AR-15 with .22 Conversion Kit?

[Rugerdaddy]

Is this legally a .22, or still considered a centerfire for the purposes of "assault weapon" laws? In other words, can it have the evil features, or not? Thanks for your answers!

[Hakoomay]

The bolt and firing mechanism is rimfire, so centerfire laws do not apply from this standpoint.

I'm sure the legalese-seasoned cal gunners will chime in with details.

[alpha_romeo_XV]

I think there are many in use in this state and haven't heard of any arrests or convictions due to them. Interesting that the kit with 10 rnd mags costs more than the 25s.
Even though I have a couple dedicated 22LR uppers, I though about getting one of the kits on sale during freedom week just to get the 3 x25 rnd mags to use in a compatible 22LR upper. I also wanted to see how the reliability and accuracy was compared to the dedicated uppers. I vacillated deciding to long and freedom week ended.

[baranski]

I think there are many in use in this state and haven't heard of any arrests or convictions due to them. Interesting that the kit with 10 rnd mags costs more than the 25s.
Even though I have a couple dedicated 22LR uppers, I though about getting one of the kits on sale during freedom week just to get the 3 x25 rnd mags to use in a compatible 22LR upper. I also wanted to see how the reliability and accuracy was compared to the dedicated uppers. I vacillated deciding to long and freedom week ended.

Well, they gotta pay someone to pin those 10 round mags.


Mine (from CMMG) has been utterly flawless, keep it wet with lube and rock on.

[AR22]

Not legal advice but it seems this has been discussed many times and the consensus is, for now anyway, they are NOT under the same rules as the Big Brother Centerfires are.

I have several dedicated .22s built with CMMG Barrels and Bolts. All run flawless. Even with Binary.

I have to completely disagree with the run it wet with lube though. Very bad idea in any rimfire. Take my advice or not but adding wet lube in a dirty powdered round like a Rimfire is asking for instant sludge and a complete mess in your Rifle.

All my dedicated .22s and all other 22 Rifles I have, have only had dry lube ran in them for years. Wet is fine in a regular AR15 centerfire. Not a Rimfire.

Cleanup is a breeze running dry lube too and are far in between when running dry lubes also. Heed my advice or not. Up to you.

The worse Rimfires I have ever bought that had the curse of the Liquid Oil are the Remingtom Nylon series. I have had some of those when I bought them you could hardly charge the bolt. This comes from people dumping oil in them for years. Sad thing in the case of the Nylons. They even told people to never run oil in them. People did it anyway. And they end up non operational till someone cleans them up or cares for them properly.

[Caligun818]

Sounds interesting, can you post a pic?

[AR22]

I do not know for sure if you are referring to one of mine. But here is one of A2 Clones. Alot of it, atleast what is legal as far as Machine gun parts is all USGI FN parts and a A2 clone lower.

[Caligun818]

I do not know for sure if you are referring to one of mine. But here is one of A2 Clones. Alot of it, atleast what is legal as far as Machine gun parts is all USGI FN parts and a A2 clone lower.

That looks pretty cool. Thanks for posting. I'm entirely new to guns. Does a .22 rifle like the m&p 15-22 require a fingrip in CA?

[Tunabliss]

I have two CMMG kits with hmmm@% round mags. They run flawless and fire just about any type of ammo. The way I understand it, as long as the kit is in the and gun is completely assembled, it is a .22 cal and free from AW rules. However, if you remove the conversion kit and put it back together, then its not a .22 anymore... But I'm no expert. I just know the .22 conversion is fun to shoot. pretty accurate out to 100 yrds. Even with a 1:7 or 1:8 barrel.

[Jimi Jah]

I bought and installed the true .22LR barrel and bolt cap. Accuracy improved a whole lot.
The lower had the buffer and spring removed, it's all rimfire now. yes, it has the pistol grip and adjustable stock. I've used the same old Ceiner conversion bolts since 2013. I just removed the .223 conversion tip and installed a SS CMMG cap. I have two of these and never broke an extractor or firing pin.

[Garand Hunter]

If you remove the kit and do not put the CENTERFIFE bolt carrier group back into the rifle it is not a AW. Take a look at the last set of regs published, pg 2 of 15 pgs, S 5470 (c) tells the story, take a look. Centerfire is the kicker. No BCG installed it is not centerfire. That is where I got the info I use to determine that my AR 15 with or without the rimfire bolt carrier is not a AW, as long as the centerfire bcg is not installed. My point of view and I am not looking for a PO to ask his opinion about it.

Regs file and stamped received July 19, 2017 Office of Administrative Law.

Psalm 1

[AR22]

Mine is a dedicated .22 Long Rifle A2 GP Barrel and dedicated 22 BCG. The lower gets swapped between other uppers. It is used for some of my 5.56 uppers also.

[th3jesus]

CMMG bolt carrier

Having owned a CMMG .22 conversion for a while now I gotta say it's fun to use and saves you a stupid amount of money. But it can be very finicky.

Trouble begins when you use anything other then your standard LR. If you want to use something like super colibri (500fps+-)you can expect it to not cycle but you will also find yourself clearing jams when the casings refuse to eject. So always carry a knife to clear it.

The other thing that happens a LOT, I mean a LOT. You will go through firing pins like crazy. The way it's designed causes them to break in half where the retaining pin sits. Also the tip of the firing pin also seems to break 1/4 from the tip.

Running it Dry really does work but believe me you want to clean it after every use because it will cake carbon all in the 22 chamber. Again causing casings to jam in the chamber.

[AR22]

I run dry lube in all .22s regardless of type of Firearm. I do not clean very often. Not as necessary when using a dry lube. With the dry lube I can go through alot of rounds before I even consider having it take down and thorough clean.

I know about the Firing pin problems first hand. CMMG usually sends me a couple when one breaks. So I stay ahead of the problem that way.

But right now I am running a Bore Buddy pin. It is their prototype they sent me for free to give it a test run. If the regular production ones are even as good as the proto. They will have something. I have been running the prototype they sent me with good success for over a month now. That is with Binary and single mode. Probably only around a 1000 rounds so far. But I have had CMMGs break in way less than that.

CMMG has great stuff overall, and top notch CS. But their Firing Pins do suck bad..

I do not know what the Colibri stuff is but if it is CB velocities like CCI at around 710 FPS. Of course it will not cycle it. Very few semi autos will cycle CB caps. I only know of one that will, and cannot think of who made it right off. But it is not on the AR Platform. I know none on the AR platform that will.

They were never designed for less than Standard Velocity. If you are wanting to run CB caps. That is not the Rifles problem at all... That is ammo related.

Mine run perfect with every ammo I have tried, SV and above. Even Remington, Winchester..LOL

[galun]

Due to ammo prices I bought a bolt conversion and I loved it. Then I got a dedicated upper and loved that too. I ended up building a dedicated AR-22 with the same configuration as my AR-15 - exact same lower group, handguard, position of angled fore grip, reddot optics.

It was freaking awesome. Any rifle drill that requires only one shot felt exactly the same. Gotta love the $0.05 cpr instead of $0.50. I ended up practicing a lot more instead of conserving ammo.

Thanks for the heads up on the firing pin breaking. I have done a few thousand rounds and the firing pin was fine. But I ordered a few from CMMG proactively. I love this setup so much that I don't want to be down waiting for parts.

I have good experience with high velocity copper plated loads. Auguilla 40 grain at $3 per 50 from big 5, and Remington golden bullets.