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

As you know I wanted a .22 option for my AR. I picked up a couple used Ciener kits last year and had nothing but utter, total and epic fail with them. To be fair, they were used so perhaps the fault isnt with the manufacturer.  Regardless, it left me soured on the whole thing. I was at the Kalispell show last week and came across the CMMG conversion which appears to be an exact copy of the Ciener. The conversation at the show was almost verbatim to this:

Me: I have a couple Ciener kits and the damn things never work right.
Vendor: AR or M16 kit?
Both.
Hmm…I hear if Ciener gets a kit that works they mark it for the M16 and the ones that dont get marked for the AR-15.
Whaddya know about these CMMG kits?
Sold a bunch today. I use ‘em and they work fine.
I got a bunch of Black Dog Magazines (BDM) for the Cieners, will they work with the CMMG.
Yeah.
Alright. Look,  you know me, you know my wife, we see you all the time at these shows. If this thing doesnt work I can bring it back, right?
Absolutely.
Ok. Wrap it up.

So, a trip to the range for a quick evaluation. Test platform is a Bushy Dissipator. Ammo is Rem. bulk and CCI Blazer. Three BDM mags.

Put five rounds of Rem. in each mag and fired em all. No problems. Repeat. At round #17 the bolt started to no fully go into battery. A little nudge on the bolt with a finger would be enoughu to close the bolt to allow it to fire but I was concerned. However, lets eliminate some variables. Pulled the mag, swapped out all the ammo for CCI Blazer. No hiccups. Took the conversion out of the gun and made sure to lube it thoroughly with LSA and replaced it in the gun. Fired another 50 rounds of CCI Blazer with no hiccups at all. The instructions recommend Federal bulk, which is what I stockpile, but I didnt bring any with me because I was too cheap to want to open a fresh package. However, the el cheapo CCI Blazer did a sterling job.

The BDM mags are highly recommended and I say that if you want to get the CMMG conversion, which I am going to give a tentative recommendation to, start getting some mags now even if the conversion isnt in your immediate future. The mags are a bit longer than a normal AR mag so they will be too long for most closed-top mag pouches.

Speaking of CMMG, head to their website. Holy crap have they got some cool stuff. Tactical bacon! .308 AR lowers that take HK91 mags (brilliant!). Buncha other cool stuff too. I may have found a new place to waste my money.

TPIWWP, so here we go:

Now I just need a .22 conversion for the Glock and I’ll be able to practice handling techniques and shooting drills on my limited budget.