Best 1911 .22lr conversion kit?

[puzzledeagle]

What is generally considered to be the best 1911 .22lr conversion kit? They seem to vary in price a lot.

[Bastard]

Marvel unit 1

followed closely by the unit 2 or by their "limited time offer", that has been offered for some time now, which is a unit 2 with a unit 1 barrel

[44fred]

^^^^
This

[RTE]

The Marvel is a quality conversion

I went with a Tactical Solutions 2211
50 rounds used for $350 and 2 metal mags (couldnt pass it up)

the 2211 does lock the slide back on the last shot where the marvel does not.

[Mnort10x]

Nighthawk Custom makes the newest designed Bob Marvel conversion and it is great. Locks back on last round, has buffer and best magazines of them all. Shoots standard velocity ammo and I have both the weaver rail for red dot and Ellison adj. rear sight rail. Worth looking at.

http://www.nighthawkcustom.com/shop/conversions-accessories-22.html

[GM4spd]

I still prefer my Colt on the 1911, not as accurate but reliable with any
22LR I have used,does require cleaning after 500 rds,(the floating chamber
stops floating.)The Colt locks back on the last round,like it should! Any
unit that doesn't lock back on the last round is useless,I don't care
how accurate it is. Pete

[Runt]

Really depends on what your intended purpose for the pistol is.

For cheap IDPA, Steel Challenge practice, I have a Marvel Unit 2 on a Springfield lower. It has been ideal for this purpose. Another plus is the wife and kids enjoy shooting it. The 45, not so much.

The only negatives I can think of are;
1. Needs a stronger round to be happy. I've used MiniMags exclusively without any issues. This is the round Marvel suggests. Can't comment on any others.
2. Isn't as accurate as a Unit 1. Plenty accurate for my purposes. The Unit 1 is intended as a target pistol.
3. Doesn't lock back on the last round. I believe there is a mod to address this but when I briefly looked into it, it was too costly for me to justify. The mags have to be modded as well as the conversion. Going off of memory here so don't quote me on it.

Overall, for my needs I would do exactly the same thing again.

[redcliff]

I still prefer my Colt on the 1911, not as accurate but reliable with any
22LR I have used,does require cleaning after 500 rds,the floating chamber
stops floating.The Colt locks back on the last round,like it should! Pete

I've owned a Colt Service Model Ace since 1980. While it's a handsome unit I think you're having very good luck to get 500 rounds between cleaning; mine is closer to 200-250 rounds.

I have a Marvel Unit 1 and its amazingly accurate and functions very well. However if I was to purchase a high-end unit now it would be the Bob Marvel version being offered by Nighthawk.

[pklin1297]

Here are the kits I have had before, for both my 1911 and Glock:

1. Kimber 1911 kit - Made by Ciener. Have heard of some horror stories before on this kit but I owned it quite a long time ago and it functioned close to 100% for me given the right high velocity ammo. No longer own this kit.

2. Marvel Unit 2 - Only shot 200 rounds through it before selling it just last week. Not sure how accurate people need out of this kit but it was approaching the accuracy of my CZ 455 using quality ammo (at pistol range of course), and that is plenty accurate for me. Reliability was good but not 100% using CCI mini mag, but definitely better than the Kimber. I would recommend this kit, but it does not lock back on last shot.

3. Advantage Arms Glock 17 kit - Accuracy almost on par with the Marvel which surprised me because of the price difference and the fact that the barrel does not lock to the slide release like the Marvel. I bought this used and functionally it has been 100% literally using CCI mini mag. I have tried some Aguila high velocity with great results also, but accuracy not as good as CCI. This kit locks open on last shot and is currently my favorite conversion kit. Because of how well this one performed, I am thinking about buying an Advantage Arms 1911 conversion kit but they have been extremely illusive and tough to find for more than a year now... The AA 1911 kit will also lock back on last round and pricing is much more attractive than the Nighthawk kit. In my opinion, for the price of the NH kit, I would personally buy a dedicated 22LR pistol to plink with.

[nick]

I've only tried two: Advantage Arms Target and Kimber. The latter sucked, plain and simple. It was never even 80% reliable, with any ammo I tried with it.

Advantage Amrs: reliable with some ammo (MiniMags, CCI 40gr LRN, Winchester Super-X, RGB, Federal AutoMatch, some others I can't remember). It seems to generally prefer high velocity ammo, but some normal velocity works fine, as well. It didn't like the Aguila ammo I had (normal velocity, I believe), and the Walmart red Federal bulk pack. The blue one was mostly fine (I'd say, 95-97%). As for the accuracy, it was very good to about 12-13 yards, haven't tried it past that (the limitations of the local range). It does lock back on the last round, and the mags are fairly cheap.

[nick]

Oh yeah, and depending on what ammo you use, it goes for about 200-400 rounds before it REALLY needs cleaning. RGB or that Aguila crap - you better clean it often. Accuracy varied based on ammo. Both CCIs (MiniMags and the regular LRN) were the most accurate. Surprisingly, Winchester Super-X didn't do well. I guess, this gun doesn't like it.

The plan is to build this AA conversion into a dedicated gun now

[nick]

Oh, and one more thing. If you plan on using it on a tight 1911 - it might not work as well as you're hoping. I tried using it on my Dan Wessons - didn't work too well. I ended up using it on a Llama frame.

[CSACANNONEER]

I own 2 Kimber kits right now and have nothing but praise for them. So, it must be a hit and miss thing. I am using them on Kimber frames if that makes any difference.

[GunControlDeez]

I still prefer my Colt on the 1911, not as accurate but reliable with any
22LR I have used,does require cleaning after 500 rds,(the floating chamber
stops floating.)The Colt locks back on the last round,like it should! Any
unit that doesn't lock back on the last round is useless,I don't care
how accurate it is. Pete

That is one nice looking .22! If I had something like this I might not be selling off all my .22LR

[wild_weasel]

My Ceiner 1911A1 Conversion kit shoots great on my Springfield frame with both Ceiner (milled aluminum) and Kimber (molded plastic) 10 round magazines. It eats up Remington, Federal, and Winchester bulk ammo no problem.