My Father-in-law has a 1911 that has not seen a lot of range time lately. He'd like to get a .22LR kit for it and it looks like Ciener has grabbed his attention. (he's seen my Ciener kit for my AR & Beretta 92 which perform great) The 1911 Ciener kit is running $199 with fixed sights and $249 with adjustable sights.



Anyone have one of these that can offer some feedback?

I had one and liked it. It was accurate and ran well. I just got tired of switching back and forth so I sold it. With a dedicated lower, it would be ideal but I just got tired of trying to figure out where to put the .45 parts while I was shooting .22 and all the switching.

I have one of the 1911 Platinum Cup Versions (adjustable sites).  I like it.  Mine took about 500 rounds of break in, now it runs great with any ammo (I mainly shoot Fed Champion Bulk Pack through it).  I use it on a Kimber lower.  

I'd recomend cleaning the mags before you take it out the first time.  I noticed that I would get misfeeds with mine, until I cleaned them.  

I have a Ciener kit for my Beretta as well - got it a while back.  I haven't used it too much yet, but I haven't had many problems with this conversion kit either.  The hardest part was finding spare mags!

Brad

No kidding! My kit only came with one 15-round mag and I'd hoped to buy two more, but it seems like wishful thinking. Just about everyone warns you not to send money to JAC because he'll hold it forever and not send you your merchandise. I had literally packed up my Beretta and not shot it for a number of years until I got the kit and now it's got a new lease on life. The sights on the Ciener slide are awful though.



On your 1911 kit, thanks for the response!

There are a couple other brands of 1911 22 kits. I wouldn't support JAC. He has among the WORST customer service in the gun industry.

That shouldn't even be called customer service.

Customer ANTI service maybe?

Absolutely no argument there, but he sure does make some pretty decent products. The trick seems to be to buy one from a reputable dealer (Brownell's, Midway) so that if you need support, you've got it. Go through JAC directly and you're up the creek.



What other .22LR kit would you suggest? Don't say Kimber.





ETA:  Additional question;  I'm not that familiar with 1911's so excuse my ignorance.  The Ciener kit says that it is "for the 1911A1 pistol" however my Father-in-law has a 1911.  Will it still fit and function?

I'll say it, Kimber. I have one and it works great. I do have a reduced power main spring in my 1911. Now for mags i use ceiner 15 round mags that I bought before the panic.

Advantage Arms?

Had a Colt 1911 .22 kit.
Got tired of switching back and forth.
Traded it for a Ruger 22/45. Am very happy with the Ruger. Feels like the 1911.

I bought one from ciener.

It was on sale for 170.

Just checked he still has them on the web site for sale.

I sent the money order and then forgot about it.  I think it was 4 months or so before I got it.  Maybe even longer.

From what I know he does send merchandise, just not in any fast type manner.

I like mine and use it all the time for fun and especially for kids.

I'm really pleased with my Marvel.

They're a bit more but the turnaround (shipped within 24hrs) and CS were excellent as is the product.

Marvel 1911 Conversion

Had a Kimber conversion kit, ran like a champ.
Sold it to a buddy when I bought a complete Kimber .22.
He runs it on a Taurus, no issues yet.
YMMV

I vote Advantage Arms, there's a kicker on the last photo

Hey folks, just wanted to give my $.02 on the Advantage Arms .22 conversion kit - Target Model w/ adjustable sights. The target model has a 2-piece slide. The top half (sights and barrel) does not move, Only the bottom half.



Pricing:

$296 tax included.



Packaging:

The kit comes in a simple box with all necessary parts (excluding ammo of course) to make the kit work.



Included are:

Complete target slide with barrel, recoil spring, guide rod, etc.

1x10 round magazine

Instruction Manual

Cleaning kit

Magazine reloading tool

Extended slide stop (only kit to have last round lock back)

Assembly/Disassembly tool









Installation:

This is not exactly a straight up slide swap. First remove the old slide. Once you install the new slide (making sure you use the included extended slide stop), the new slide might hang up and will not return to battery. This is caused my the extractor and top half of the slide popping up out of the groove on the lower half and getting hung up (pics below). Just pull back slightly on the lower slide and push down the top half while returning back to battery. After that, pull back the lower slide about half an inch so you can use the assembly tool to tighten the guide rod against the slide stop. This ensures that the barrel never moves increasing accuracy.




Shooting Impression:

I used Remington Golden Bullets 36g hollow points. There is a sheet included with the kit of what is and isn't recommended.





It was almost zeroed out of the box, just a little bit of tweaking on the adjustable sights, which is the same as my loaded target sights. This is the first .22 LR pistol that i have ever shot, so I don't have anything to compare it to. As I would imagine with any .22, there is very little recoil and this is no exception. Only moving half a slide that is made out of aluminum must surely have a major effect on this.I have shot paintball guns with more recoil than this. I was able to consistently place all 10 rounds inside a 6 inch circle at 15 yards just squeezing away at the trigger. I only had one misfire which was ammo related, struck the primer but didn't fire. No FTE or FTF of any kind. This was out of about 300+ rounds. This kit is advertised as the only one to have last round hold open. There is a steel insert where the slide stop catches the slide (pic below). Only issues that I noticed was that the slide would not lock back every time no matter if my thumbs touch the slide stop or not. Which is no biggie.







Overall:

This kit is WELL WORTH THE MONEY. I don't know why I waited this long to buy one. After shooting 2 bricks worth, it'll pay for itself. Sure it might not have the recoil or heft of a actual .45 ACP, but it's still trigger time for me at a greatly reduced cost while still using the same platform that I use for CCW and home protection.



Pictures, enjoy











If it looks similar to the Marvel kits heres the reason why:

I will have to look into that.

damn, I'm glad I did my research before I sent the money to JAC.
So close to making that mistake.
I'll spend more and get it from Midway. thanks for the heads up

I have the kimber, I got off sporstmansguide for 242.......  Now the ciener 15 rnd mags WILL WORK in the kimber??????  I dont see why they wouldnt..


Try 22lrconversions.com, seen some Wilson kits for 179.....!!!!!

I put the 45 parts in the Ciener case when I take the.... 22 conversion kit out.

Seriously, good kit, never any issues, in fact I'm considering the AR and AK kits next.

22lrconversions.com IS Ciener.  Catch up dude!  

I just put a brick of Thunderbolts through a Kimber kit. Other than a dozen or so duds it ran fine and shot great little groups at fifty feet. The mag doesnt seat with a magwell but other than that I cant really say anything bad about it.

I was planning on getting the Advantage Arms kit but the shop guy said theres more issues with it on higher end pistols than the Kimber. Dont know why or what just what I was told.

The guys who shoot bullseye swear by these, but did you have to do any fitting or did it just swap out slide for slide?

Just swapped out slide for slide.

Which is good because I don't have a dedicated .22 reciever.  My only two "complaints" would be the lack of a last round slide lock and that in order to disassemble for cleaning you have to completely unscrew the guide rod and replace when completed while under spring pressure.  Some starter threads or something would be nice as I could see the potential for cross threading it if you're not careful.

Accuracy and function however are very good.