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Posted: 4/12/2005 6:41:32 PM EDT
| What concerns should I be aware of when shooting .22LR out of a standard .223 upper? Leading in the barrel, twist rate, gas tube issues, etc? |
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The gas tube will blow crud (and .22LR makes lots of crud) all over the inside of the upper receiver and the kit, but that's more of a nuisance than a real concern. You will probably want to clean it before shooting .223s in it again though. The only real concern is that lead and/or wax will shave off and eventually plug up the gas port. I've never had this happen, but most people suggest firing a few .223s every brick or so of .22s to make sure the port stays clear. Sure beats having to take the FSB off to unplug it and turn it back into a semi-auto. The accuracy of the kits is usually not very good. Far worse than a stock 10/22 or other "real" .22 semi-autos. I don't know whether the poor accuracy is due to the faster twist, the slight bore size difference, or the 2" or so of unrifled travel followed by the jump to the rifling. Some people have reported much better accuracy from 1/12" twist barrels, so that's apparently part of it. I've only used mine in 1/9 or 1/8 twist barrels. One last thing that might be a concern is if you have a match trigger that uses a lightened hammer spring you may have problems with light strikes. I had one lower with a JP trigger & hammer and their yellow springs and while it was 100% with all of the .223 ammo it was more like 10% with the Ciener kit. Switching to the stock hammer spring solved the problem. |
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