Brownells' AR-15 .22 LR Conversion Kit
Updated: January 9th, 2013
SayUncle has reviewed the Brownells’ AR-15 .22 LR Conversion Kit for Shooting Illustrated. It is well worth reading.
Brownells’ .22 Bolt
The bolt design, which is mostly the same across all the .22LR AR-15 kits, is ingenious. I would never have thought up that concept.
What is appealing about Brownells’ kit is that the magazines are similar in size to the AR-15 magazine. The other kits I have seen use magazines which are small and skinny.
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Does anybody have experience with the CMMG dedicated AR-15 .22LR upper? It appears that CMMG has the only device that allows the bolt catch to operate as it normally does on an ar-15, so I was thinking it may work best with a CMMG upper, but I suppose that it may work with dedicated uppers from other manufacturers. Does anyone have any insight on this?
The Brownells (actually CMMG) conversions are nifty. However even better is to pick up a CMMG dedicated .22RF barrel and adapter and build a dedicated .22 RF upper.
http://cmmginc.secure-mall....
See www.frfrogspad.com/ar.htm for pictures (about half way down the page).
Some hints for reliability.
1) Debur and polish all bearing surfaces of the conversion and keep lubricated.
2) As previously mentioned use plated bullet HV ammo. CMMG recommends the 36 gr HVHP loads but try several and see what works best for you.
3) If you have the typical square notched AR hammer consider replacing your hammer with the rounded top "GI" style hammer for better reliability.
4) CMMG offers a special .22RF charging handle that is filled in to prevent RF rounds from getting stuck in the handle.
http://cmmginc.secure-mall....
You can also modify a charging handle with an epoxy filler.
My nit has digested close to 500 rds with only on stoppage.