Parkwest Arms SD-22 Review: High-End, Custom, Practical

Can a high-end, custom .22 LR rifle be practical? When it comes to the Parkwest Arms SD-22, I think the answer is yes.

My buddy Frank writes with a Montblanc pen. I once asked him why. “First and foremost, I like nice things,” he said, “Second, I do sales, and when you hand a client a nice pen to sign the contract with, it helps them feel good about the decision because the act of signing is made into a pleasure and a feeling of success.”

There is no limit on who can enjoy luxury items. That’s how I see Parkwest Arms and, in particular, the SD-22 we are looking at in this article. Parkwest’s guns delight the senses. When the new owners started up the company, they hired as many of the experienced craftsmen as they could from the old Dakota Arms. They have since added even more talented people to their team who have the specialized skills to build heirloom-quality guns.

I think most people can sense the value and quality of any product the minute they handle it for the first time. Certainly, when you handle a nice gun, there are things that jump out at you. Beauty tops my list, then the sounds emanating from the gun when you work its solid action. Custom guns should have clean, crisp lines, pleasing to the eye and hand. These are unlike off-the-shelf guns that must be built with an eye toward minimizing costs. There is nothing wrong with that, it is simply a function of the marketplace that some products must be utilitarian. At the same time, the market demands products for the luxury segment.

If the quality of a firearm alone caused small game to drop dead, the SD-22 would be illegal in all 50 States. This rimfire model was new in 2024. Parkwest treats it with all the love, attention to detail, and care that goes into any of its custom hand-built big game rifles.

Steve Rabakoff, one of the owners at Parkwest, tells me that this model is selling even better than they had hoped. It turns out that gun-lovers like to shoot a lot, and this little 22 LR gives them a premium gun that they can shoot everyday if they desire. Ammo is relatively cheap and available, as opposed to some centerfire ammunition. Plus, it’s quiet, easy to share with the kids or grandkids, and has no recoil. I love the idea of introducing the next generation to the sport with a classic rifle design.

Rabakoff wanted me to see one of the new rimfire rifles they were releasing. He was clearly enthused by this project, not just because it’s his company, but because they are offering something unique. The SD-22 is not your grandpa’s .22; unless grandpa had a professional gunmaker for a buddy and got him to build a rifle to match his favorite hunting rifle. We are talking about an adult-sized gun, weighing 7.5 pounds, 41 inches in overall length, with a 23-inch barrel standard.

An alternative is to switch from a wood stock to synthetic, this drops about one pound from the rifle’s weight. If you are getting ready for a sheep hunt and want a training rifle, this lighter version could be your ticket. Personally, I will not be doing any mountain climbing, so I prefer the beauty of a wood stock.

My grumpy old gunsmith friend Mike Harmon saw this rifle when it came out of the case, and said, “I want to shoot that!” Gunsmiths are notorious for being jaded. They get to handle a wide variety of guns while they ply their trade. So, when gunsmiths get excited about a gun, you know it is something special.

Grumpy and I are both suckers for a nice piece of walnut, and the SD-22 that I received for testing played directly to our weakness—beautiful contrasting colors and copious fiddleback figure. The hand-rubbed oil finish enhanced the figure nicely, giving it the depth it deserves. We stepped out into the sunlight to get the full effect. The light reflecting from the wood provides quite a show, giving the stock depth and character. There is a warmth to wood that no synthetic stock can ever provide (sorry, you will never change my mind). This was a gun I knew would be a pleasure to take to the range or the field.

Not all that far in the past, we shooters were all hoarding 22 LR ammunition. At least one good thing came about from that shortage: I now have a broad collection of different brands of .22 LR. Where I live in Northwest Montana, ammunition availability during the shortage was totally random. As a result, I have a little bit of many different brands in my reserves. I went to the cupboard and pulled out a selection of ammo for our accuracy tests.

With my arbitrary collection of ammo, it was off to the range to see what this fine rifle was capable of. I’m lucky to have an indoor range in my locale, membership gets you a security code and 24-hour a day shooting privileges. Uniform temperatures and an utter lack of wind make shooting for accuracy a much easier process. I set up on the 50-foot range to do my testing. Each group shown here is five shots.

First, I loaded the magazine with five rounds and shot a group just to see where the scope was hitting and to foul the barrel. With that warm-up group out of the way, I set about collecting groups for the assorted ammunition that I had brought to the bench. All brands produced good minute-of-squirrel accuracy, some much better. The Winchester Wildcat ammo has a 40-grain lead round-nose bullet. The Standard velocity I had is some old “white box” Olin/Winchester and for all the world looks like the same bullet that was loaded in the Wildcat ammo. CCI Mini-Mags use a 36-grain hollow-point with a copper wash.

Parkwest shipped the rifle to me with a Leupold VX Freedom 3-9×40 Rimfire MOA mounted and bore-sighted—an excellent choice for a gun that is intended to have the profile of an American classic hunting rifle. It provided plenty of magnification for a .22 and the glass was clear as you would expect from Leupold. Of course, Parkwest will help you with any optic you prefer on your rifle.

