Looking for a dedicated .22 AR.  Based on my research, it seems that the M&P 15-22 is pretty popular,  but the Tippmann M4-22 looks really nice.  Anyone have experience with these two?  Are there other dedicated .22 ARs I should be looking at?

Colt.

SIG 522 if you can find one.

A dedicated AR22 barrel and CMMG bolt with a Better-Mag adapter is the best solution. Everything else is standard AR including the lower, and it all works exactly the same as a centerfire upper

I wanted that Tippman, but opted for a M&P 15-22 that was in stock locally.

I'm amazed at how this thing eats ammo.  About 20 mags run through so far, and not one issue feeding 4 different brands of .22LR.

No experience with Tippman (other than paintball guns) but I own a S&W MP15-22. Great little rifle. I would highly recommend one. You can usually find them for a good deal on Palmetto State Armory.

a 10/22 with a chassis

Chiappa. End of story. Next question?

M&p15 22.  Probably 2k thru mine.  Hardly ever jams.  Eats anything. Loves federal automatch

My CMMG has been great.

15-22 is great for true AR function I use a Righttobear upper on a PSA lower with CMMG and Black Dog mags.

@10mmillie

How does the Right to Bear upper run? They are always out of stock. I have some CMMG pattern .22 LR magazines and I’d rather get a dedicated .22 LR upper like that to be used with a standard AR lower than buying a 15-22 and new mags.

Not a true AR-15.  Get an assembled upper to slap on your lower.  You practice with the same trigger and controls.  Better mag adapter and 15/22 mags work well and it only takes a few seconds to install.

Same here and way more accurate than my M&P 15-22

What accuracy are you seeing out of both?

Does your lower get filthy though? What barrel length do people recommend?

@Nate19
I have the 9" with linear comp and it works great. It is a lot of fun with a Franklin binary trigger. I got lucky getting this one new years eve.

Not really.  I have a pistol with a 9" barrel and a rifle with a 16" barrel.  Both have their place.

Getting an M&P 15-22 isn't a bad idea.  It's a good running little rifle and the mags are dirt cheap.  I just grabbed half a dozen of them for $15 each.  Mine wasn't that finicky about ammo, but the better the ammo, the fewer problems I had.  Never had a single problem with Mini Mags.

The down side is that once you buy a 15-22, it is what it is and it's staying that way.  Very few options to customize it and it still isn't a "real" AR.  It looks like one, but it doesn't feel like one.  For the price of a 15-22, you can build yourself a dedicated upper that will attach to the lower that you spent all of the time and money on getting it the way you like it.  From the trigger to the stock, you can have them there while shooting .22.

I shopped around for a CMMG conversion kit with 3 magazines.  I paid around $150 for it.  This way, I'll have the dedicated upper and a conversion if the need for it ever arises.  For $199, I got a CMMG 9" barrel and collar.  For $12 I got a dedicated .22 charging handle.  This is a must.  Getting a piece of brass stuck in the charging handle is a PITA.  I went to Mas Defense and got cheap blem slickside upper.  It was like $40.  I used a cheapie free float tube that I got from model one sales that included a barrel nut and I had a flash hider laying around.  It literally went together in 10 minutes.

If you don't want to spend all of that at once, just get the conversion kit with the three mags and run that in your present upper for now and accumulate the parts for the dedicated build as you go.  Right to Bear Arms sells stuff that may well be rebranded CMMG stuff for less, but they were out of stock and I didn't want to wait.  I used a 1:9 twist 5.56 barrel that I had with the conversion and using 40 grain solid bullets, I could pop clay pigeons at 100 yards pretty easily.  I don't know why so many say the conversion kit is so inaccurate.  My experience is that it's accurate enough.  Anyway, it was so cool shooting .22 out of an AR, I just decided to dedicate an upper to it.  In the last ten days, my son and I put 3,500 rounds through it.  My local Walmart sells Winchester M-22 for $40 for a box of 1000.

I'm not using that mag adapter.  I ordered one of those adapters that stick onto the 15.22 mag.   They were $2.50 each, but once I saw what it was, making my own wasn't hard.  Turns out that the only thing the 15-22 mags need to work in an AR is a spacer at the front top of the magazine to keep it from tilting too far forward.  I could make the mags work without the adapters by holding forward pressure on the mags.

Cool I'm definitely going to get the 9" CMMG barrel/bolt when I find a decent deal. Was looking for a use for my 7.1" handguard. Is it a waste to use a nice upper for this build? Should I just get an el cheapo upper?

Mine too.

This, I went with the S&W because of the manual of arms being the same.  I tried the Colt and was disappointed it was so different in use so I sold it.

I also have 2 Ceiner kits which work, but usually just grab the S&W.

Just narrowly missed blowing my mad money on a barrel collar and barrel and charging handle from RTB, they are on sale right now.  Friend gave me the bolt part of a CMMG drop in unit - found it in her yard one morning...

Only reason I didn't was 'cause I knew that I'd rabbit hole myself into finishing it in a hurry and my budget can't handle that right now.

Bought 500 rounds of 556 instead.

I have a dedicated 22 LR CMMG upper...(all built by CMMG).
It's been pretty flawless using alot of different ammo. The only thing that doesnt cycle in it is subsonic, but that's not the upper's fault.

Whats a good deal on a 9" cmmg barrel and bolt group these days?

My cmmg and psa, which seem to be the same, are very reliable.

