I wanted one when they first came out. Then all the negative posts in forums and in videos on YouTube turned me off to them. That’s been quite a while. LGS has one in stock and I handled it today. The best feeling .22 LR I’ve had in my hands. LGS owner has 3 of them, one for him, his wife and daughter and he has not experienced any problems. Has Glock fixed all the problems?

If you have purchased one in the last year, how is it holding up for you?

I own several Glocks and wouldn’t hesitate to buy another one, but I really have to think about one in .22 LR that had so many bad reviews when it first came out in December 2019, only two years ago.

I briefly considered buying a G44 a long while ago but couldn't find a valid reason for it. People often cite its form factor as making the G44 a relatively inexpensive training as a legit purpose. However for myself if anything I use a G19 as the cheaper training tool for the G23s that I rely upon for my defensive need. Maybe it's just me but a .22LR version in the same footprint just seems to be too much of a experience disconnect for shooting what some might call a snap-happy caliber like .40.

The slide failure issue with some early guns seems to have been limited and probably can be chalked up to one of those things that can happen in the learning curve when starting a new production process; after all it's not like Glock had a lot of experience with designing and fabricating ultra-lightweight slides for .22LR. At least no one these days seems to post about recent slide failures so it was probably just one of those early glitches...like the P365 and breaking firing pins.

However in perusing the web recently there are still occasional grumblings over examples of the gun shooting high and some guns having reliability issues with bulk ammo. I've also talked with customers who've bought the G44 and say that the reliability of their guns are actually more sensitive to fouling build-up than other .22LR pistols that they own. The general takeaway from this is that they become more unreliable the dirtier they get. However I can say that about several of my existing .22LR pistols, but the owners I've talked to claim that it happens more quickly with the Glock.

With what I've gathered to date, it would seem to me that the G44 still isn't as ready for prime-time as the S&W M&P22C, that other rimfire semi-auto that purportedly acts as a great training tool for its centerfire siblings (I dunno that myself since I don't own one of those either). Or as compared to some of the other lookalike rimfire offerings that Umarex/Walther creates for themselves and other centerfire pistol brands.

I bought one, still haven't shot it. I probably should get out and shoot. It's been sitting in the safe for a year and a half now, I think.

Nearly every 22 handgun I've owned has become more unreliable as they got dirtier, and none were particularly trustworthy when clean and well lubricated. Buckmarks, Rugers, Smiths, even revolvers. My kids liked the bearcat, but it misfires regularly once dirty, often when clean, chambers foul up making it hard to insert ammunition.

I don't expect a lot out of the Glock 44; no more than I get out of any of the other .22 lr's.

Even my Ruger 22/45 isn't much to write home about. fun to shoot, accurate to a reasonably long distance, but fails to extract, fails to feed, misfires, and same for most of the .22 rifles, including the vaunted 1022's (one side of a safe is full of them, which were for kids, scouts, etc). ore than a few .22's and the only one I've ever found remotely reliable has been the Nylon 66. Otherwise, they're just .22 long rifle, and I've never considered that to be reliable. I've shot millions of rounds, but never found it what I coiuld call reliable.

I couldn't care less about the 10 round magazine. None of my .22 revolvers have more, and I can't think of any of my .22 pistols that do. The .22 rifles, including a 16" buckmark with full shoulder stock, has a 10 round magazine, I believe.

The issue with kids was always trying to get them to slow down and take their time with a shot, so normally I'd allow three or five rounds loaded, instead of ten. It made the shooting last longer, and it made them focus a bit more on shot placement, instead of just burning through a brick of .22.

I bought one when they first came out. I love it. It feeds everything, is accurate, and feels just like my G23C.

You might try a Ruger SR22. Form factor is that of a compact carry pistol, slightly smaller than a G 19/23. It has been completely reliable for me. I use it to train young shooters in the family. It’s advantage is that it has all the typical control mechanisms one finds on many 9/40 pistols: DA/SA, decocker, mag release in the right place, grip size sleeves, etc. so when they move to start shooting a 9mm, everything is familiar.

I sold my M&P22 when I got my 44. It's been as reliable as my 19 and trouble free. The M&P was great too except for the trigger, it made a Glock trigger feel like a 1911 trigger.

I appreciate the responses. I’ve been watching some G44 videos on YouTube off and on today and looked up the price of G44's that have sold on GB. This one is a little more, but I won’t have to deal with shipping or transfer fee and I’ll be trading my old Sig Mosquito that I have not shot since 2013 in on it, so that will bring the price down considerably. I’m thinking somewhere around $200 out of pocket for the Glock. I’m good with that.

I’ve been toying with a .22 handgun to replace the cruddy Mosquito off and on for at least 2 or more years. (Not really a .22 LR guy). Top of the list other than the G44 was the Ruger MK IV, and the Taurus TX 22, but as soon as I held the Glock yesterday, I was sold.

I just bought one and haven’t shot it yet. Got it mainly for GSSF. It feels really nice though, like a super light 19.

I am happy with my SR22 so far. I had a chance to get a G44 for $299 just before the WhooHooFloo hit. I should have jumped then. I may get one as a training tool for my G23 and G19.

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
It's been as reliable as my 19 and trouble free.

