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Posted: 11/28/2005 8:51:19 PM EDT
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I have all kinds of ARs now and accumulated a couple of spare uppers as well. So, I am thinking it is time to get into a rimfire AR in 22LR to go with my RRA 9mm. I see lots of military conversions that use the existing 223/556 barrels in Equipment Exchange. How reliable are they? What is the ideal upper for them? I have a nice A1 upper with 20-inch barrel. Would it work? I am also building a mid-length mutt upper with a high-mileage chrome-lined barrel (2000 rounds). Should I use that for my 22? Short of getting a complete 22 upper from Bushy, what other options do I have? What lower parts work for the different options? Last, but not least, what kind of accuracy can I expect? |
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I started out with a DPMS Bull barrel upper. It was a real tack driver but was heavy as hell,not totally reliable and that upper had no front sight as it was set for optics only. The ten round mags were a bitch to clean and were-only 10 rounds. I ditched the DPMS and now run a Ceiner. I have mine tuned up and broken in to the point that it is running 99+%.I can throw it in any upper I have,use any sighting system I have for any of my ARs.It runs ok with some of the cheep bulk ammo-great for blasting with the thirty round mags . I can use the ten round mags off the bench and with selected ammo It will outshoot my Ruger 10/22Target model. I have my Ruger tuned up with some goodies and It is a fine shooter but I have got the Ceiner to the point that it is as good or better Accuracy wise and the Ceiner is more reliable. The availiable 10 and 30 round mags work well and come apart easy to clean which is a consideration with rimfire blowback guns. Some of the high dollar custom dedecated uppers (Compass lake and the like) have more potential but I just am not that good of a shooter to put one of those to use. Could be a cool toy but I like my Ceiner just fine! |
The M-261 kits seem to work as well as any of the others. They're designed for standard-vel only, but I think a lot of people use the high-vel bulk packs in them anyway. Some people who have tried their kits in both 1/9 and 1/12 twist barrels report that accuracy is much better in the 1/12 barrel so your A1 will probably shoot better then the mid-length but the kit would function equally well in either. Compass Lake and Accuracy Speaks make match-grade .22LR uppers that use slightly modified M-261 kits. Rick Kuehl and Accuracy Speaks make uppers that use the Ciener kit. Kurt at KKF makes uppers that have true .22LR barrels but still use the chamber adapter so could use either kit.
There's also the DPMS uppers in M4, A2, and bull bbl. configurations, the CZ V22 upper, and now Olympic Arms has a .22 upper as well. The semi-custom uppers mentioned above can be purchased as a complete upper with a pre-modified kit. For drop-in kits you have the M-261, the Air Force M-261 (the only one with bolt hold-open), Colt, DPMS, and Ciener. Only Ciener and soon DPMS have hi-cap mags.
All of the options work with a standard lower. All except the Bushy drop on with no changes to the lower. (The Bushy requires replacement of the buffer & spring.) The Ciener requires a full-strength hammer spring for reliable ignition so it won't work with some match triggers. I don't know about the others.
Fairly poor with the drop-in kits, though that seems to vary quite a bit from upper to upper. Don't expect them to keep up with a 10/22, but they're OK for short-range plinking. The uppers with proper .22LR barrels range from on par with a 10/22 to one-hole depending on how much you want to spend. |
2K rounds are considered high-mileage when you are trying to sell the darn thing! |
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