Sig Mosquito - .22 Semi-Auto Pistol

[Hi-Power Jack]

Just saw a used Sig Mosquito .22 pistol yesterday, and

my wife fell in love with it - fits her hand beautifully.

It was used for $240, and dealer let me fire five shots

thru it - the first three shots all fired and ejected, but

the slide locked back each time. Dealer fired the next

two shots, successfully:( Not sure if I was riding

the slide button). The three shots I fired didn't seem to

be as accurate as a Ruger/Browning, but it's little to go

on...

Loved the way it felt, and feels like a nice gun to reload

for a .22 (almost like the Kimber .22 which is a lot more

expensive). Looking to use it for IPSC practice.

Any experience with accuracy compared to a Ruger or Browning

Buckmark? Reliability? Web site says you can switch springs

and shoot either hi-velocity or standard-velocity - that's

a nice feature.

The list price is $390 new, and mags are $44/each (ouch) -

anyone find the gun/mags for less than that?

Any hands on experience would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jack

[Bill40718]

HiPower Jack,

I really like Sig's. Just bought a new 226 X-5. I'm not anti-Sig by any means.

I am anti Mosquito. I had one, had a local smith work on it a bit. I was never able to get it reliable.

Failure to extract, slide locked when it shouldn't, etc. The gun felt good, in my hand, as you say. It was not particularily accurate,

but that part could be me. OLD eyes and all that.

I'd keep looking!

Just my 2 cents worth, take it for what it's worth.

Bill

[DougCarden]

Bill was much nicer than I would be detailing my woes with it. I took it back, and lost money on the spare mags I bought....nice concept, but it needs to be debugged really bad.

DougC

[RussB]

One of my shooting Bud's bought a new one. It just plain doesn't work. Spends as much time clearing jams as shooting the darn thing. Run, don't walk away from that Mosquito

[Vlad]

My wife has one, they are problematic BUT they can be made to work.

Step 1) adjust the mags. The feed lips are all over the place. If you have the metal mags, put a round in it and gently squeeze the front of the lips around it so it doesn't pop up or point up. This is the biggest change the gun needs to make it work right. I hear they now have plastic mags that don't require adjustment. Take the mags apart and remove the rough edges on the button channels. This works best if done from the inside of the mag with a thin file.

Step 2) Round up the rear of the slide where it presses back the hammer. It will allow for much smoother function. Remove all casting flash from various internals.

Step 3) Shoot 1000rounds of mini-mags.

Now you have a working gun. It is accurate enough but not Ruger or Browning like. I nice plinking gun or maybe even steel. Sig needs to be smacked upside the head for allowing this gun to bear their name without being correctly tuned. Note that they don't make it, it is made by the same german company that makes the Walther P22, they just put their name on it. With .22 conversions for their full size guns, I'm not really sure why they sell it.

[RussB]

Vlad, glad you got your particular Mosquito running, but adjusting mags won't get the empties to extract.

There are a lot of really good 22 auto's on the market. Why mess around?

[Vlad]

Oh yeah, I also polished the chamber, which helps with extraction, but rounding up the rear of the slide makes the gun cycle with less effort which means more energy is available for extraction.

I own more 22s then I can shoot, they are like watered gremlins. The reason my wife bought it is because 1) it is pink, and 2) she has very very small hands and the Sig fit her well. To be fair, not long before I made the Sig work she decided that she liked my Mark II better, and she bought herself a Mark III she now adores, which I think makes the .22 handgun household count 5 or 6. I'm not even gonna try to count the rifles.

Edited May 8, 2010 by Vlad

[Vlad]

Oh and I forgot this, but adjusting the mags DOES help with extraction. One of the problems is that the top round rides to high, and bumps the ejecting round off the extractor.

[Hi-Power Jack]

Wow! You guys are awesome.

Thanks for the great info.

I'll pass, since I'm not handy enough to

make the changes recommended to the mags,

the chamber and the slide.