I just picked up the bolt and 9" barrel combo at opticsplanet.  Like $300 shipped.  Complete bolt group and the barrel.  If you already have the conversion bolt, I also picked up a CMMG 9" barrel and collar combo from primary arms for $200.  Yeah, I've fallen off of the deep end with this rimfire stuff.  Picked up another slick side upper from MAS Defense too.

It's kinda funny.  In the last couple weeks, I've put about 1000 rounds through my new 10.5" build, but I've done over 4000 rounds of .22.  I figured I'll put my money where I spend my time and put the 350 legend build on the back burner.

I've also discovered that the 15-22 mags will work in a with a .22 upper if you shim the front of the mag about 1/16" of an inch.  No need for any adapters or anything.  I found the 15-22 mags at Joe Bob's for $15 each.  By shimming the 15-22 mags and not using an adapter, I can go back and forth between the 15-22 mags and black dogs because I have a bunch of both.

I would recommend visiting borebuddy.com too.  They have a spacer to put in front of your buffer to put some pressure on the bolt to keep it forward.  They also have a charging handle insert that will help prevent the dreaded case in the charging handle jam.

My Spikes is pretty dang good.

-CMMG Dedicated Upper 9"
-Aero Lower (can use any lower but I like the mag well on the Aero and some of its other features)
-Redimag adapter










Main benefits are configuration and shared ergos. Setting up a lightweight AR Pistol is easy, you can do it with a lower you probably neckbearded in the back of your safe somewhere (or with any pistol lower) and the Redimag adapter lets you use a cheap, reliable, widespread magazine with LRBHO.

sig 522 is a nice rifle. havent had any issues with mine. not an AR though...

ive run 5 times more ammo through my 15-22. its plastic but its cheap, lightweight and super reliable. very tight upper/lower fit, no wobble at all. recoil is less than an airgun. not really an AR though...

thee short CMMG banshee suppressed would be my choice if i only had one.

double

Define “Colt”.  Hopefully you don’t mean that .22LR Colt M4 that was actually made by Umarex/Walther, and was just a cosmetic shell over a pencil barrel and pot metal action (which was shared with other Umarex/Walther clones like their HK416D).  The M&P 15-22 is far, far superior.

I have one of these and I agree.

Build your self a desinatited AR15-22 Upper - 8 inch pistol or 16 inch rifle barrel of your choice - use the collar on the bolt conversion.

Use M&P 15-55 mags - they work and run great - get the mag loader from the ultimate mag loader...

Skip the better mag adapter - I have lost parts - when it works - great - when it does not - it is no better than just using the straight m&P 15-22 mag - you just do not get the last round bolt hold open.

Catch 22 is where you need to look at for some parts...

All fun

Red

ps get you a membership at targets sports to save you some money on 22 lr ammo....and get what you want vs taking what you can find.

I’ve been running a Spikes upper that has about 7500 rounds through it, it’s been flawless. I keep it relatively clean and change springs regularly

I went with a 4.5” CMMG upper. I’ve got over 20,000 rounds through it and it has been incredible. It cycles absolutely everything, even subs. Though I rarely use subs on this particular gun because the 4.5” barrel keeps even bulk ammo quiet.


As has been said before, the 15-22 mag conversion is worth the money. I also went ahead and put a Franklin Armory BFS III in it. This gun is ALWAYS the favorite on range days, regardless of what else is out there.

ETA: she’s accurate, too.

Anything made by Nordic is the bomb IMHO

I laughed at that.

While I did buy a Chiappa uppers years ago, it isn't stock anymore. It functioned fine but accuracy wasn't there with the polymer receiver. Once I switched out the polymer receiver for an aluminum receiver and installed a free float handguard, it is actually quite accurate now. The only reason I bought the Chiappa upper was I got one heck of a deal at local shop. My other AR22's are built using CMMG barrels and bolts. I'm just waiting on my 4" handguard to arrive so I can finish my 4.5" pistol build. I decided to use a receiver end cap instead of a buffer tube since I have no plans on using an arm brace and wanted to keep OAL to a minimum.

Buddy had the PC version of the m&p

Pretty nice piece.

Yeah build with CMMG Barrel and Bolt assembly. Only way I go. And ever will.

SW= Plastic and many other reasons also I will not buy one I will not go into. Colt Umerex,complete junk,Chiappa complete trash.

Though the SW MP22 is a good enough operating Rifle. To me it is just a Plastic AR looking shell that resembles a AR on the outside. To each his own though. But if you do not build off CMMG parts, the SW would be your obvious second choice. RTB stuff is rebranded CMMG products. So they are GTG.

4.5" .22 AR Build if you have a can
15-22 if you don't

S&W would sell so many 4.5" AR .22 Pistols if they ever made moves on it..

My PSA upper has been flawless with Win and Federal bull cheap stuff. also CCI standard. But...I put the JP hammer and trigger springs in to avoid costlier ammo. Besides the JP springs make a GI trigger more bareable.

I also have a Model1 10”. Same results.

Not anymore, by my experience. Any requests for spare parts and service gets you a snarky reply about how much they dislike dealing with people. I've been waiting for over 6 months now for spare parts, and after each email I write every few months asking for an update I get called impatient and they'll get to me when they want to. I regret getting my Nordic 22RB upper.

4.5” for subs
9” to replicateish mk18s.
16” dedicated upper for everything else.

Mp15-22 might function well, but man it’s a crappy feeling weapon.

We have three 15-22s. They eat everything we feed them. Probably 30k rounds total through the 3 of them combined. Only issue was the feed ramp on one broke off after a couple years. S&W replaced the barrel for free. No other issues.