Picked up a used S&W 22A today at a LGS on a whim. Don't know anything about them, but I needed a .22 handgun and the price seemed reasonable. What can y'all tell me about them?

The oldest kids in my house started shooting pistol last year.  I didn't have enough of the right types of .22's for the various events. We checked with other instructors/clubs and found that at an entry level price point the 22a was the one mentioned regularly after the basic model Ruger Mark III.  Ruger .22's have that well earned tough/slow to disassemble reputation.  AND I'm a long sight radius/long barrel guy...  so we tried a S&W 22A.    

My daughter found the 7" barrel model 22a we got for ~$275 to be a solid performer.  I don't think they are necessarily "special" but they are serviceable pistols at a good price point.  It shot as good as the shooter did.  Could it hit the ten ring at 75 yards? NO.  Did it knock the steel animal off the rail at 75 yards? Yes, when the shooter did her part.  

We acquired about a dozen mags and had problems with only one of them.  At this price point that's good enough.  If you like it, you'll find it cleans up pretty easily.  Clean and lubricate it well and follow the manufacturers guidance for lubrication points with quality lubricant.  We used Tetra lube since that was handy and it functioned fine.  If you have problems swap mags and see if that fixes it.  The grip *appears* a bit thick but it didn't handle that way for us.  I'm sure you'll see some hate on any model but that just hasn't been our experience with the 22A.

goof on an edit

Picked one up a couple of weeks ago.  Mounted a red dot on it.  

Very accurate, reliable.  So far I'm very impressed with it.

My cousin had a camo one and it was a total POS. He sent it back and recieved a stainless one and it has been ok.

Had one a number of years ago. Was incredibly accurate and had a pretty good trigger. Difficulty in threading for a suppressor is what killed it for me.

Thanks for the replies. As far as difficulty threading it, I don't have any cans yet, and I'm sure this won't be the only .22 pistol I get. When I eventually get a .22 suppressor, I'll just have to get a threaded Mk III, 22/45, or Buckmark to go with it.

Silly accurate for the price.

You may have an issue with second round hang-up from the magazine but this is usually fixed with either using a different type of ammo, tweaking the mag catch area on the front of the mag or getting into the habit of exercising the loaded mag follower up and down before loading it into the gun.

Short of abuse or incorrect assembly/disassembly, about the only parts that wear/break is the little plastic buffer. It is my understanding that S&W will likely send you a few in an envelope for free if you ask CS nicely.

Overall a good gun but you will notice the cost-saving construction/manufacturing features.

I really like mine

Makarov speaks the truth.  His words are good.

I don't like the bobtail rubber piece on my grip but have since replaced it.  I have the SS with hi-vis front sight.  the buffer does get chewed up with use.  I broke my firing pin on mine and called CS at S&W....Mike? had a new firing pin and free buffers in the mail shortly after.  

Mine did not run 100% on Golden Bullets (Rem) but still cycled after second round hang ups.....

I am more accurate with the buckmark by a little bit on paper but I'll keep my 22s.

Mine (bought used last year) has an issue where the extractor doesn't reliably snap over the rim, which leads to FTFs.

Pushing the slide forward until you feel it click into place makes it fire the next round most of the time.

It isn't ammo related, because it does it with 4 different brands of ammo. Getting three rounds off without a FTF is a good string.

I'm going to disassemble the extractor tonight or tomorrow and give it a good cleaning. I cleaned the firing pin and firing pin channel last night. If cleaning doesn't do it, I'm going to replace the recoil spring. After that, she's going to have to go back to S&W, I suppose.

Mine works well.

The only issue I had with mine is when the firing pin broke. Easy fix after I got a replacement..

I also removed the magazine disconnect.

I got an early four inch model about 14 years ago and we shot over 100,000 rounds through it. It is on its fourth firing pin and has the frame and springs replaced. The original mags are still holding up well and the 22A is a little less ammo sensitive than my Rugers.

Mine was very accurate, and fun to shoot. I got rid of it because of how hard it was to disassemble/reassemble. I took it to the woods one time to target practice and the damn thing fell apart with tiny pieces landing all over the ground. That did it for me, I eventually found all the pieces, but never was happy with it after that. Because the slide does not reciprocate, it does make a good relflex site host though.

The slide is not stationary when the gun is fired but moving. Are you referring to the fixed-to-the frame barrel? The 22A is one of the easier rimfire pistol to field strip and reassemble, particularly when compared to a Ruger MKIII.

Just sold mine a little while back.  I found that although it was a good pistol I normally left it in the safe to take my Ruger MKI.  Mine was a bit finicky about the mag being seated and if there was too much lube on the slide it would attract dirt that it would not cycle very reliably until I cleaned the rails and added very little lube.