AR .22 LR conversion

Rugerfan

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Please enlighten me on your experiences converting an AR to .22LR. Please include the manufacturers used, ammo choices, magazines, reliability, all of the gory details. I plan on trying to do this, but want to hear from real users of the various products offered.

Thank you in advance.
 
I had a CMMG upper, (including barrel with 'correct' twist rate). I was pretty happy with it. But, if I were doing it again, I'd just buy a S&W MP-22, a firearm purpose built to run .22.
Same here, I bought a CMMG upper a while ago. It was pretty easy to just swap out the 5.56 upper with the CMMG .22LR upper. But I ended up buying a 10/22.
 
I use cmmg in a .223 bear creek arsenal 7.5" barrel. I have the gas block on backwards to block gas travellng through the DI system. Not intended to be a tack driver. My kid loves it.
 
Not sure if they still have them but Tactical Solutions AR 22lr upper takes Black Dog Machine mags
Darn close to MOA with CCI SV
I have a few friends with the chiappa 22lr AR upper and they are not bad for the $$$
I have seen that most 22lr uppers can be finicky with some trigger type/style
 
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I was looking at these for a long while , but I ended up not getting into service rifle as much and my eyes have gone south for iron sight shooting.
Last I was interested these kits where $550 gone up a bit since
 
I was looking at these for a long while , but I ended up not getting into service rifle as much and my eyes have gone south for iron sight shooting.
Last I was interested these kits where $550 gone up a bit since
 
Please enlighten me on your experiences converting an AR to .22LR. Please include the manufacturers used, ammo choices, magazines, reliability, all of the gory details. I plan on trying to do this, but want to hear from real users of the various products offered.

Thank you in advance.
CMMG sucks. Have its complete .22lr upper and hate it.
BCAs are a bit better and cheaper, but also suck. BCA i have is about 1-2MOA better than CMMG, but CMMG shoots like crap and groups can be suddenly extremely wide, up to 6MOA wide.
BCA uppers can use CMMG magazines.

what does not suck - a CZ 457 rifles.
 
CMMG sucks. Have its complete .22lr upper and hate it.
BCAs are a bit better and cheaper, but also suck. BCA i have is about 1-2MOA better than CMMG, but CMMG shoots like crap and groups can be suddenly extremely wide, up to 6MOA wide.
BCA uppers can use CMMG magazines.

what does not suck - a CZ 457 rifles.

That BCA upper is the exact same one that I ordered and posted about above. It was supposed to arrive today, but not likely happening, at this point. Glad to know that it sucks a little less than the CMMG! I'm psyched! [laugh]


Frank
 
I have very high standards for rifle accuracy.
Here is BCA group at 100yds, aguila se ammo. CZ 457 drills there through the same hole.
At 50yds it looks ok-ish, mostly does an inch - inch a half groups.
I had some light strikes with BCA, did not shoot it enough yet to brake it in 100%.
Also make sure bolt is oiled very well before shooting, use cci mini mags high speed only for beginning, it may not cycle on aguila initially, but will later.
View attachment 567893
Do you think the vertical stringing is the ammo or the rifle?
 
Do you think the vertical stringing is the ammo or the rifle?
rifle 100%. pattern is same at 50yds, just less pronounced due to a shorter distance. there is a chance for rifling to get smoother and projectile speed to be more consistent if i shoot it more. but i am just not interested enough to ever shoot this thing, to be honest.
but, again, i made this setup mostly for kids who now ditched me and my shooting completely anyway :) - and kids have little interest of shooting anywhere except of 50yds. when spring will come i will take it with me and make them run 500 or so rounds through that upper, will see then.
at 50yds this BCA is adequate enough - just need to find time to shoot it more to get rid of light strikes, bolt still needs to be broken in better.
 
I was looking at these for a long while , but I ended up not getting into service rifle as much and my eyes have gone south for iron sight shooting.
Last I was interested these kits where $550 gone up a bit since
I can't remember who I told, but I bought one of those kits recently. I've got it all together and it matches up with my SR pretty well, right down to the WOA Distinguished scope. I haven't tested it out yet because it's just too damn cold.
 
I can't remember who I told, but I bought one of those kits recently. I've got it all together and it matches up with my SR pretty well, right down to the WOA Distinguished scope. I haven't tested it out yet because it's just too damn cold.
Nice , looking forward to a review
 
I have very high standards for rifle accuracy.
Here is BCA group at 100yds, aguila se ammo. CZ 457 drills there through the same hole.
At 50yds it looks ok-ish, mostly does an inch - inch a half groups.
I had some light strikes with BCA, did not shoot it enough yet to brake it in 100%.
Also make sure bolt is oiled very well before shooting, use cci mini mags high speed only for beginning, it may not cycle on aguila initially, but will later.
View attachment 567893
So, as i had nothing better to do, while making some inventory of the safe, it dawned to me that i did not look at that CMMG upper in a long while.
So i took it out, apart, and did a usual redo - lapped the upper, cleaned up everything, then re-torqued it tight, like a 75ft/in tight.

results are now satisfactory, the thing started to act like it should at 50yds. those are the control groups with minimags, there are still flyers here and there, but, it is normal.
on a right it is actually supposed to be a group of 10, but looks like 8, odd.

22lr_cmmg.jpg

and then here is a bear creek upper below, like a 15 or 10 shots, dunno:

1663352716563.png
 
I have a 16” light weight CMMG barrel build for plinking with kids, but I haven’t checked its group yet.

However, I also had a CMMG 16” Bull barrel laying around and some other spare parts. So I’m putting that together to hopefully have a precise 22lr gas gun. We’ll see. I will be putting it on my CMP Service Rifle lower, but haven’t actually assembled it yet and will be putting a Harrel’s Precision tuner brake on it. Also, thinking maybe WWII OD green for a paint job?

9016650A-C023-4766-9E2C-053CDA2CE691.jpeg
 
I bought an Anvil Arms lower in the NES buy in 2010. Then mated it to a Spikes Tactical .22 upper. One of the best decisions I have made. Have a good .22 rifle which can be converted to other uppers as I please.
 
I just grabbed a CMMG conversion bolt and some extra mags to go with it. Works great and has decent accuracy with a 1/9 barrel. Wasn't really using the first carbine upper I built as I gravitated to long distance paper punching games. Now it has a new purpose as a cool looking evil black 22LR plinker.
 
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