My wife also liked the Browning Buckmark,

I'll go back to that. (Wish I could

afford the Kimber - that was really a very

nice Mosquito:)

Jack

[TonyT]

Just saw a used Sig Mosquito .22 pistol yesterday, and

my wife fell in love with it - fits her hand beautifully.

It was used for $240, and dealer let me fire five shots

thru it - the first three shots all fired and ejected, but

the slide locked back each time. Dealer fired the next

two shots, successfully:( Not sure if I was riding

the slide button). The three shots I fired didn't seem to

be as accurate as a Ruger/Browning, but it's little to go

on...

Loved the way it felt, and feels like a nice gun to reload

for a .22 (almost like the Kimber .22 which is a lot more

expensive). Looking to use it for IPSC practice.

Any experience with accuracy compared to a Ruger or Browning

Buckmark? Reliability? Web site says you can switch springs

and shoot either hi-velocity or standard-velocity - that's

a nice feature.

The list price is $390 new, and mags are $44/each (ouch) -

anyone find the gun/mags for less than that?

Any hands on experience would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jack

The SIG Mosquito was plauged with problems. My local dealer refused to sell them because of the frequency of complaints. That was when they were first introduced, I have not kept up with the situation lately but would be very wary of purchasing a Mosquito.

[GrumpyOne]

The only one I have had any dealings with was one a friend was selling at his shop. It was locked up tighter than Dick's hat band. No amount of forcing could get it to open. This was the 4th time it had done that, the previous 3 he had sent it back to SIG, and they fixed it. He just wanted it gone....

[ssbaca]

I use a SIG Mosquito as my .22 practice pistol and it has never failed to cycly with CCI mini-mags. I've been delighted with it. Magazines are $32 from MidwayUSA.

Respectfully,

Stephen

[kcult]

I bought a mosquito about two months ago and it really has been a pain in the rear.

I started with bulk box Federals because that's all I had. The gun had some variation of a malfunction probably 50% of the time. I bought some 1260 CCIs to try in it. That cut the malfunctions down to around 5%. At the last gun show I attended, I asked the gentleman from Georgia Arms for an ammo recommendation and he sold me a box of Aguila (sp?) super high velocity. His recommendation was Stingers, but he didn't have any. Not a one of the 10 Aguilas ejected.

I will try the above list of actions to try to get this thing running. So far, though, I am really disappointed.

[Hi-Power Jack]

I use a SIG Mosquito as my .22 practice pistol and it has never failed to cycly with CCI mini-mags. I've been delighted with it. Magazines are $32 from MidwayUSA.

Respectfully,

Stephen

Stephen, could you help with some details: 1. how many rounds have you shot thru the gun? 2. did you do anything to the gun/mags to make it reliable? 3. have you tried any other brands of .22's? 4. How much are you paying for the CCI mini-mags?

Sorry for the grilling, but you're the only person who says the gun works without rebuilding it.

Thanks,

Jack

[Hi-Power Jack]

I bought a mosquito about two months ago and it really has been a pain in the rear.

I started with bulk box Federals because that's all I had. The gun had some variation of a malfunction probably 50% of the time. I bought some 1260 CCIs to try in it. That cut the malfunctions down to around 5%. At the last gun show I attended, I asked the gentleman from Georgia Arms for an ammo recommendation and he sold me a box of Aguila (sp?) super high velocity. His recommendation was Stingers, but he didn't have any. Not a one of the 10 Aguilas ejected.

I will try the above list of actions to try to get this thing running. So far, though, I am really disappointed.

Have you tried the lighter spring, designed for standard velocity ammo?

What kind of malfunctiions are you getting?

Jack

[53gravely]

Please stay away from this gun. It's dangerous. I was coaching a gal, (new shooter) and her Mosquito fired out of battery. Thank God she had safety glasses on. The top of the case blew out and she got a face full of hot glasses.....very lucky I wasn't picking brass out of her face. I was able to repeat it (dry fire) by holding the slide slightly open.

Get you wife a REAL .22 target pistol so she can learn to hit the target otherwise she could get frustrated....and when mama ain't happy....

