The Walther G22 is chambered in .22 Long Rifle, fires from a blowback-operated action, and feeds from a detachable magazine holding 10 rounds.^1,2 It belongs to the same broad semi-automatic rifle category as far larger and more expensive service and sporting rifles, but its role is entirely civilian, aimed at plinking, small-game hunting, and low-recoil training rather than combat or law enforcement use.³ Germany's Carl Walther GmbH, based in Ulm, introduced the rifle in 2004 as the company's first bullpup design and its first purpose-built .22 LR semi-automatic rifle.^4,10

Walther marketed the G22 to shooters who wanted the ergonomics and profile of a modern service rifle without the cost or recoil of a centerfire cartridge, and its integrated carry handle deliberately echoes the silhouette of rifles like the FN P90 and the M16 family. That positioning made the Walther G22 a common choice as an entry-level or informal training rifle for shooters transitioning toward AR-pattern and bullpup centerfire platforms, even though no military or police force adopted it formally.^2,3

By the time production ended, the Walther G22 had built a small but durable following among rimfire shooters specifically because of its unconventional shape. Its distinctive profile, close to a scaled-down AR-15 or FN F2000 in silhouette, made it stand out on a range where most .22 LR rifles still used traditional wood or synthetic stocks in the pattern of a hunting rifle.^3,5

Secondhand Walther G22 rifles remain traded steadily on the used market more than a decade after the line ended, and collector and enthusiast interest has kept resale prices comparatively stable for a discontinued rimfire rifle.⁶

The Walther G22's headline spec is the combination of a 508mm (20in) barrel with an overall length of about 72 to 75cm (28.4 to 29.5in), a ratio that a conventional-stock .22 LR rifle cannot match without folding or takedown hardware.^1,3 Empty weight is 2.68kg (5.9lb), and the blowback-operated action cycles ammunition ranging from standard-velocity to high-velocity loads, with muzzle velocity reported between roughly 326 and 530 meters per second depending on the cartridge.^1,2 Walther rates the effective point-target range at about 183 meters (200 yards), generous for a rimfire rifle and a direct product of the full-length barrel.¹

Accuracy testing by Shooting Times found the Walther G22 capable of 1.25in groups at 50 yards with CCI Mini-Mag ammunition, and Gun Mart independently reported similar results, as small as 32mm at 46 meters.^2,3 Sighting equipment consists of an integrated carry handle doubling as a rear sight with six elevation settings, plus iron sights and three Weaver-pattern rails, one on the carry handle for optics, one under the muzzle for a laser unit, and one on the forend for a bipod, light, or other accessory.^1,2 Many rifles left the factory with a threaded 14x1mm muzzle to accept a sound moderator, a detail more relevant to European and UK-market rifles than to the U.S. market, where threaded rimfire barrels historically drew extra import scrutiny.²

The Walther G22's stock and body are built from polymer and steel, with polymer furniture throughout, a combination that kept unit weight low but drew some criticism for feeling less durable than the largely metal Ruger 10/22 it competed against.^1,5 The rifle is genuinely ambidextrous. The ejection port and charging handle can be moved to the opposite side, letting the same base rifle serve right- or left-handed shooters, though Walther specified that the conversion should only be performed by a qualified gunsmith because of how the bolt and blanking plates interact.^1,2 A spare 10-round magazine stores by friction inside the polymer buttstock, and the forend rail accepts a folding bipod for bench or prone shooting.^1,2

The bullpup layout imposes one well-documented compromise. Because the trigger sits far forward of the actual firing mechanism in the buttstock, the Walther G22 relies on a mechanical linkage rather than a direct trigger bar, and reviewers consistently described the resulting pull as long and mushy, a criticism common to bullpup rifles in general that Walther's engineers never fully resolved within the ambidextrous-conversion design.²

Magazine capacity is fixed at 10 rounds from the factory, a limit rooted in the tapered shape of the rimless .22 LR case, which feeds reliably from a straight magazine only up to a certain stack height before curvature becomes necessary.⁸ Aftermarket suppliers such as Taylor Tactical Supply later offered a 13-round upgrade kit using a longer spring and follower, but no factory or aftermarket magazine ever approached the 20 to 30-round capacities common on some AR-pattern rimfire rifles.⁸

The Walther G22's origin sits inside a larger story about who owned Carl Walther GmbH by 2004. In 1993, master gunsmith Wulf-Heinz Pflaumer and electrical engineer Franz Wonisch, the managing partners of the Arnsberg-based Umarex group, bought roughly 90 percent of Carl Walther GmbH, keeping the historic Ulm firearms maker in German hands after a period of financial difficulty.^4,10 A decade later, those same two men are credited, together with engineer Thomas Scheunert, as the inventors on Carl Walther GmbH's patent for the ambidextrous bullpup mechanism that became the G22, filed in January 2004.⁹ The patent specifically describes a self-loading small-caliber rifle whose breech can be reconfigured between right-handed and left-handed arrangements, with the bullpup form named as the preferred embodiment, the exact mechanism the production Walther G22 shipped with.⁹