The Armscor ammo was a 36-grain hollow-point coated bullet. Aguila is loaded with a 40-grain round-nose copper-plated projectile. Finally, the Federal Champion bulk ammo bullet was a 36-grain hollow-point, copper-plated. To be fair, the flyer from the Federal ammo could easily have been a result of switching ammo without a fouling shot, as it was the first shot fired with that load. Or it could be old eyes. Either way, the squirrel would still be dead.

Impressions From The Range

A pleasant surprise, it was better than expected; yes, I am gushing. Fun, enjoyable and satisfying. I have shot an untold number of rimfire rifles over the years. I couldn’t even guess at how much .22 ammo I have burned over the decades. This rifle ranks as one of the most accurate sporting .22s I have ever shot. More than that, it was special, and memorable; I don’t say that sort of thing about guns very often.

Hand checkering on the stock is clean and sharp with two panels on the grip and a wraparound pattern on the forend. The wood color and figure shows through the checkering so that the checkering only adds to the rifle’s attractive look—as well-executed checkering should do. In addition, the bolt handle had a nice three-panel metal checkering to match the stock, and yes, there are other options for the bolt handle, so you can make it your own.

Parkwest lists the chamber for the SD-22 as a Bentz, this is typically a popular match chamber for semi-auto guns. Over time, it has become popular in other guns as well. The Bentz chamber falls between the SAAMI Match and SAAMI Sporting chambers for .22 LR. I suspect that Parkwest selected it because it is more versatile than a match chamber and will work with a broader selection of ammo. Match chambers are shorter than the average sporting chamber for .22 LR, but the Bentz chamber features a long-tapered throat compared to most rimfire ones. This chamber is well known for producing excellent accuracy with a wide range of ammunition brands and types. Obviously, Parkwest made a good choice based on our results.

The SD-22 comes with a ½-MOA guarantee for accuracy and is delivered with a target from the factory. Clearly, all my groups met that standard, some by a large margin. Several of my groups were just over 0.250 inch or 50 percent better than promised. I’m betting there is an even better ammo out there; I just ran out of time at the range.

Actions for the SD-22 are available for right- or left-handed shooters. Standard in chromoly (blue) steel, each rifle is supplied with two five-round magazines. That second magazine is a nice thing to have with any gun. For reliable feeding and ejection, the bolt is designed with dual extractors. The gun fed flawlessly with all the ammo we tried. The standard rifle comes with a XXX Claro walnut stock, solid steel grip cap, and ½-inch recoil pad to add to the classic look of the rifle.

Avid shooters will tell you that much of the accuracy potential in a rifle comes from a quality trigger, so Parkwest added a TriggerTech adjustable trigger standard, as well. I appreciated the fine single-stage trigger on the test gun set to about 2 pounds. The release was crisp and repeatable with no perceptible creep.

That seems like an extensive list of features, and it is. Still, Parkwest offers a long list of custom options so you can have exactly what you desire. It’s not likely you will ever see two SD-22 rifles that look alike, unless of course you ordered them to match.

The rifle I tested had many optional features and did a great job of showing off what the experts at Parkwest Arms are capable of. The metal is all hand polished, the standard model is blued, but can be ordered in numerous finish types, including Cerakote or slow rust blue. Note that our test gun had a color-cased receiver and scope mounts along with premium polished bluing on the rest of the gun. The color case is well done; preparation is the key when performing color casehardening. The degree of polish applied to the metal can greatly enhance the resulting colors from the process.

The iron sights on my test gun were also upgraded. The rear sight was mounted on a quarter-rib and a banded front sight completed the set. “Practice like you play.” If I was getting ready for a plains game hunt, practicing with the same sights on my .22 would not be a bad thing.

Parkwest Arms offers you a particular touch that only a true custom gunmaker can offer, a personalized serial number to make your rifle fully unique. FDZ are my initials; I am thinking of ordering “Fudzy” as my serial number, it’s a nickname of sorts. That way I can tell my grandson, “Shhh, be werwy, werwy quiet, we are hunting wabbits.” It would be worth it just to see the eye roll.

On its website, Parkwest has a build-your-own-rifle feature that allows you to stroll through all the options. Items you can customize include the wood grade, contrasting forend tip, checkering, different types of sling swivels, or cross bolts. We are not done yet; recoil pads, buttplates (solid or skeleton), tip and toe plates, and just as many choices for grip caps. On top of that, you can add engraving, as simple or extensive as you like. In short, you can make it a dream rifle with the features that you want.

Why?

If you must ask … I guess I did a poor job of explaining what the experience of handling a well-executed product like the SD-22 is really like. To be as direct as possible, it is a beautiful handmade rifle of the highest quality, and completely tailored to your personal taste. So, why not?

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the July 2025 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

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