Drop the cash for a used Target Ruger. You'll love it too, especially if you upgrade to a Volquartsen trigger.

The little "Sig" is just a POS. I'm suprised they would sell this thing....I'm actually embarrased for them.

[kcult]

I bought a mosquito about two months ago and it really has been a pain in the rear.

I started with bulk box Federals because that's all I had. The gun had some variation of a malfunction probably 50% of the time. I bought some 1260 CCIs to try in it. That cut the malfunctions down to around 5%. At the last gun show I attended, I asked the gentleman from Georgia Arms for an ammo recommendation and he sold me a box of Aguila (sp?) super high velocity. His recommendation was Stingers, but he didn't have any. Not a one of the 10 Aguilas ejected.

I will try the above list of actions to try to get this thing running. So far, though, I am really disappointed.

Have you tried the lighter spring, designed for standard velocity ammo?

What kind of malfunctiions are you getting?

Jack

No, I haven't tried the lighter spring yet.

The malfunctions varied. I had FTE, FTF and stove pipes. Now that you mention it, I should have at least tried the other spring.

[Hi-Power Jack]

I bought a mosquito about two months ago and it really has been a pain in the rear.

I started with bulk box Federals because that's all I had. The gun had some variation of a malfunction probably 50% of the time. I bought some 1260 CCIs to try in it. That cut the malfunctions down to around 5%. At the last gun show I attended, I asked the gentleman from Georgia Arms for an ammo recommendation and he sold me a box of Aguila (sp?) super high velocity. His recommendation was Stingers, but he didn't have any. Not a one of the 10 Aguilas ejected.

I will try the above list of actions to try to get this thing running. So far, though, I am really disappointed.

Have you tried the lighter spring, designed for standard velocity ammo?

What kind of malfunctiions are you getting?

Jack

No, I haven't tried the lighter spring yet.

The malfunctions varied. I had FTE, FTF and stove pipes. Now that you mention it, I should have at least tried the other spring.

I'm not an expert, but whenever I've had FTE, FTF & stove pipes, it's usually either too

strong a spring (too low powered load) or bad mags. For a few dollars, it should be

worth at least trying the lighter springs. The one I fired (I only fired three shots,

so I may be way off here) it seems that the top of the mag may have caused the slide

to lock back each time?

[Vlad]

Please stay away from this gun. It's dangerous. I was coaching a gal, (new shooter) and her Mosquito fired out of battery. Thank God she had safety glasses on. The top of the case blew out and she got a face full of hot glasses.....very lucky I wasn't picking brass out of her face. I was able to repeat it (dry fire) by holding the slide slightly open.

The Mosquito is kinda crappy, but to be fair I've seen expensive .22 target guns shoot out battery as well.

[aztecdriver]

I have one that I use for slow fire trigger control stuff and my daughter loves to shoot it. I've experienced issues, but not enough to make me dump it --- yet.

1. CCI minimags are the requirement to make that gun run anywhere near reliable.

2. With them - the strong recoil spring is also the requirement. With the light one in it - the reason the slide locked open had nothing to do with the slide lock - the hammer was actually hanging up on the slide and sticking it open.

3. With crappy ammo, the gun wouldn't go into battery sometimes - BUT it never attempted to fire out of battery. The gun that did that above must be broken somewhere because this one will not do that. I watched my daughter a couple of times try and pull the trigger with it slightly out of battery and it wouldn't go - she hit the back of it to put it in all the way and it would fire. CCI's fixed that.

Would I buy it again - no, but I'm going to get my use out of it now that I screwed up and bought it.

[SiG Lady]

"Drop the cash for a used Target Ruger. You'll love it too, especially if you upgrade to a Volquartsen trigger."

I did precisely this with both my Ruger Mark II's. Terrific beginners' guns and reliable practice guns. I sold my older one (vintage 1970's according to the serial number) to a friend and he's still shooting it. My newer one (vintage 2003) was a gun show purchase, nearly-new-in-box and is fabulous. I'll never sell it.