After the 1993 acquisition, Umarex kept manufacturing under the Walther name at both locations, Ulm and Arnsberg, rather than consolidating everything at one site, a dual-site arrangement that persisted through the Walther G22's entire production run.¹⁰

Walther introduced the G22 in 2004 as its first bullpup rifle and its first dedicated .22 Long Rifle semi-automatic platform, expanding a product line historically built around centerfire pistols and target rifles for Olympic-style competition.^4,10 Trade press treated the rifle as a novelty at first, since Walther itself acknowledged the G22 broke from the traditional stocked-rifle format the company was known for.³ Reviewers who tested the Walther G22 in the mid-2000s, including Shooting Times' Jim Wilson, generally called it a fun gun to shoot once the shooter adjusted to bullpup handling, and recommended it for backpackers, campers, and property owners dealing with small pests, on top of its target-shooting and plinking appeal.³

Production of the Walther G22 ran through the late 2000s and into the early 2010s. By 2012, Walther America confirmed to owners that the rifle had been discontinued and would not appear at that year's SHOT Show, and factory spare parts, including the troublesome internal springs, became progressively harder to source afterward.⁶ The rifle never returned to production, leaving the roughly eight years it was sold as its entire commercial run.

Every Walther G22 left the factory configurable for right- or left-handed use, with the ejection port, charging handle, and safety able to be swapped to the opposite side of the receiver, a factory-authorized conversion that Walther restricted to qualified gunsmiths.^1,2 Standard finishes were matte black or green, and the buttstock included adjustable length-of-pull spacers so the rifle could be fitted to different shooters without gunsmith work.²

Export requirements produced the Walther G22's clearest variant split. The standard rifle carried a 20in barrel and roughly 28.4in overall length, but the version sold in the United Kingdom used a 24in barrel to meet the country's firearms rules, which require handgun-style semi-automatics to have a minimum 24in overall length and a minimum 12in barrel to avoid classification as a prohibited weapon.⁵ European market rifles more commonly shipped with the 14x1mm threaded muzzle for a sound moderator, a feature less consistently offered on U.S.-market Walther G22 rifles.²

Beyond factory options, the aftermarket added a modest range of accessories, most notably Taylor Tactical Supply's 13-round magazine upgrade kit for the factory 10-round magazine.⁸ Compared with the sprawling accessory ecosystem built up around the Ruger 10/22 over five decades, the Walther G22's aftermarket support stayed thin, one of the practical costs of the rifle's short, unconventional production run.⁵

Because Walther never published detailed variant-specific production numbers, collectors today mostly identify individual Walther G22 rifles by barrel length, thread pattern, and stock color rather than by any factory model designation, and the 24in UK-compliant version in particular tends to draw extra interest from overseas buyers precisely because it was never sold domestically in the United States.

By the time Walther discontinued the G22 around 2012, the Ruger 10/22 had already been in continuous production for close to fifty years, a gap in commercial longevity that says as much about the two rifles as any spec sheet does.^5,6 Both are blowback-operated, semi-automatic .22 Long Rifle rifles aimed at the same plinking, small-game, and training market, but they take almost opposite approaches to layout. The Ruger 10/22 uses a traditional stocked rifle format that has barely changed since 1964, while the Walther G22's bullpup body shortens the same barrel length into a noticeably smaller package.

Owners who have shot both rifles side by side generally credit the Walther G22 with better-balanced offhand handling because its weight sits closer to the shooter's shoulder, while crediting the Ruger 10/22 with sturdier, more metal-heavy construction and a far larger aftermarket of stocks, triggers, and barrels.⁵ The Ruger 10/22's decades-long production run gave it an enormous parts and accessory supply chain that the Walther G22, built for less than a decade, never came close to matching, and that gap widened further once Walther G22 production ended and spares grew scarce.^5,6 For a buyer choosing between the two today, the practical decision often comes down to whether compact bullpup handling or long-term parts and accessory support matters more, since both rifles deliver broadly comparable accuracy with good ammunition.^2,3

Is the Walther G22 still in production? No. Walther America confirmed the Walther G22 was discontinued by 2012, and the rifle has not returned to production since. Factory spare parts, including the internal recoil springs, have become increasingly hard to find on the secondary market.⁶

What caliber does the Walther G22 use? The Walther G22 is chambered exclusively in .22 Long Rifle, a rimfire cartridge, and cycles via a blowback action rather than a locked-breech or gas-operated system.^1,2

How accurate is the Walther G22? Independent testing found the Walther G22 capable of roughly 1.25in groups at 50 yards with quality ammunition such as CCI Mini-Mag, performance in line with dedicated rimfire target rifles despite its compact bullpup body.^2,3

Can the Walther G22 be converted for left-handed shooters? Yes. The ejection port, charging handle, and safety can be relocated to the opposite side of the receiver, but Walther specified the conversion should be performed by a qualified gunsmith rather than the end user.^1,2

How does the Walther G22 compare to the Ruger 10/22? Both are blowback .22 Long Rifle semi-automatics with similar accuracy, but the Walther G22's bullpup layout makes it several inches shorter than the Ruger 10/22 for the same barrel length, while the Ruger 10/22 offers sturdier construction and a far larger aftermarket after roughly six decades of continuous production.^5,6