10/22 – AR trainer project

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Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

I wanted to get either a .22 conversion for the AR or a dedicated .22 upper. Its just to expensive to drop $0.25 per round on ammo for the damn gun to practice with. Now, I loves me practice, but I love being able to pay for groceries more. So, it was decided that a .22 conversin or upper would be called for. This is when the research began.

A friend of mine has a .22 upper for his AR and I like it very much. The only drawback is that many of the  uppers (as well as conversions) use proprietary magazines and not all have a 30-rd capacity. Even if the company making the conversion offers a 30-rd magazinee still sort of over a barrel in the accuracy department. Certainly ‘good enough’ accuracy for practicing but more accuracy is always better, right? The problem with a conversion is that the actual suggested bore diameter for a .223 bullet is different than that of a .22LR bullet. As a result, the .22LR bullet rattles down the bore a bit. Now, for shooting steel plates at short range thats fine and dandy but it would be nice to have the gun be accurate enough for gopher shooting and general plinking.

Go with a dedicated upper and you get better accuracy but theres only a handful out there that have the availability of 30-rd mags (and those mags arent cheap). Additionally, it means tying up a perfectly good lower that could be used on , say, a real AR15.

So, since what I really want to focus on are move-n-shoot type drills, high magazine capacity, and something close to AR ergonomics I was thinking of tweaking out one of the 10/22’s I have laying around here into an AR trainer. The major changes will be a stock that duplicates the AR stock and sights that duplicate the AR sights. What I’ve decied on, so far, are these sights and a stock along these lines.
Im sure someone will c hime in to remind me that the magazine, charging and safety of the 10/22 are quite different than that of the AR series. I know that, but Im not wanting this package for magazine drills, safety drills, or charging drills…I want it so I can bring the gun up to my shoulder with my hands and shoulder in the same position as if it were an AR, and my sight picture being the same as an AR. For moving-and-shooting drills I think this would be just the ticket.

6 thoughts on “10/22 – AR trainer project”

  1. +1 on the 10/22. I have never been a fan of conversion kits considering the mag problem mentioned, the price, and the thought of having my MBR in pieces in an emergency. Shooting drills using a different style rifle will still ingrain the skills and muscle memory needed to do a good job with any gun. Plus a 10/22 will give wifey (or another member of the team) a backup gun to join in the fun.

  2. Considering the ease of swapping out uppers or the AR-15 platform, could you not just swap it on at the range for drills with 22lr and swap it off for drills with 223?

  4. You said “I know that, but Im not wanting this package for magazine drills, safety drills, or charging drills”

    So, one, or at most two, mags seem to meet the move and shot drill needs. All the other drills would be done with the weapon in 223 mode.

    And, if you have to get up and go, a conversion kit would be much smaller to pack and would provide a 22lr for small game etc. without finding room in the packing for another whole rifle.

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