Not my gun, but I was at the range with a guy today and he wanted me to check out a problem he was having with his P22.

I haven't even seen one of these in years and never owned one (I went with the Mosquito, lol!), so I couldn't sus out the problem, then we disassembled it and couldn't get it back together.

So I know NOW that the gun has a magazine disconnect safety...didn't know that at the start of all this.

Here's what I observed:

Empty gun, no magazine, slide closed, the trigger actuated and reset regardless of whether the manual safety was S or F. (Is that normal, that the trigger still functions regardless of the status of the safety????)

He charged the gun up and, from what I saw, it was in battery, full magazine and everything was 5x5. Except the trigger was NOT reset, but still in the full rearward position.

So I cleared the gun out, racked the slide a bunch and the trigger never reset.

Not knowing at this point that it had a mag disconnect safety, I didn't think to insert an empty mag and see if that would reset the trigger for some reason.

Disassembled the gun easily enough (lol) and, with the gun disassembled and an empty mag inserted, the trigger reset and seemed to function normally. Pull trigger, hammer falls, trigger resets.

So I couldn't figure out how the hell to put the thing back together, which I have since figured out, but we had to table figuring out this problem.

He had fired it in the past, but the last time he took it out, he also had this problem.

Any ideas?

I've got no idea how old the gun is or what condition it's been in, other than unfired for a long time.

I have an older P22 which should be similar to yours.

If you pull out the magazine, the trigger does not function. With the magazine in the trigger will function. The safety will also function, but it looks like it doesn't. You will see it if you cock the hammer in either safe or fire.

Ensure the gun is clear and unloaded. Insert the magazine. Cock the hammer. Put the gun on safe. Observe in front of the hammer where the firing pin mechansim should be and you will see that when you put it on safe, there is a block that comes up and blocks the hammer. You can still pull the trigger, but the gun will not fire. If you put the lever on fire, you will see that the block goes down out of the way, and the pistol can now fire.

In other words, you can still pull the trigger whether the safety is on fire or safe, and it will seem like there is no safety, as the hammer falls. But with the safety on, it is blocking the hammer so it cannot hit the firing pin. The trigger does work in both positions.

I am not a fan of the design, as it can be a bit confusing, but once you understand it, it should be no problem.