I have a chance to get a Ciener/Hohrein for a reasonable price - only one mag with it.

Do these run reliably with a wide variety of HV 22lR?  I have lots of 22s but Now that I am waiting on my tax stamp for my AC556K clone, I was thinking maybe a 22 kit might be fun - IF they work.  Not interested if they only run on one brand of ammo.

They aren't easy to swap back and forth like an AR conv kit either - What does this forum's experience say?

My dad bought one several years back.

I had to modify part of it to get it to fit/work (don't remember which part - but had to stone some metal off of it and then polish it up).

I was reliable with the only ammo he had - Winchester Wildcat hunting ammo (squirrel hunting).

Yeah, no where near as easy to convert back and forth as the AR15 versions.

I had bad blood with Ceiner. Unless you are getting it cheap and can make it work if you're mechanically inclined I'd stay away from it.

My buddy got one, and since I'm the gunsmith, I had to make it work. It took some polishing and I want to say experimentation with the spring. It's also critical to ensure the chamber insert has zero movement.

After all that, it worked pretty good in my friend's AC-556K but of course since it's a .22 in a conversion unit, there are 3 problems:

Almost exclusively have to run CCI Mini-mags (so the energy stays high enough to be reliable).

It gets dirty much faster, and requires more frequent cleanings than 5.56 to continue to function.

It fouls the barrel faster, due to the difference in bullet diameter, and the bullet composition.

Personally, I'd rather just pay more for ammo and shoot 5.56 through it. I have dedicated .22 rifles for shooting that ammo. Excluding those with transferable MGs, it just doesn't make sense. A Ruger 10-22 (probably the best semi-auto .22LR ever made) costs less than the Ciener conversion kit. The mags are way cheaper too. Get a Butler Creek crank loader and go to town on some Steel Lips or BX-25 mags.

A buddy had one back in the late 90s that required quite a bit of tuning to make it run properly. We tried multiple types of ammo in and it would run the best with the hyper velocity ammo but would occasionally slam fire and sometimes wouldn't stop until empty. It fouled up the barrel and chamber quickly and the chamber insert was damaged after it seized in the gun. I would pass on it.

Thanks for the feedback guys.  I think I will put the money towards more ammo and other projects.

Pretty much everyone had bad blood with Ceiner.