My Son shoots a DD AR on his own property. He has built a very nice range. Because of his increased shooting he is going through his .223 supplies. I encourage him to save brass as I can reload it. With shortages for .223 ammo and reloading supplies I tell him to put in his CMMG .22 conversion bolt carrier and shoot .22's.
The .22LR bullet is slightly smaller than the .223 caliber thus leading and accuracy can become a problem.
Looking for a better solution.

I read that CMMG makes a .22 upper (MK4). It gets very good reviews but I hesitate when I see the price (around $500+).
You could buy a .22 AR for that price but it would not duplicate the shooting of your main .223 AR.

What choices are out there for AR .22 uppers?

I have tacsol and CMMG. nothing to pick between them. On the other hand the S&W 22 is so very close in price it seems a decent option and its pretty darn an AR in any meaningful way (but not exact to your lower like an upper conversion).

I have a Nordic Components upper for one of my SBR’d lowers. Very happy with their fit and finish. Buddy has a TacSol that he’s been very pleased with.

I tried the CMMG conversion kit and had nothing but jams.

A year ago I bought a complete Colt-Walther M4 for $300, it's been flawless. Good luck finding one at that price now.

https://www.brownells.com/fire...60300-prod93428.aspx

I have sold two guns in my lifetime because no matter what and trips to the mfg. they did not run. One of them was a Colt-Walther M4. So if you get one, make sure it runs. Mine never did.

I had the conversion kit first, good for short range (under 50yd) drills.

I was disappointed at 100yd accuracy, and bought a CMMG dedicated upper.

The advantage of the conversion kit is familiarity with the rifle setup (sights, lights, mounts). I had to duplicate that on my dedicated upper (additional expense).

The advantage of the dedicated upper over a separate rifle is you have the same trigger (break, weight, pull) and grip/stock if you have a specific setup you like.

quote:

Originally posted by Gibb:
The advantage of the dedicated upper over a separate rifle is you have the same trigger (break, weight, pull) and grip/stock if you have a specific setup you like.

Bingo.

armored -- I went with the 22lr option, a JP upper. Probably more money than you're interested in, however. I won a few JP certificates from rifle matches, and thus the JP upper didn't cost me that much. It's well built and accurate.

I haven't shot the JP 22lr upper much this year, due to emphasis on centerfire rifles. The following was from late spring, just after I took delivery of a Thunderbeast rimfire suppressor.



This is a 4" square plate at 100 yards, using 5 rounds of Wolf Match Target. Vertical dispersion was well under an inch, with horizontal dispersion around 1.5" IIRC. Winds were from the right, and I was holding just off the right edge of the plate.



A good 22lr upper is an investment, but it's a good investment.

I went with the CMMG because I wanted to use it on my M16 and they were the only one that offered a f/a sear trip ... there were some teething issues getting it to run, but they were GREAT to work with.

I’ve also got a CMMG conversion and it’s been reliable but due to bullet/barrel size accuracy isn’t great.

I have a TacSol dedicated upper that I built a lower for about a decade ago.

I rebuilt the thing this year with an Aero no-forward-assist upper receiver and Atlas S-One handguard. Just the barrel and bolt group remain. Have to test it now...

What about Tippman Arms? I have no experience with them, but their 22lr AR’s seem well liked online.

for a bit I used a M261 kit in a skinny barrel A1 upper for indoor off hand practice,
at 25yrds (as far as I could go) it gave me ~1.5" groups if I held it right,


I have a dedicated upper I bought on sale thru Zanders years ago, cannot remember what brand it is, but I slapped it on a USArms poly lower and it runs fine, but honestly I don't have many rounds thru it,

I too have a TacSol dedicated upper that's been great... Accurate and reliable.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
I have sold two guns in my lifetime because no matter what and trips to the mfg. they did not run. One of them was a Colt-Walther M4. So if you get one, make sure it runs. Mine never did.

Mine has been flawless after 220 rounds, about six trips to the range. Maybe I got a good one
or you got a bad one, who knows.

I’ve got 3. Two spikes tactical and one from PSA. They all needed to be minorly tweaked, mainly springs. I use the boonie packer better mag adapter and use 15-22 mags and all 3 of mine are sewing machines. Literally no malfunctions unless it’s ammo related. The ST ones are crazy accurate. The PSA is accurate enough for my “pistol” usage.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pedropcola,

Trying to find one in stock seems to be the challenge.
I found JP has them but I'm not up to spending almost +$900 for a upper only.

