RFI- .22lr AR?

[Joe in PNG]

What's the general consensus on a good, but not too spendy AR in .22lr?

[LittleLebowski]

I’ve got two of these, love’em.

https://www.brownells.com/guns/rifle...mi-auto-rifle/

[Oldherkpilot]

I'm with LL on the M&P 15-22.

[Tensaw]

I have both the M&P 15-22 and a Tippmann. Thousands of rounds through both.

My 15-22 has a polymer/fiber receiver is it is quite a bit lighter than a regular AR. That may be good or bad depending on who is shooting it and why. The magazines on the 15-22 load a bit easier than the Tippmann. That said, the Tippmann is the one I gravitate to because it has both a metal receiver and heavier barrel so it feels more like a real AR. The Tippmann mags can also be a PITA to get to feed sometimes - you have to pay attention when loading to ensure the cartridges don't get wonky in the stack. Once I figured that out, the Tippmann has run 100%. All I do to either is occasionally wipe them down and re-lube. A lot of fun for the money here.

[HCM]

I’ve got two of these, love’em.

https://www.brownells.com/guns/rifle...mi-auto-rifle/

I have two of them as well. Great guns and unlike the various Umarex AR-22s, they function like a real AR.

The Tippman AR-22s are good (I have two of those as well) but spendy compared with S&W.

[Suvorov]

I built a dedicated .22LR on a cmmg upper more than 10 years ago. I have thousands upon thousands of rounds through it. It has been mostly reliable with some sessions of total suck, mostly related to failure to fire followed by a failure to extract. Years and years of playing, replacing parts, and upgrading parts to produce a rifle that almost mimicked the manual of arms of its full caliber brother, but was still unable to drop mags free when reloading nor holding the bolt open on the last round. While it was workable for me it was not a rifle I wanted my boys to learn on so I bought them an M&P15-22 used. The rifle has been super reliable out of the box with most any crap I feed it and I really wished that I had gone that route instead of the dedicated upper route I took (unbeknownst to me S&W would release the M&P15-22 about 2 months after I purchased my dedicate upper). The other big bonus with the M&P has been that it completely duplicates the manual of arms of a CF AR-15.

After I purchased my S&W, I was reading about how one of the keys the the M&Ps greatness is it’s magazines. I also read that there is a conversion kit that allows the CMMG upper to use the M&P magazines, so I promptly ordered one for my rifle. After a finicky instal and the use of CMMG mini mags, my dedicated rifle started shooting like the proverbial sewing machine WITH the same manual of arms as the CF rifle. I just have to be careful what I feed it. Couldn’t be happier with either rifle.

So your options as I see it is invest years of time and hundreds of dollars to get a dedicated upper to run well or just spend $300-400 on an M&P15-22 and be done with it!

[Navin Johnson]

Yep….

[Joe in PNG]

Sounds like the Smif could be the option I'm looking for, and it's pretty common in most gunshops.

Are there any models I should be looking to avoid?

[Suvorov]

Sounds like the Smif could be the option I'm looking for, and it's pretty common in most gunshops.

Are there any models I should be looking to avoid?

Some of the early ones were recalled due to the bolt faces not being recessed enough and apparently resulting in slam fires. This has long ago been corrected, but if you buy a used one that is in the range of serial numbers that are suspect, Smith will send you a gauge to check and if it fails they will correct it. Mine passed. I’m pretty sure any used rifle that has the Mlok handguard as opposed to the quad rail is good to go.

[DDTSGM]

ETA: just realized that the OP was Joe in PNG, if anyone thinks this is good info please quote it so he will see it, as he has me on ignore. Thanks.

I think whether you build or buy depends on your intended purpose.

I have four dedicated .22's that I've put together over the years. All of them based on CMMG barrels and bolts. All of them are on dedicated lowers.

Each one of them probably cost more than a mid-level AR build, so definitely more expensive than the S&W.

One of them is a clone of the White Oak service rifle I use - down to the free float tube under the handguards. I did have to use adhesive lead weights to get it to weight the same and have the same 'hang.'

Another one is a FSB M4ish rifle that mimics my favorite M4ish rifle.

The other two are 16 inchers with ALG handguards and comps that my wife and I use in our gun club's 'outlaw' PCC matches. They are pretty close to the 9mm PCC's I've put together using dedicated 9mm lowers.

All of them run great. Over the years I've bought adapters to run S&W mag in them. IMO, the S&W mags are hands down the best AR22 mags out there.

Really, the only one that an M&P AR22 would replace is the one bolded above. Everything else is purpose built.

I have also given each of my sons CMMG conversions for rifles I've built and gifted them so they can use .22LR with their kids. The conversions work fine, but my son found that his .223 barrel didn't group tight enough to shoot a Rifleman score at an Appleseed. The 10/22 he borrowed did, though.

If you want to build your own these are two components you need:

1. This allows you to use S&W Mags: https://www.redi-mag.com/product/bet...azine-adaptor/

2. This dedicated .22 bolt catch when used with S&W 15-22 magazines allows the bolt to be held back after the last shot which provides a true last-round-hold-open like a standard AR: https://arcatch22.com/products/catch22-v1-bolt-catch

If you don't want to use the redi-mag adaptor, you can use the ar22catch.com shims either on your S&W magazines, or clipped to you mag well. I bought both versions, they work, but I've pretty much stuck with the red-mag adaptors:

Clip onto mag well: https://arcatch22.com/products/s-w-1...13492275216497

Stick onto magazine: https://arcatch22.com/products/s-w-1...=1356353191947