.22 conversions

[Capt Doug]

I've been "trying on" many guns for concealed carry and accuracy proficiency. I like the Kimber .45 a lot and the Glock 21 for a variety of reasons. Does buying the .22 conversion kit keep the expense in check while still allowing for feel of the original gun? I thought whenever I practice I'd fire mostly .22 then reconfigure the weapon for .45 to maintain the feel of the real deal. I see Glock has a conversion for every model BUT the 21; anybody have any comments.

[444]

Well on the one hand, the .22 is certainly much cheaper to shoot. On the other hand, they ain't cheap. But if you shoot a lot, they can quickly pay for themselves.
I have a 1911 conversion that I have had nothing but trouble with. However, it is very very accurate. If it functioned, I would shoot it a lot. There have been numerous threads on this subject in the past, do a search and I am sure you will find plenty to keep you reading.
In summary, I think you should buy one. You can easily shoot several thousand rounds a year which should keep you pretty sharp. Of course you also need to practice with full bore ammo fairly regularly, but I believe that having solid shooting fundamentals will be of more benefit than anything else you might do. And that comes from doing a lot of shooting while paying close attention to your technique.
Something that I try to do once a year: The summers here are brutally hot and in the fall I am usually big game hunting. So when winter rolls around, my pistol shooting skills have usually fallen off pretty bad. I try to select one of my .22 revolvers and one of my .22 autoloaders. I pick one action type and shoot one whole 550 round box of ammo through it before allowing myself to shoot anything else. Then I switch to the other .22 and do the same thing. This allows me to focus on the fundamentals essential to good shooting. Sight alignment, trigger squeeze, stance, breathing etc. Unfortuntely I usually end up putting the .22s away for another year instead of enjoying them like I should. Way to much shooting is done for the "gee whiz" factor instead of seriously attempting to improve our technique.

[Capt Doug]

Thank you 444. I took your advise and read plenty. I hope I don't have the same problem you were stuck with. I also concur with your assessment : do you want to shoot impressively or impressively loud?

[Eric Larsen]

Comment # 25687,254.02 The best 22 conversion on the market, Bold statement of my own, is the CZ Kadet for the 75/85 series guns. I hear about troubles with all of the others, Glock, 1911 etc..even the spendy ones.
The only bad things you will hear about the Kadet kit, is "I had to do some minor fitting (usually very minor)" and " Im so *$%^# stupid, I should have bought this years ago" and for the most common one "It was so accurate and functioned so well, I sold my Ruger MK1/2/slabside, Browning, High Standard (fill in the blank) as I had no need for it anymore"! Thats how good they are. Shoot well

[DMK]

Eric speaks the truth. I have put much ammo through my Kadet and it's helped me greatly in the accuracy dept. Plus it's just darn fun! It's always been a joy to shoot with zero problems.

For the 1911, there's a Marvel kit that's very similar to the CZ Kadet in design and supposed to be much more reliable than the lower cost and more common Ceiner kit.

I think that the biggest problem with a lot of these kits is like the Ceiner, some have the little .22 trying to recoil the entire slide. The Marvel and Kadet kits have a fixed slide and fixed barrel with a smaller "bolt" mechanism more like the more traditional .22 target pistols such as the Ruger MKII and Buckmark.

[Oleg Volk]

Advantage Arms kit for Glock has been wonderful. Better designed than the CZ kit (which I used to have and gifted along with the CZ75), accurate and generally reliable. CZ kit failed to eject about once in 20-25 rounds, was hard to rack due to the narrow slide. Was very helpful for training newbies nontheless.

My AA kit wasn't reliable at first (failures to feed due to bad magazine batch and occasional failures to clear the ejection port). Manufacturer sent me three more magazines which worked. Then I tried different ammo (cheapest ball I could find, not the recommended Minimags) and it's been flawless since even with the original magazines. They also sent me a new barrel.

At this time, I get 1:100 failures to fully clear the ejection post, about the same as with any other 22 due to inconsistent ammo. Accuracy is very good (better than standard Buckmark) and it has been invaluable in teaching newbies and in training myself. Low noise, low recoil, cheap ammo are great. I can't recommend their kit enough. Good kit, great service.

http://www.olegvolk.net/newphotos/aack some pictures

[Jody Hudson]

Oleg,

Have you had a chance to shoot your AA G19 any more? Accuracy? Reliability?

[schild]

My Kadett conversion now has close to 1000 rounds with no failures of any kind. The ejection problem(if you have one) is fixed by beveling the ejector. www.czforum.com

[BigD]

Hey, does anybody know of a .22LR conversion kit for a SIG P226? I've been looking (not terribly hard) for years, but have never seen anything.

[Kat]

Nope, never seen a Sig kit. The ones I'm aware of are for Glock, Beretta, Taurus, 1911, CZ... I think that's it. Did I miss any?

If you haven't purchased a gun yet, consider the Walther P99/P22 combo. You can get the P22 (a complete gun) for about the same price as most conversion kits. It complements the P99 really well.

[444]

As I have mentioned in other threads. The conversion unit I have is a Ciener. I have had two problems with it, and wasn't real happy with the response I got on the phone the first time, although they finally agreed to have me send it to them and it worked for awhile afterwards. The problem now is that it takes several hammer strikes to fire a round, and it does this every time. I would guess that I have a broken firing pin ?
I also mentioned about that this unit is also very accurate. I pulled off one of those amazing shots using this conversion on a Colt Officer's Model. One of those shots that you remember for years to come, and you brag about on the internet. I was out shooting in the desert where everybody shoots and a truck pulls up with a guy I sorta know and his son. I call his son by his first name and his son replies, do I know you ? I explain that I had met them a few times around town and at a gun show. They then proceed to launch into a long winded discourse about just how great of a shot the son is. Then they tell me about how great this .22 pistol they have is. I look it over and am not overly impressed (I dont' remember what it was now but I believe it was a late model S&W autoloader, not a model 41 or anything; relatively low end, or maybe it was a low end High Standard). I show them my Officers Model with the conversion unit, discuss the problem, the old man of course knows exactly what is wrong with it. The son then gets out and sets two clay pidgions on a dirt bank at what was right around 50 yards. All the time he is telling me about what a great shot he is, and how much he shoots etc. He walks forward about half way (25 yards) and proceeds to empty the whole mag without hitting anything. I said, let me give it a try and fired two shots from next to the truck (50 yards) and hit both clays with one shot each. Of course I then put my gun away and the subject of conversation changed to him wanting to buy a shotshell reloader from me for next to nothing.
There is no way I could do that consistently, and I was even surprised myself; but of course I didnt' let on.

[VictorLouis]

with that CZ. I had nothing but the best performance with it. The AA is the best kit for the Glock. However, I still think CZ's is the better design, overall. The whole slide is of steel, which duplicates the weight of the actual centerfire top-end. Also, I think the barrel remains in a more rigid position, and the sights are fixed to the barrel. All in all, it's very much like the S&W M-41 in design and execution.

[BIGHAMMER]

I would have to wait and hear how the new Gemtech 22. conversion works. Nothing on the web site but you can see it on the back page of the new issue of S.A.R. it looks sweet, and comes with a threaded barrel.