i was over at the vector website a little while ago and saw that they had UZI 22lr mags.  i was wondering if these could be made to work with any of the AR 22lr conversion kits.  it would be great if everything lined up perfect with a standard 9mm colt style block,  the .22 UZI mags, the ceiner kit, and just cuttingt a mag catch in the mag.  well, the smokes coming out of my ears, have to stop thinking.    what do you guys think?  anyone toyed with it already?

Quoted: i was over at the vector website a little while ago and saw that they had UZI 22lr mags.  i was wondering if these could be made to work with any of the AR 22lr conversion kits.  it would be great if everything lined up perfect with a standard 9mm colt style block,  the .22 UZI mags, the ceiner kit, and just cuttingt a mag catch in the mag.  well, the smokes coming out of my ears, have to stop thinking.    what do you guys think?  anyone toyed with it already?

The first problem I could see with using the 9mm Colt style block would be the ejector along with the bullet ramp would have to removed since none of the AR 22lr conversion kits would work with those parts in the way and those Colt style magblocks are a little too expensive to chop up --- but there is no reason that a hi-cap 22lr magazine can't be modified to work with any of the 22lr conversion units or a special magblock built to allow the use of the Uzi 22lr mags, but it would take a bunch or work, a dremel and some patience -- most people just want to be able to buy the hi-cap mag, that will work with their conversion unit, and be done with it.

The picture below is a 30 round Ciener mag that I modfied to work with the M261 GI conversion unit.

The picture below is a 20 round mag ( next to a GI 20 round mag on the left) I bought at a gun show that I also modified for the GI M261 conversion unit.

The Ciener mag was just something I did on a rainy day -- these mags are really to expensive to be doing this. The 20 round mag cost me $15 plus an old crap steel magazine for that build.

Hi-cap mags can be made to work with the conversion units but you have to be willing to do a bunch of work, a bunch of testing  and then some more work.


What do the Uzi 22lr mags go for and what is the capacity?

the 22 uzi mags go for around $30 IIRC and they come in a few capacities from 20-28.  i have about a dozen 22lr ak mags to use as 20 rd doners for something like you have done.  i just haven't decided which conversion system to use yet.  i am leaning towards the DPMS, but then i can't make hi-caps for it because the ejector is built into the mag.  the 261 kits have been coming on  strong latley and look appealing.  IIRC that is theh pattern that OLY uses now so parts should be plentiful.  i can get the ceiners pretty cheap with my ffl discount at brownells.  i'm just not sure yet what i want to use.

advntrjnky,
    Those 22lr AK mags are really nice -- I just poped the outer shell off and installed it in an old junk steel AR mag. The only thing necessary is making a bottom plate maybe similar to the Ciener bottom plate.  

About a year ago, I looked VERY hard at this.  The bolt to mag interface isn't even close, and the mod would require either extensive mods to the mag, and/or what is essentially an entirely different bolt.  

Note that the top of a ciener mag is quite skinny, and this skinny upper portion of the mag fits closely to the trapezoidal cutout on the bottom of the bolt.  The Vector Uzi .22LR mags have a very broad upper surface.  The bolt face would interfere with the mag at the rear and not strip any rounds.  And this doesn't even address ejection.

Nice thought though!  I think if it could be done it would be very cool.  Despite the ciener 30 rd mag bashing, the Vector mags are no more reliable, probably quite a bit less in my experience.

Gorilla,  thanks for the insight!

You're welcome!  As part of that process, I actually went so far as to create urethane plastic inserts for Uzi mags.  I always thought a .22 disguised as a 9mm would look better (and maybe perform better) than the JAC mags.  While I could get the mags to function (barely), the cartridge rim was always a limiting factor.  Since the Ciener mags are based upon the Bingham mag, which in turn was designed as a .22LR mag from the very beginning, so long as the bingham body was positioned well relative to the insert, the JAC/Bingham setup was going to perform better than my straight mags.

I've dreamed of finding a few cases of JUST the Bingham banana mag in some Phillipino warehouse at $6 each.  I think a dedicated lower, magwell broached for the bingham mag, would be a desirable item.

Gorilla,

You're right about the UZI/Vector 22 mags. They won't even make it high enough to strip ammo as they hit one of the bolt rails. The Bingham mags are the way to go.

Way back (before the ban) I had the same thought on the Bingham mags. I came across a Sarco ad in SGN for the plain bingham mags @ $7.00 each. I got 2 dozen and made up a removeable mag block to use them with a Ceiner conversion as I always hated that welded on block.  Most of them work well, but there is a lot of variation in those mags. Seems like there were a few manufacturers back in the day and they didn't all agree on the outside dimensions of these mags. Most of them work tho.

As a side note, the bingham mags, with a notch cut in the rear, will work in the Jager/Mitchell arms AK/Galil/Famas 22's.

Does anyone know who makes the bingham mag bodies for Ceiner? Maybe we could get some made without the blocks on them.