I was actully planning on buying one in the near future. I have not heard all this.
@Jayne might weigh in
I saw the slide blowing up / extractor flying out stuff in the beginning too.
Of the 4 people I regularly shoot with, 3 have G44s now. One has over 10k rounds through his, mine is at 2865 rounds, and I don't know what the 3rd guy is up to (he's late to the party) but I'm guessing at least 1500.
Somewhere there is my post about mine firing out of battery, and we measured exactly how far out of battery they would all fire and mine was sorta in the middle. So of our 3 samples, they ALL can do it.
My M&P 22 compact is way, way less ammo picky (basically runs everything) but the G44 has worked OK with remington golden bullets, thunderbolt (the guy with the 10k+ on his has been 80% thunderbolts) and it really really likes the Armscor 36gr jhps. I'm trying to run though a case of golden bullets in mine, and the ammo itself is pretty inconsistent. It's from back in the 22 shortage days so the QC was likely garbage but some rounds don't sound right and won't cycle the slide. I've been taking it apart after that happens to check for squibs if I don't see the steel move. The armscor is recent production and runs really really well.
It's not the best 22 out there by any stretch, but it is the best "glock trainer". I've gotten much better with my G34 having put all the rounds through the G44. The mags are the same size/shape as the real thing so the gun fits my competition holster and the mags fit the carrier so I can do all the draw/reload/etc drills just like the real thing. It's oddly fun too.
If you're
not a high volume Glock shooter, then I wouldn't recommend it. My M&P 22 compact is way more reliable and way less picky. If you are a glock guy and shoot a lot and want to get better, I highly recommend it.
Just watch those out of battery explosions. They don't hurt, much.