I am thinking about buying a 22 upper or a drop-in conversion for my AR in 5.56. I want to know if anyone has any experience with either. I am looking at the CMMG drop-in and the price is right. I like the idea of having a complete upper, but the added expense right now isn't in the budget. So the drop-in can be in the budget, but if the drop-in is buggy and will have problems I don't want to waste my money, I will just wait until I have the money for a complete upper. Please advise if you have a drop-in and if so what model and likes and dislikes of it. Does the drop-in unit have issues with accuracy? Also if you have a full upper and what you think of it pros and cons.

The dedicated 22upper is the more expensive option but it is also more accurate. Unless you have a M16 style or varmint upper with a slow twist rate (1:10 and higher), the 22lr round is spinning very quickly and can destabilize. I had a Spike's Tactical 22LR upper with a Lothar barrel and it was a tack driver. I have read of reliability problems with feeding on the conversions, but that is second hand info and I can't say one way or the other.

For a bunch less money though you could buy a S&W M&P15-22 (or Colt, Mossberg, Remington, Ruger, etc) and be done with it.

I am thinking about buying a 22 upper or a drop-in conversion for my AR in 5.56. I want to know if anyone has any experience with either. I am looking at the CMMG drop-in and the price is right. I like the idea of having a complete upper, but the added expense right now isn't in the budget. So the drop-in can be in the budget, but if the drop-in is buggy and will have problems I don't want to waste my money, I will just wait until I have the money for a complete upper. Please advise if you have a drop-in and if so what model and likes and dislikes of it. Does the drop-in unit have issues with accuracy? Also if you have a full upper and what you think of it pros and cons.

 

Buy the CMMG kit for now, and as time goes by, start aquiring the parts to do a dedicated upper. you can get the CMMG barrel which comes with the chamber adaptor that just snaps on in pace of the one already on yoru Kit. $99 or so for the bbl, you can get a DPMS Slick-side upper for another $89 or so, and the CMMG charging handle is another $20.00. The biggest issue i found with the Kit was the really bad habit of it kicking an empty up into the charging handle channel and jamming the whole thing up...the CMMG handle is composite and doesnt have the space in it a normal one does so there's nowhere for the cases to get hung up.

I have 2 ar15s built up into dedicated .22s for my son and daughter using drop in kits. I am using 2 old 20" pencil barrels with a 1:12 twist, and with the iron sights they seem to be plenty accurate for my purposes. The conversions are a Ceiner in one and a TargetMaster in the other, using CMMG 15 round .22 mags. The Ceiner did need what I consider some minor tweaking to run smooth. This included polishing the feed ramp and chamber, shortening the recoil spring to slow down the cycling rate to prevent double feeds(feeding next live round in behind the empty shell that did not fuly extract), re-contouring the front edge of the extractor claw to get a deeper bite on the cases, and finally lapping the bolt and rails with valve grinding compound to remove the high/tight spots in the bolt travel. After doing all this, it runs smooth, reliably, and accurately. Only issue is with a few dud rounds here and there. The tagetmaster unit did not seem to need as much work, but I did polish the feed ramp and chamber, and lap the bolt and rails together just for good measure. About the only thing I would consider getting/changing at this point would be one of those charging handles that is designed to prevent the empty .22 case from bouncing up into the charging handle channel and getting jammed between the handle and front of the bolt spring guide.

 

Hope that helps you out some.