Posted: 3/29/2008 4:37:56 PM EDT
|
I just bought a lightly used Ciener kit with 2 mags for my glock 17. Price was $225. Originally I was planning on buying an Advantage arms kit, but it was $245 with only one magazine and didn't look as well made. I just got the kit home and found that the mags are a tight fit and aren't even close to dropping free. Surprising since they're aluminum mags. So, would I have been better served by the Advantage arms kit? The Ciener kit looks way more robust and seems like it would survive more rounds. |
|
I have an AA kit for my G23 which I like a lot. Seems to be plenty robust to me. I have a Ciener kit for my 1911 and I think the AA is much better built. Another plus for the AA is that it holds the slide open after the last shot. It is pretty light compared to the original slide/barrel which feels a little funny when you're holding the gun. But it should be tough enough to last a life time. |
AA kit lower quality that Ciener? And why by a used when you could had bought new for a little more? I have found AA kits online for $215 shipped, just have to do a little searching Should had spent the money on AA. The price difference alone is enough to make up for the customer service that you WON'T get from Ciener. The AA is a lot higher quality than the Ciener, plus the bolt hold open is a nice feature. |
|
Mainly it was the AA's magazine that looked really crappy to me. The Ciener mag looks bomb proof and is made out of aluminum and steel. But, the mags are a really tight fit. I'd like to know where I can find kits at $215. Cost was the other selling point, since the AA kit was getting close to a dedicated .22lr pistol. (especially if I bought a second mag. |
Not $215, but close. Also not $215, but close Threaded plus 3 mags - still available. Deducting $100 for threading & $40 for the extra mags, $185. |
Got my AA conversion kit for the G19 a few days ago from MidwayUSA. They had a special going with a price of $230. Got a few magazines from Lone Wolf Distributors and Glockmeister as MidwayUSA didn't have them in stock. The AA mags range from $20 to $25 around the Internet. The Ciener's mags are about $35 on their website . The LE kit that I got has an adjustable rear sight and comes with a cleaning kit that even includes a small bottle of CLP. The fit and finish of the slide and barrel is great. I had a question about field striping the AA slide off the frame after shooting and I got a person right away on the phone and answer my questions. I was thinking of going with the Ciener's kit but after reading about Ciener's mags and customer service, I'm glad I went with AA.
|
|
Well, I took the kit out today. You guys were right, It would have been better to get the AA kit. The Ciener kit is VERY ammo sensitive. It worked pretty well with federal bulk pack, but not with Remington. The problem is ignition/Light primer strikes. Remington would rarely fire. Maybe one or two shots out of ten. Other than that the Remington had a failure to feed too. Even with the Federal, I'd have about one misfire in 20 rounds. The same bulk ammo worked fine in my P22. Before I took it out, I completely cleaned it. The firing pin channel was really dirty. I'm thinking that the firing pin spring is just too weak. That being said, it did feed the Federal and eject it well. It also was really quite accurate. Still, I'll be returning it and buying an advantage arms kit. Oh yeah, for those of you pointing out cheap AA kits, I've seen a lot of used one's for G19's but not very many for G17's. Most of the conversions for G17's have been out of stock for quite some time. |
The AA mags looks like the stock Glock mags that comes with the pistol. It may not be the same material as the Glock but comes pretty close. |
The AA kits have the same problem, being finicky with ammo. In all honesty any .22 lr retrofit kit whether its for a rifle or pistol will be finicky. Its inherent with the caliber and manufacturing. |
The place I bought it, guaranteed it would work and said I could bring it back if it didn't. Hangfires are common with .22lr, but it was unacceptable how many I got with this kit. At the very least, it should go bang. I was expecting it to be finicky with short stroking, failures to feed and eject. I'm pretty sure I could get my money back. The firing pin on the Ciener has a round tip. Nearly all other firing pins for rimfires I've seen are square or wedge shaped. Does the AA kit have a square firing pin? |
I would recommend returning it since they are going to let you return it. Then go get yourself a AA kit, but be prepared to wait a little while to get the AA kit. It seems like everyone including AA themselves are out and have a 6-8 week back log. The AA is far superior kit in my opinion and I have used both brands. Also the AA works great on CCI Mini Mags and does ok on most other High Velocity ammo. |
|
Did anyone try using Winchester 32gr hollowpoints through the AA kit? That was all they had at the local Sports Authority. I was able to find some CCI 40gr and CCI Stinger ammo and I have a feeling that should feed well. I didn't try the AA kit yet. Got to wait until this weekend when it is an open day at the firing range. |
The paper work I got with my AA kit says not to use any Winchester in their kit. I have never tried it. |
2 G17 kits FS in EE. Not quite $215, but not too far of. |
I looked at the documentation that came with my AA kit and I didn't see that Winchester was not a reccommended ammo. What the heck, I'll give it a a go and if not, I'll pass it on to a buddy that shoots that brand in his AR conversion kit. |
|
Well I exchanged my ciener kit and got the AA target kit. After further inspection, it does seem to be better designed. Looking at it again, I realized what was the other subtle turn off. The barrel had distinct tooling marks and wasn't deburred that well. Having worked in Precision CNC machine shop, I always see this as a turn off. I'm sure this doesn't hurt the function, so it's just me being a bit anal. Anyways, I took the barrel and carefully deburred(with a jewelers file) and stoned all the surfaces. Then I used some Scotch brite to smooth it all out. Looks much better now. I also debured and beveled the ejector so that it would run smooth in the channel it runs in. (Careful to not change the ejectors face geometry.) I then removed the firing pin block because it had an obvious hitch in it. I deburred that and removed the hitch. (Feels more like my stock glock slide). I'm sure it probably would have run still, but I wanted it to be nice and smooth. I then took it out and put a little over 400 rounds through it. Remington bulk with the brass coated bullets. The only failures I had were when I let my buddy try it, and I think it was because his hand was touching the slide. It shoots really accurately, and I was surprised at how similar the trigger pull felt compared to my stock slide. |
| Actually, one thing that I was wondering. It looks like the same magazine mold is used for all the different models of the AA kit. Does the shorter 19-23 kit still take 10 rounds? When it took the plunger that holds the floorplate out, it seemed to be excessively long. Just for shits and giggles, I put the mag back together without the plunger and the mag held around 13 rounds. Has anyone modified their mags or made a different plunger to make these mags a higher capacity? |
Wife has an AA kit for her G19 and we have just over 10,000-rounds through it thus far (it'll see another 525 tomorrow evening). Nary a problem. She's got five of the new magazines with it (shoots it competitively), they all drop free, lock the slide open on the last round and feed flawlessly. The mags are indestructible. We have learned the only ammo we feed the AA kit is Remington Golden Bullets or CCI mini-mags.  |
| I bought 10 AA magazines for my G19. Ten rounds goes pretty quick so I just wanted to stock up and make is a bit more convenient at the range. I've been using CCI ammo and that has been working out okay. I've just had a few FTF and FTE out of a few hundred rounds. I guess the kit needs to be broken in a bit. I've made sure that the kit is lubed in the right areas and hopefully in time I will have the same results and the rest of the members are having with their AA kits. |