I have the S&W M&P 15-.22 AR, and it's been loads of fun to shoot. It's topped with a Vortex Strikefire Optic. Lately it's seen more usage than my "real" AR.

quote:

Originally posted by armored:
Trying to find one in stock seems to be the challenge.
I found JP has them but I'm not up to spending almost +$900 for a upper only.

WOW!
And I thought ~$650 for my CMMG was pricy!

quote:

Originally posted by kimberkid:

quote:

Originally posted by armored:
I found JP has them but I'm not up to spending almost +$900 for a upper only.

And I thought ~$650 for my CMMG was pricy!

A couple of years ago I shot the Team Safari match with offgrid. The Team Safari is held at the Blue Steel Ranch, which is owned by John Paul -- as in JP Rifles. A bunch of us competitors ate at the local burger joint that first night, and I ended up sitting next to John Paul. The conversations stretched out for a couple of hours, with topics including 224 Valkyrie development, 9mm PPC carbines, and 6mm and 6.5mm cartridges dealing the final blows to 308 Win in steel match competition. I brought up JP's 22lr uppers -- and owned the conversation for awhile, as I was the only one there with a precision rimfire AR15.

I told John that I was struggling to achieve the level accuracy with my JP upper that I can with my bolt action 22lr, especially at distance. John asked what kind of accuracy I was getting at 50 and 100 yards with 5-round groups. I said that I had quite a few groups of .5" to .7" with multiple match ammo types at 50 yards, and .9" to 1.3" at 100 yards. John Paul developed a big grin, said that's in the ballpark, and to keep at it -- as the AR's trigger is a lot different than that of a bolt action rifle.

JP builds precision firearms, and the results speak for themselves.

Dad had a quote in his place of business. "Quality is like buying oats. If you want nice fresh oats you have to pay a fair price. If you can be satisfied with oats that have already been through the horse, that comes a little cheaper."

While far from anything related to precision, every one always wants to shoot my ’Throwback Thursday’ AR .22 setup:

-Rick Keuhl complete 5" .22 upper* circa 2003
-Bushnell Model 50-0021 Holosight (pre EOtech) circa 1999
-Black Dog 32 round mag
-on my LE6945CQB lower

*This was originally bought for my M16A1 Pony.

I'm a big .22 AR fan. If starting from scratch I would buy (in order):

1) A Tippman
2) A S&W M&P 15/22
3) A complete CMMG Upper
4) A complete PSA upper

My .22 AR experiences:

CMMG Conversion kits are OK for plinking but I worry about shooting bare lead in my "real AR" and the twist rates on "real' AR's are not conducive to good accuracy.

Bought my first CMMG Upper in 2007 ? when the first came out. Had some reliability issues. CMMG's recommended chamber polish procedure fixed it. This was 6 months to a year before S&W came out with the M&P15/22.

Then had an out of battery detonation in 2010. CMMG replaced the upper and it has run well ever since. The metal lip mags tend to work better than the plastic lipped mags. I know people who run the S&W mags with these using the Boonie Packer magwell adaptor with excellent results.

Subsequently picked up two S&W M&P 15/22s. They run well and are fun plinkers. Not super accurate but good enough. Light weight (much lighter than a "real" AR)and adjustable LOP is great for kids/grandkids.

Bought a PSA .22 AR upper with 16' barrel and Mlok free float handguard since I already had a bunch of CMMG / Black dog mags. I'm not a PSA is "just as good as" guy but I'm not taking it to war.Works well with high velocity ammo. standard velocity not so much. likely needs some chamber polishing. Mlok handguard also has lots of sharp edges. rail covers are a must. However it is accurate out to 100 yards and runs well with good / hotter mini mag equivalent ammo.

Latest acquisition is a Tippman AR / Brace pistol. It is super fun and the most reliable AR-22 platform IME.

A buddy I shoot IDPAS with, who is more dedicated competition shooter than I, the type to only own a handful of guns but shoots 20k to 30k rounds per year, picked up one of the first Tippman rifles and quickly put 15k though it without issues.

I was hesitant due to the proprietary mags and already having a bunch of CMMG and S&W mags but the Tippman really is a better mousetrap.

The only caveat is the mags are proprietary, only carried by a limited number of vendors and the seem to go in/out of stock in batches. in other words not like 10/22 mags. If you buy a Tippman, I would grab several mags when they are in stock.