Well, it's a rimfire pistol, and if you keep shooting it, you'll likely find it's nowhere near as reliable as a centerfire Glock.

I took mine out today - it's an earlier version from APR last year IIRC. I've not yet had a range session where it didn't have some kind of failure. Granted, it has been 100% with Stingers, but I've had problems with all others. Today (Fed Automatch bulk pack) it had two failures to feed the top round, even though I used the well-established trick of turning the loaded mag upside down & pulling down (well, actually pulling it up ) the follower a couple of times to re-orient the top round. It sits in our humid basement as a hideaway with 7-Stingers in the mag. One advantage is there isn't much to rust on them!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GeoJelly,

Picked the gun up today. I traded my Sig Mosquito and some 7.62x54R ammo that I no longer have any use for as I sold all my Mosins. Including the background check, it cost me $115 out of pocket. Not bad for a brand new Glock.

I watched a 32 minute video yesterday where a guy must have put 30 or more different brands of ammo thru it. One of the brands he had trouble with was Federal Auto Match bulk ammo, and I have about 1k rounds of that ammo. I also have about 2k rounds of Blazer and he had no problems with that and of course Mini-Mags are the best, but I only have about 300 rounds of Mini-Mags, so I’ll put Mini-Mags thru the gun for the first 50 or so rounds and then try my luck with the Federal Auto Match and Blazer. Magazines don’t seem too difficult to load.

Here is a photo of the G44 and my G19. Just about the same size, but the G44 seems a tad bit thinner and quite a bit lighter.

My P226/22 and CZ Kadet (not the conversion) are very reliable and use the same frame/trigger as the 9mm. That is realistic training. Fouling is always an issue to watch. Personally I think fouling is an issue for CCI. Why striker fired .22 struggle (and some hammer fired) is beyond me, but they do. It’s likely related the ratio of fouling to bullet diameter/mass, made worse by much lower recoil springs. Best advice is stick to a hammer fired 22, keep it clean, use the cleanest ammo you can find.

Go for it. You have one and it is a great little training tool.

Think about it like this. Anyone who claims it lacks the recoil fir serious training doesn’t know much about.......training.

Pro football teams, to which their performance brings in millions of dollars, do not play games or run hard scrimmages five days a week for practice. Just the opposite, actually. Their proven belief also shows why another firearms technique works, dry fire. And dry fire has zero recoil. But yet, every high end competitor and ghetto gunfighter dry fires excessively.

Great value of training.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Go for it. You have one and it is a great little training tool.

Think about it like this. Anyone who claims it lacks the recoil fir serious training doesn’t know much about.......training.

Pro football teams, to which their performance brings in millions of dollars, do not play games or run hard scrimmages five days a week for practice. Just the opposite, actually. Their proven belief also shows why another firearms technique works, dry fire. And dry fire has zero recoil. But yet, every high end competitor and ghetto gunfighter dry fires excessively.

Great value of training.

Hasn’t it be said you can learn like 75-80 percent of shooting with dryfire and .22’s or something to that effect? I mean sure you eventually have to learn aspects of shooting that require live fire of real center fire rounds but the vast amount of fundamentals can be learned and or reinforced without using live center fire ammo.

I can say for me personally dry fire, rimfires and even airguns have paid large dividends in my “actual” shooting.

All of the heavy lifting is done in dry fire. That’s why people like JJ Recaza, Ben Stoeger, and the like dryfire a couple of hours per day.

I’ve had many people poo poo my suggestion to dry fire and they won’t do it cause they think it’s stupid, but I have found dry firing, specially with eyes closed, to be more of a help with trigger control than anything else. You learn to feel every single idiosyncracy in the trigger and where it breaks. If I haven’t shot a gun for a while, or when shooting a new gun, I will close my eyes and dry fire it a few times. Amazing how well that works.

For the heck of it, a better photo of my G44 which I still have not shot yet. Tried to yesterday but as soon as I got to where I shoot, it started hailing so hard everything turned white and the temp dropped and only an hour before sunset.

I bought the 44 because I don't have anywhere to shoot all winter long. I set up a lane at work to shoot 22 after hours and built a bullet trap so I can practice through the winter. Like Para said, the 44 won't be as reliable as the 19 that I compared it to, I know that. When it gets dirty the slide slows down and it'll start to choke and I don't ever remember my 19 complaining if I didn't clean it after the last range trip.

Federal bulk blue box will not run in my 44 and will have failure after failure. Blazer Brass runs and Eley Action Plus run flawlessly in mine and I have piles of both.

My Glock 44 hasn't been anything to brag about. After installing a different connector and polishing in appropriate places, I now have a gun with a 4.5# trigger that is acceptably reliable and accurate with the high velocity CCI stuff, With cheap ammo, it's still a crap shoot.
Would I buy it again, knowing what I know...? NOPE!
YMMV! mike

I purchased mine about 6 months after they came out. Changed the trigger to an APEX and connector to an OEM minus. I have put every .22 round through it probably 1200+ and not a single FTF, stovepipe or issue. This is with the OEM barrel and OEM threaded barrel. The only round it will not cycle is the CCI Quiet but few semi-autos will cycle that round. No issues to date and I love the pistol.