AR Sponsor
Posted: 5/26/2009 6:28:09 PM EDT
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I have been contemplating biting the bullet and buying my local range’s one year unlimited use membership and shooting quite often. However, I know shooting .223 heavily will destroy my wallet and I’m thinking about buying the Spikes .22LR bolt kit.
I understand that 22LR is dirty and that using my factory barrel on my M&P15 will be just fine and won’t harm it very much. My question is regarding extensive use and barrel wear. I’m new to firearms so please bear with my questions, but I bought 5 bricks of .22lr for my 10\22 and shot all 500 shots and had a blast and would buy 500 more per visit if I converted my AR. Would shooting thousands of 22lr through my 223 barrel harm it in the long run? For this abundance of shooting would you guys recommend a dedicated upper? I really don’t want to spend 500+ on a dedicated upper. Anything else I should know about 22lr conversions? Thanks in advance! |
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The cliner is ammo sensitive. It's hit or miss with the bulk pac ammo but likes stinger and other HV rounds.
I use the black dog mags and there has been no feed issues with them using the cliner kit. It need to be feed using HV rounds otherwise the spring does not go all the way to the rear and catches the spent casing causing a stove pipe |
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.22 is never going to wear out the barrel. There is the possibility of lead clogging the gas port after a while, but I have not had an issue with it. SOme say to run a few rounds of .223 through the gun after running a bunch of .22 through it.
The conversion kits are great fun. The dedicated upper is a problem for me because it sets off my OCD. I hate having an extra upper lying around, so I would have to buy another lower, but it seems a waste to have a perfectly good lower only be able to shoot .22, so I get another upper and and and...you see the conundrum. I have run 500 rounds+ through my conversion at a time and not had any leading issues. Another option is to make your 10/22 more like an AR, or to just be happy with the 10/22, or put the $300 or so you would spend on a conversion (kit plus ~4 mags) into the 10/22. It all depends on how much you like shooting the AR, which, for me, is alot. I like shooting the conversion more than my 10/22, it runs better in the cold than any of my otehr .22's. Hope this helps some. |
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i'm not sure at what point my gas port got blocked but i know after 4k ~rnds of 22lr it took 6 shots of 223 to clear it out...... first 5 it didn't eject the case had to manually charge it 6 th round shortsroked but ejected the case didn't pick up the next round 7-100 maybe more were perfect...... Honestly now that i have some time using them i wouldn't want to run a conversion in my dedicated HD gun unless i was going to fire a good amount of 223/556 through it after the 22 amd make sure it was going to function...... |
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Thank you for the very informative replies! So the general consensus is to shoot a handful of 223 before leaving the range, no biggie wouldn't wanna forget how a AR should feel anyway. yekimak you are correct with having an odd number of uppers, I would want to build another AR with it laying around. As for refurnishing the 10\22, I know its an option, but I would really love to have AR time, not to mention I paid so much for this thing to just take to the range, I have no other use for it other then Zombie preparation. Based on this, I would love to shoot it as much as possible regardless of caliber.
As for home defense, I'm sure 27 22LR bullets will ruin an intruder's day, given that I verify function as stated above. Again, thanks for the replies, this board seems to be filled with very knowledgeable and helpful people, hoping to stay in the AR community for a while. Looks like I'll be ordering the Spikes kit next payday. |
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I've had a ceiner kit for the last 2.5 years, and it has been one of the best investments I've made for my AR15. I like it so much, that I bought another kit w/ the dedicated coller and a .22lr dedicated barrel to build a dedicated .22lr upper.
So far, I've put close to 3-4K rounds of .22lr in my first kit. Mostly of these are the 550 Wally World Fed value packs. They run great. Like posted above, the kits are ammo sensitive - both of mine hates Remington Golden Bullets. As far as barrel wear - I've not notice any on all of my AR15 that I've used the kit in (all of my AR15 gets their turn at raping the .22lr stockpile). It does get very dirty, so be prepared to do a lot of cleaning. I've found out that if the gun is cleaned right after a shooting session, all it takes is a couple of blast from some non-chlorinated break cleaner, then just re-lube. I've shot mostly copper plated ammo, so I don't know too much about the potential lead buildup that could clog the gas port. I do know that I've been able to push out some copper chunks out of my 5.56 barrels when I've done some extensive .22lr shooting. Another area to watch for is the chamber. I've noticed that after extensive .22lr shooting, my chamber will have a lot of unburnt powder residue stuck there. Did I mention that .22lr will get your gun dirty? 
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You are going to have to shoot a lot of .22LR to wear out a barrel. Especially the chrome lined AR15 barrel.
My daughter shoots small bore .22LR rifles competitively. For the last 6 years she has fired between 5,000 and 10,000 rounds a year through her rifle. We bought her rifle used, it was made in 1976. It still has the original barrel on it. If previous owners were competitive shooters like my daughter is then that rifle has somewhere between 165,000 and 330,000 rounds through it. Maybe even more than that. With modern steel and a clean quality .22LR ammo I think it's almost impossible to wear out a .22LR barrel. |
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