Last Saturday a guy came in wanting to spend $600 on a 9mm for his teenage daughter to “learn on.” I talked him out of it, plain and simple. She’s never fired a handgun before, ammo is expensive right now, and recoil anticipation kills more range sessions than anything else. He walked out with a Ruger Mark IV and a brick of bulk .22LR instead, and I’d bet money she’s a better shot in three months than she would’ve been on the 9mm.
That’s the whole case for a dedicated .22LR handgun for practice. It’s not a downgrade, it’s a tool, and most of the best pistol shooters I know still keep one in rotation for dry months when centerfire ammo prices spike. Below is what I actually recommend across the counter, not a spec-sheet exercise.
The short version: top pick, budget pick, premium pick #
If you want the one gun I’d tell most people to buy without much hesitation, it’s the Ruger Mark IV Lite. It’s accurate, the takedown finally doesn’t require a screwdriver and a prayer, and parts are everywhere. If money’s tight, the Heritage Rough Rider gets people shooting for well under $200 and teaches trigger discipline the old-fashioned way. If you want something that’ll run alongside your carry gun’s training curve, the Smith & Wesson M&P22 Compact is built to mimic an M&P9 in weight and controls, and it’s the premium pick worth the extra money.
Best overall: Ruger Mark IV Lite #
The Mark IV line fixed the one real complaint people had with Ruger’s rimfire pistols for decades — you can now field strip it with one button push instead of fighting the recoil spring like it owes you money. The Lite version drops weight to around 24.5 ounces thanks to the aluminum receiver, so it’s comfortable for a full session without wrist fatigue setting in.
Accuracy out of the box is genuinely good. I’ve had customers bring these back just to tell me how tight their groups were at 25 yards, which almost never happens with a rimfire pistol this side of $1,000.
- Pros: easy takedown, excellent accuracy, huge aftermarket support for sights and grips.
- Cons: the grip angle takes some adjusting if you’re coming from a Glock or M&P, and it’s not a great choice for concealed carry practice since the profile doesn’t match most centerfire guns.
Best budget: Heritage Rough Rider #
This one surprises people. It’s a single-action revolver styled after the old Colt Peacemaker, and it runs about $180 depending on barrel length and finish. It won’t win a bullseye match, but for teaching fundamentals — sight alignment, trigger press, follow-through — a single-action wheelgun forces you to slow down in a way a semi-auto doesn’t.
I sold three of these last month alone to first-time buyers who just wanted something cheap to learn the basics before committing to a bigger purchase. If you’re working through a first-time buyer’s checklist before walking into a shop, this is a reasonable line item to consider.
- Pros: cheap, simple, reliable with quality ammo, good trigger discipline trainer.
- Cons: slow to reload, fixed sights are basic, not ideal if your goal is semi-auto manipulation practice.
Best premium: Smith & Wesson M&P22 Compact #
S&W built this one specifically to sit alongside the M&P9 M2.0 in weight, grip angle, and manual of arms. That matters more than people think — practicing trigger control on a gun that doesn’t feel like your carry piece only gets you halfway there. This one costs more, usually in the $400-450 range, but the controls transfer directly.
It’s a blowback-operated .22LR, which means it has a little more recoil impulse than most rimfire pistols, and honestly I think that’s a feature here, not a flaw. It gives you something closer to a real trigger reset to train against.
- Pros: matches carry-gun ergonomics, threaded barrel version available, reliable with standard velocity ammo.
- Cons: pickier about ammo brand than some others on this list, price premium over comparable rimfire options.
Best for new shooters: Walther P22 #
I’ve written about this one before because it comes up constantly at the counter — see the full Walther P22 review for the deeper dive. Short version: it’s small, light, has an accessory rail some people actually use for a little red dot, and the price sits comfortably under $400 most places.
The manual safety and slide lock are intuitive enough that a lot of instructors use it for absolute first-timers. It’s not the most accurate gun on this list, but accuracy isn’t the point when someone’s never held a handgun before.
Best striker-fired trainer: SIG Sauer P322 #
SIG released this a couple years back to give people a modern, optics-ready .22LR that handles like their centerfire pistols, and it does the job well. Seventeen-round capacity in a rimfire pistol is unusual and it makes for longer sessions between reloads, which matters when you’re trying to burn through 200 rounds in an hour.
I’ll admit I was skeptical of the polymer construction at first, figuring it’d feel cheap. It doesn’t. The trigger’s better than expected for a gun in its price class, right around $400.
Best for revolver shooters: Ruger Wrangler #
Ruger’s answer to the budget single-action market, and it undercuts the Heritage on price while adding a slightly more modern build with a cerakote finish option. It’s not fancy but it’s tough, and I’ve seen these get dropped, dragged through mud on a hunting trip, and still cycle fine afterward.
If someone’s practicing for a future .357 or .44 wheelgun purchase — maybe eyeing something off our .357 revolver roundup — starting on a Wrangler to learn cylinder timing and trigger reset before spending real money makes sense.
Honorable mention: Browning Buck Mark #
I’ll be straight with you, the Buck Mark doesn’t get talked about as much as the Ruger line these days, and I think that that’s a little unfair. It’s been a target-shooting standard for decades, the grip is genuinely excellent for extended sessions, and used ones show up at reasonable prices if you’re patient. New, they run close to Mark IV pricing, so the decision often comes down to which grip feels better in your hand. Go handle both if you can before deciding.
Ammo, storage, and the part people skip #
None of this matters if you’re feeding a rimfire pistol garbage ammo. Bulk .22LR varies wildly in quality between lots, and I’ve seen brand-new guns get blamed for failures that were actually the ammo’s fault. Buy a box of whatever you’re considering before committing to a case.
Storage is the other half of the equation, and it’s the part I actually specialize in. A .22LR trainer is still a firearm, no shortcuts on safety there just because the caliber’s small. If you’re building out a first home setup, our guide on gun safes for a first-time owner covers what actually matters versus what’s marketing, and if there are kids in the house at all, read through how to store a gun safely with kids in the house before the gun ever comes home. The NSSF’s Project ChildSafe program has solid free resources on this too, worth a look at nssf.org/safety.
A word on why practice guns matter more than people think #
The ATF’s own data on firearm transactions shows rimfire ammunition and handguns remain among the most commonly purchased categories for new shooters, which tracks with what I see weekly at the counter — people want an affordable way in before they commit to a defensive-caliber purchase. That’s sound reasoning, and I’d rather sell someone a $200 Rough Rider they’ll actually shoot every week than a $700 carry gun that sits in a drawer because ammo costs too much to practice with regularly. You can check current NICS background check volume trends yourself through the FBI’s NICS section if you want the raw numbers behind that shift.
A .22LR trainer isn’t a lesser gun, it’s the gun that gets used the most, and that’s really the point of owning one in the first place.
— Tasha Odom, Home Defense & Storage Editor