmint control, as well as for teaching someone to shoot a sixgun which seems a little more powerful than a .22 yet without excess felt recoil.

MSRP: starting at $599
Armscor.com

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