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Posted: 4/27/2012 8:25:35 AM EDT
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Found this refurbished m261 for sale with one mag insert for $160+shipping. I'm just getting in to .22 conversions so I'm not sure yet if its a good price. Any advice?
or should I just get cmmg? I looked at ciener and price is just little lower, but I really dont like their skinny mags. |
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If it were me I would shy away from the M-261 conversion kit unless you are sure you can get spare parts. Olympic Arms used the M-261 design in their dedicated 22 uppers and may also still have spare parts. Compass Lake Engineering uses this bolt in their dedicated 22's and Sarco used to have parts. If you are only occasionally going to use the M-261 or are limited to 10 round mags it's price is in the ball park of a new conversion kit. Black Dog Machine makes a high capacity mag for the M-261.
The Ciener is an Atchisson design and uses the same mags as the CMMG, Spikes, Tactical Solutions ect. You can use the BDM and CMMG mags with the Ciener bolt. I have a very old (30+ years) Ciener kit which I still use. I have replaced the firing pin numerous times and the recoil spring at least once. I also replaced the extractor so it will extract live rounds. I'll use the Ciener forever if it continues to work. Finding parts for the Ciener kit is not a problem and there have been sources other than Ciener. |
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I have both a M261 bolt in a custom precision upper and the CMMG in a dedicated upper. Go for the CMMG either as a conversion or for a dedicated upper. Much more support, parts and magazines available. Black Dog does make one style magazine for the M261/Oly conversion where they make several for the CMMG.
chris |
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I bought a new CMMG LE M-4 upper and used the supplied collar on my phosphate colored conversion I already owned. I wore out a DPMS AP4 22 rimfire barrel so I bought a new CMMG barrel/collar and swapped out the barrel. I found a very good deal on a CMMG conversion and 1 mag with Christie loader which I use with that upper. My Brother just bought a CMMG from Hamlund Tactical for $369.99 with free shipping which arrived Wed. I shoot Federal 550 bulk ammo and so far I can not remember having any malfunction other than a failure to fire. This was ammo because every round I reloaded it fired on the second hit on a different area of the rim.
That is 3 for 3 100% reliable uppers, 2 out of the box and one assembled. Two with new bolts and 2 bolts are phosphate/black and 1 stainless bolt. For the price these are the best value uppers currently on the market IMHO. There maybe more accurate barrels, but for how I shoot my AR -22's these are winners. I have several 26 and 15 round 2nd gen BDM mags, CMMG gray 26 round and new BDM X form mags. All these mags work with any of the 3 uppers. I own other dedicated uppers but my CMMG's see the most use. I have yet to replace any parts on my oldest conversion bolt and it has many thousand rounds. My recommendation it's hard to beat the CMMG rimfire products. |
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Wow! That is definitely great review! Thank you!
botach tactical has cmmg bolt and one mag for $139 right now. So I think once I get home from work today I'm going to order one! In my case I'm using all spare parts that I have laying around. I have pencil barrel that came with my m16a1 kit, I'm ordering slick side upper for it and putting it on aero precision lower with a1 or a2 buttstock. Going to be ugly looking gun for now, but its work in progress :) |
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I have the M261 kit and it runs like a top with a Compass Lake firing pin and the BDM mags. I also picked up the spare parts kit from Sarco for it but I haven’t needed anything yet.
I’ve had 3 different types of 22LR kits and they all needed some kind of tuning to get them running. Whatever you decide, expect that you may need to make an adjustment here or there to get it running. |
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I tossed it around for a bit and decided to go with cmmg. They get good write ups and looking at parts availability and kits availability itself.
I ordered it from botach tactical, but they are on back order. I'm not in a hurry, cant shoot anything for a month anyway...... I'll probably will try it in my retro rifle first, not done with my dedicated build yet :( |
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Quoted:
Quoted: I wore out a DPMS AP4 22 rimfire barrel
Not trying to be a smartass but this is the first time I've heard of anybody wearing out a 22 rimfire barrel. I bought the AP4 upper back during the AW ban in the mid 90's and at that time only 10 round mags were available for the DPMS/Colt pattern bolt. I used this upper for shooting CQB paper and steel plate type targets and it is very easy to drop the hammer on an empty chamber. I really never worried about this figurering the barrel would hold up better than firing pins. I was wrong because after probably 25 to 30,000 rounds the chamber end of the barrel was worn to the point that the brass wasn't getting enough support and I started to get failure to fires. I pulled the barrel and machined a few thousands off the rear of the barrel but didn't run a chamber reamer. I didn't have a reamer handy but I continued having chambering issues so I decided to order a new CMMG barrel and use their collar desgin which uses the detent. Since I was going to have to pull the barrel and had a conversion ( Ciener&CMMG) bolts I opted to just buy a new CMMG barrel. I'm sure I can fix the other DPMS barrel and thought about maybe cutting it down later to use on a AR pistol. I guess ruined is a relative term but I shoot 22 AR's more than any other long gun and I decided to upgrade as the CMMG is a robust design. I figured I could keep my spare bolt for parts since I still own a 1st gen DPMS 16" bull barrel. |
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I have a M261 I bought before CMMG and Spikes started building kits, and had a dedicated barrel built by KKF. I wasn't willing to deal with Cenier's customer service. I bought a couple of spare chamber adapters from Compass Lake and put them up, and bought a pile of mag inserts when I found them at a good price. Reliability depends on the host mags you use with the inserts - some work well, others do not. Once I found some that ran reliably, I just left them as dedicated mags. I know BDM has mags for it now, but never bothered to buy any since I don't mind the 10 round mags for plinking.
Once you dial in the mags, it is very reliable. For the price you are being quoted, I would not get it. Too many other options that are better supported with spare parts. |
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Quoted:
I have a M261 I bought before CMMG and Spikes started building kits, and had a dedicated barrel built by KKF. I wasn't willing to deal with Cenier's customer service. I bought a couple of spare chamber adapters from Compass Lake and put them up, and bought a pile of mag inserts when I found them at a good price. Reliability depends on the host mags you use with the inserts - some work well, others do not. Once I found some that ran reliably, I just left them as dedicated mags. I know BDM has mags for it now, but never bothered to buy any since I don't mind the 10 round mags for plinking. Once you dial in the mags, it is very reliable. For the price you are being quoted, I would not get it. Too many other options that are better supported with spare parts. Yeah. I ended up going with cmmg and two mags with fire helmet strap for the same price of one m261 and a mag insert. |
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