HJL,
A while ago I bought a Glock 22 4th Gen .40 caliber hand gun. In my opinion, this was one of the best buys I ever made. In all the firing I have done with this gun, I have had only one malfunction and that was a stovepipe piece of .22LR brass. (There’s more on that brass later.) The Glock 22 does have a considerable recoil in .40 caliber but not so much to make it uncomfortable for a grown man. I’m 73 years old now; maybe I’ll change my mind as I get older. The Gen 4 was supposed to have reduced the recoil, but since I have never fired a Gen 3 I cannot attest to that.
Now for the good part about the Glock 22. This gun, while designed to fire .40S&W ammunition, can be modified easily to fire 9mm Luger and .22LR ammunition. To fire 9mm, all that is needed is to change the barrel to 9mm. Wolf sells this conversion barrel. Everything else on the Glock 22 remains the same, EVEN the magazine! To fire .22LR ammunition the conversion is a little more involved, but it’s no harder. Tactical Solutions sells the kit. This includes the entire upper slide, including the barrel. The magazine must be changed as well. Two barrels are separately offered– one plain and one with a threaded extension that will accept a suppressor.
The Glock 22 and the Glock 19 use the same lower assembly, but the uppers are different. The Glock 22 upper is more robust to account for the increased pressure from the .40S&W round. CAUTION: the conversion can go only from the .40S&W to the 9mm Luger and not the other way around. The Glock 19 CANNOT be converted to fire the .40S&W. Another CAUTION is to make sure the conversion that you get is specifically for the generation Glock you have. The conversions for the Gen 3 and Gen 4 are different!
All of this allows you to shoot your Glock 22 in many calibers/mm. Basically, you get three guns in one. You get the BIG GUN feel even when shooting .22LR, and ammunition is less expensive for the smaller rounds. I have no affiliation with Glock, Wolf, or Tactical Solutions. – Mac C.