.22 conversions for 1911s?

[First Shirt]

I think I paid $279 for my Kimber conversion kit, and it included a spare mag. It's pretty accurate, very reliable, and a great practice tool (and who doesn't need more practice?)

[Combat Controller]

The Ceiner I got for $175 a while back.

[Whirlibird]

There is really only one .22 conversion unit to consider unless you already have a couple of Colt units in a drawer. And even then...

The Marvel unit.
Reliable and disgustingly accurate.
Outdoes many if not most conventional .22's out there and is essentially a drop in conversion.

The price is @$100+ higher than the conventional aluminum units but the quality more than makes up for it.

[DwightG]

To explain why, lets look at some reasons why one would make such a conversion:

1) To practice with cheaper ammo using the same platform and holster used in defensive carry

Which seems like a perfectly good reason all by itself.

The problem is that the .22 has a much lower recoil than the .45. To cycle properly, you need a whole new slide assembly made of a lighter material such as aluminum, zinc, or plastic. It's hard to make such materials look as good as a nicely finished 1911. You also need to design a magazine to fit the 1911's mag well and reliably feed the .22 cartridges. To be marketable, you must do all this for the same or less than the price of a complete .22 pistol.

Since the slide and the magazine are so much lighter in the conversion, the balance, feel, and recoil of the pistol will be completely different than your carry piece anyway. Most shooters have concluded that the better value is in purchasing a separate .22 automatic pistol for high-volume marksmanship practice.

The above comments are generally correct regarding the conversions on the market however they aren't of necessity so. The slide of the Colt conversion is approximately the same mass as the standard slide, the necessary energy being extracted from the cartridge by means of a coaxial gas piston often referred to as a floating chamber. So it's quite possible to power a full weight steel slide with the .22 cartridge. As a result, the gun so converted is virtually identical in weight and feel to the unconverted gun. The recoil is indeed different. Launching a 40gr slug is different from launching a 230 gr one. No way to beat physics on that one.

The advantage of a conversion in addition to cheap ammo is that you learn that trigger. I was in a bowling pin shoot a couple of years ago with a 1911 that I'd used to fire many thousands of rounds of .22 with a conversion. One of the range masters observing commented "you have perfect trigger control". Frankly I didn't quite know what he was talking about (and with earplugs in and only initially hearing "trigger" and "control" I was afraid I'd made a safety faux paux) so I had to ask. No extra travel, no finger coming off the trigger, etc. All learned unconsciously on that gun by huge amounts of shooting that I could never afford with .45ACP ammo. I wouldn't have developed that firing one of my other .22s.

The cost points are valid. It's not cheap to build the entire upper half of the gun which is why most conversion kits are pretty expensive. As I've mentioned before, it is possible to make a fully functioning .22 conversion kit that only replaces the barrel and the magazine while using the original slide, recoil spring, etc. but since it's not currently commercially available, these comments are purely for academic discussion. Hopefully I can change that situation one of these days

[Thomas]

Does anyone have any real world experience with the Advantage Arms .22 conversion kit?

http://www.advantagearms.com/1911conversion_kit.html

[Aglifter]

Works great on my G29...

[Rich Jordan]

I bought a Colt conversion kit from the CMP back in 2003-4 when they had them available. I haven't been able to shoot it yet (need a frame, just asked about that in a different category) but some friends on the old GEnie firearm boards who had either the kit or original pistols with the floating chambers said they could be very reliable with some caveats.

- Always use plated ammo.
- Always use clean high velocity ammo, not standard velocity. Mini-mags were liked. Stingers got mixed reviews. The extra high velocity stuff wasn't available back then so who knows.
- Clean the chamber and barrel spotless, and lubricate the chamber/barrel interface with a very high quality lube, and don't shoot more than 80-100 rounds with cleaning and lubing again. Mobil 1 was highly spoken of for that specific task.

I'm looking forward to shooting mine in the not too distant future. It will be interesting to see how the recoil compares to actual .45 ACP. I also have a conversion kit for a 9mm Witness; this is the aluminum slide type; its OK but the pistol feel and handling is a lot different than when set up for 9mm.

Unfortunately you'll pay a lot for one of these Colt kits, or a complete pistol with the floating chamber.

[Whirlibird]

I bought a Colt conversion kit from the CMP back in 2003-4 when they had them available. I haven't been able to shoot it yet (need a frame, just asked about that in a different category) but some friends on the old GEnie firearm boards who had either the kit or original pistols with the floating chambers said they could be very reliable with some caveats.

- Always use plated ammo.
- Always use clean high velocity ammo, not standard velocity. Mini-mags were liked. Stingers got mixed reviews. The extra high velocity stuff wasn't available back then so who knows.
- Clean the chamber and barrel spotless, and lubricate the chamber/barrel interface with a very high quality lube, and don't shoot more than 80-100 rounds with cleaning and lubing again. Mobil 1 was highly spoken of for that specific task.

I'm looking forward to shooting mine in the not too distant future. It will be interesting to see how the recoil compares to actual .45 ACP. I also have a conversion kit for a 9mm Witness; this is the aluminum slide type; its OK but the pistol feel and handling is a lot different than when set up for 9mm.

Unfortunately you'll pay a lot for one of these Colt kits, or a complete pistol with the floating chamber.

The recoil doesn't compare but it's more than a conventional .22.
Standard velocity will work depending on what recoil spring you're using.
Plain lead bullets work fine but they will gum up somewhere between 50-200 rounds, the plated ones will normally go 200+ before becoming an issue.

Pachmayr used to do a nice conversion on these, tightening them up and etc. Hard chrome plating the barrel and chamber to match properly really made the difference in them.

Metalform is making good magazines for these, price some originals and you'll love them even more.

I recommend putting a full length guide rod in the conversion unit. You can take the entire upper off ala the BHP this way and keep all the parts together.

Pick up a spare ejector or two if you can, they're the one part that can give issues occasionally. If you have the milled one, put it in a box and put a stamped one, they run better.

[Combat Controller]

I will try this conversion with my Sistima trainer, the Ciener upper already has one.

[crazylegs]

I have a nice Kimber conversion kit and a RIA 1911. The fit up is a little tight, but other then that it is fine.

I don't use the kit much because: I get tired of disassembling and reassembling the kit, and I prefer shooting 45. Shooting 22 out of a 45 platform is like drinking skim milk.