The Rimfire Aftermarket
Helping customers build “hot-rod” rimfire pistols is healthy for a dealer’s bank account
By Phil Bourjaily
Rimfire .22 pistols are designed to make you money. Maybe they weren’t intentionally drawn up to fill your register, but the Smith & Wesson Victory (Booth #12427), the Browning Buck Mark (Booth #10938), and the Ruger Mark IV (Booth #72327) allow their owners to endlessly customize them with aftermarket parts, presenting you with a money-making opportunity. Take my Smith & Wesson Victory, for instance. I paid $400 for it. In the year that I’ve owned it, I’ve added nearly $400 worth of aftermarket parts—and my pistol is just a plinker, not a serious competition gun.
For the money I’ve spent on my Victory, I could have bought one tricked out by the S&W Performance Center in the first place. But what fun would that be? Tinkering with a gun and making it your own is almost as enjoyable as taking it to the range. The gun was inexpensive to begin with, and none of the individual parts cost much, either. I had no idea how much I’d spent on the gun until I added it up. And, I’m not sorry I did spend so much, either. It functions and shoots much better than it did out of the box.
Like an AR 15 or a Ruger 10/22, the Victory, Mark IV, and Buck Mark offer you the chance to sell a gun, then keep the customer coming back for parts forever. There’s a thriving industry in aftermarket accessories for all three, including barrels, and, for the Mark IV, frames. In theory, you could start with a stock Mark IV and replace every single part until none of the original gun was left. As a retailer, you can sell parts and, if customers want, you can do the installations even if you don’t have a gunsmith in house. All three guns are easy to work on. Even switching barrels takes only a few minutes.
And, by the way, I can tell you that every time I added something to my gun, I couldn’t wait to get out and shoot it to see how the new part performed. Hook someone on a .22 and you’ll sell them parts and ammunition for a long time to come.
Out of all the parts available, what should you stock? Here are a few ideas, based on the extras I have added to my gun. You can find all these and many more among the booths at the 2022 SHOT Show.
Hook someone on a .22 and you’ll sell them parts and ammunition for a long time to come.
Charging Ring/Handle
Pulling the slide back to clear a malfunction with a .22 pistol isn’t easy for anyone, and it’s especially tough for those with weak fingers or new shooters who aren’t familiar with handling guns. There are several charging handles for various .22 pistols on the market, and it’s the first thing I added to my pistol. I chose the Tandemkross “Halo” ring (Booth #42511), which clamps to the back of the slide with a single screw. Now anyone can clear the pistol easily by hooking a finger in the loop and pulling back. If you stock nothing else for .22 pistols, stock these.
Firing Pin and Extractor
Out of the box, my Victory worked fine with some ammunition, but stumbled when I asked it cycle some of the cheap stuff. A Tandemkross firing pin and a Volquartsen “Exact Edge” extractor (Booth #13027) reduced misfires to practically nothing and eliminated stovepiping and extraction failures. It was a dramatic change for an investment of about $40, and both parts were simple to install. The gun now gobbles up anything I feed it. I’d carry these for all three guns.
Victory Trigger
The Victory initially appealed to me because it had a decent trigger out of the box. The Tandemkross Victory trigger (“Victory” is also the name for their Mark IV and Buck Mark triggers) improved and lightened the pull, and it adjusts for pre- and over-travel to make the gun even easier and more fun to shoot. Of the additions I’ve made to my pistol, this one was the trickiest, even with the help of the Tandemkross video, but I got it done in 30 to 40 minutes despite a wrong turn halfway through the process. The new trigger pull is worth the effort.
Optic Rail
Aftermarket rails abound for .22 pistols. The Victory comes with iron sights that you can replace with a rail supplied with the gun. It’s cheap and plastic and begs to be thrown away. I chose a two-piece rail from DIP (Booth #42138) with integral iron sights and a bonus vent-barrel rib. You can add the vent rib or leave it off. How could I skip it? It does nothing functional, but it makes the gun look very cool.
You should definitely offer rails for the Victory. Some Buck Marks and Mark IVs come equipped with good rails and iron sights. Some have iron sights only, so you might want to have a few rails on hand.
Optic
Once I had a solid picatinny rail on the gun, I wanted an optic for it. I went with a moderately priced ($160) Truglo Ignite red dot (Booth #12669) powered by an easily accessible AAA battery. It’s not the open reflex style that is so popular on all handguns right now, but a much bulkier full-tube model. I chose it because I find it’s easier for me, and much easier for new shooters, to find the dot if they are looking into a tube. Most people will probably want a smaller reflex-style sight, such as the Vortex Venom (Booth #43670).
Grips
The plastic grips supplied with my gun worked, but felt cheap and bulky. Replacing them with the Tandemkross Hivebrid grip took a couple of minutes and improved the looks and the feel of my pistol. Hogue (Booth #14838) also offers an assortment of grips, from rubber to custom wood, for the Victory, the Buck Mark, and the Mark IV.
I added a few other odds and ends to my gun (enlarged magazine pads, an aftermarket guide rod with captured spring to make disassembly easier). There are a few others that somehow I’ve been able to resist: enlarged magazine-release buttons, springs that allow a magazine to hold an extra cartridge, and, most of all, barrels. It’s easy to change barrels on the Victory, Buck Mark, and Mark IV, and there are any number of options: fluted barrels, carbon-fiber barrels, integrally suppressed barrels, and more.
However, having spent roughly the price of my Victory on parts for it, I think I’m done. I have to confess, though, I am starting to eye a Ruger Mark IV thinking it might be time for a new project.