First AR and .22 conversion kit.

[aaroncstevens]

Ok, I'm doing this to have a soiid compact AR, and need the .22 conversion kit to work at 100%. This is to be used in a survival situation and double for defense if needed.
Being compact is very important for my application, so the bushy carbon 15 w/ the 14.5 and telescoping stock is what I am leaning towards. I need it to be as durable and dependable as they get, and simplicity would be nice. Money is always an issue, but numbers can be massaged a bit to get the right rifle. Any suggestions?

[print]

Very unreliable indeed. I've heard that bushmaster has fixed this problem, but I would hate to waste the money on finding out for myself,just to save 2 lbs of gun weight.

Some of the Ciener .22 units require some smithing in order to be 99.5% reliable. I dont think you'll ever get any 22lr, with a single stack mag to be 100% reliable. I trust mine to not have more than 1 malfunction in 100 rds, starting clean and lubed. One of them was fine right out of the box, the other one required extensive "tweaking".

Mine have 1 in 9 rifling twists, and group ok at 50 yds (3"). I've heard that 1 in 7 twists cause problems with the .22lr ammo, but I don't have personal knowledge about it.

[ColoradoPacker]

I have a Bushy Carbon 15 in .22LR that works fine.

I got it used from RichardK who had put in a JP Trigger and it started having failures to eject. He sent it to bushmaster with the factory trigger back in it, and it worked fine for them. He got it back, reinstalled the trigger and it had problems. I bought it off him for cheap and fixed it it for $10 - the hammer was interfering with the bolt coming back and was slowing it down.

I plan to get a .223 upper for it, with no plans to get rid of it, so I'll have a convertable. It feels much lighter than my Bushy A2M4.

[aaroncstevens]

Well, I may have solved the problem. Since finding a .22 conversion that is as dependable as I need is tough to do in the .223 ar15 platform, I picked up a folding ruger 10-22 and will pick up some sort of 308 so that I have the extended range and dropping power. any thoughts on a fairly inexpensive semiauto 308?

[Dennis in MA]

I've got a military M261 conversion kit. Works well, except for loading the first round. One of those times I wish I had a fwd assist. But after that first round is chambered (and a press-check is possible with this) it runs 100%. It hasn't jammed on me, not given me FTF's at all - despite the fact that there is virtually no feed ramp on the thing.