AR 15 .22 LR Conversion Kit
 

I was at the range today and another shooter had a Colt M4 with a new CNMG Conversion Kit from Brownells. He was shooting Remington and Federal .22 LR and most of the rounds were misfires. The few rounds that did go bang cycled the bolt ok but most did not fire. Just out of curiousity I tried his kit in my Bushmaster and had the same results.
I was considering (and almost bought a kit at the last gun show) buying a .22 Conversion Kit for my Bushmaster or S&W and was wondering how many have had experiences with these kits and are any reliable. I've read decent things about the CNMG online so I was very suprised at what I saw. Hopefully most are decent because the price is definately right if the reliability is there.

Re: AR 15 .22 LR Conversion Kit
 

i have this one
http://www.tacticalsol.com/store/pc/...?idCategory=27

Re: AR 15 .22 LR Conversion Kit
 

A few questions:

1 How old was the ammo?

2 Did you look a some of the misfires to see the firing pin strike on the rim? It could be hitting too light or not in the right spot.

Re: AR 15 .22 LR Conversion Kit
 

I have a cmmg kit for my rock river and smith ars. picky on ammo but cheap to shoot. stay away for any hollow points. federal match grade non-hollow point works well. with the right ammo you may see one jam out of 50. Its hard to get a tight shot group, seems like your dead on for 2-3 shots then your off target the next. I think its the way the bullet comes out of the barrel since it is not a perfect fit.

Re: AR 15 .22 LR Conversion Kit
 

I can't say old the other shooter's ammo was because I just met him today. I gave him a box of Federal out of curiosity as to whether or not his kit was just ammo picky. My ammo was new. Same results.
I am sorry to say that I didn't look at the cases. It was getting late, started raining and pretty muddy so I never even thought to check the cases until later. I figured it was a light strike as the kit/gun functioned well when the ammo actually went bang.

Re: AR 15 .22 LR Conversion Kit
 

Some rimfires need "thicker rim" ammo or the headspace tightened up to get the right hit on the rim. There might be a longer firing pin available as well. You might have had good luck calling the manufacturer and talking to their Tech department.

Re: AR 15 .22 LR Conversion Kit
 

I've seen a lot of .22's fail to fire due to light strikes on the rim at the range.

Sometimes the .22 is just a dud, but usually if re-struck or struck harder they go off.

It kind of makes sense, you don't want the primer material going off at the drop of a hat if the shell is dropped etc. (being a rimfire this is more likely than centrefire), so it does require a decent hit to ignite it, as guns cycle more often with .22 (cheaper so tend to run more rounds), they wear more often, and may not initiate the same hammer or bolt strike strength they once did. A bolt should be a lot less prone to this obviously.

Re: AR 15 .22 LR Conversion Kit
 

Every .22 conversion for the AR15 I have ever seen has been garbage, relatively speaking. Sure its cheaper to shoot, but you are going to have jams every 40 or 50 rounds at best.