Ep. 237 | .22 LR AR Builds - Everything you Need to Know 

I really appreciate Will and his company for helping me out with my build out. They took the time to talk with me and that says a lot in todays firearms craziness. He made time to talk!

I shoot my .22lr build exponentially more than my standard ARs. 100% worth the investment. One of the best suppressor hosts out there as well.

I started with the CMMG conversion and a 1:9 barrel. It worked well, but I still got the CMMG .22 barrel. Now the thing's a tack driver! I did have to upgrade the extractor, but other than that, it's been 100% reliable.

My 4.5" AR22 runs reliably ONLY because of BoreBuddy Parts and Will's dedication to the platform. As mentioned it's a great training tool, and just plain fun. I shoot more 22 now than I ever have. Thank you!

Thanks for founding bore buddy. I've been using your site for some time now, you have helped fix many issues I've encountered.

Will is a great guy, his customer service is top notch too! Life long customer here :)

Before the original plug I was using a wooden dowel cut for a tight fit in the buffer tube. Then I went a step further and replace the bolt in a kns buffer adapter with a longer plastic tipped bolt so it would apply pressure on the carrier. Then I drilled and tapped a hole to install a qd socket in the bottom lug of the adapter. I had the best custom binary ar22 in the world for about 2 months before you came out with your adapter, then you released the adjustable buffer and now it’s the most reliable.

I've had a dedicated .22 upper for years. Inside of 350 rounds (from cleaning), it works nearly 100%. Beyond 350 rounds...jam-o-matic. When my son started shooting, we got into s&w m&p 15-22's. I now have 7 m&p's...and my dedicated upper runs those mags now too. Great for running AR classes, especially for the boy scout class we teach every couple months. Most 10-14 year old boys will pick an AR over a ruger 10-22 every time. Heck, alot of adults would rather learn on a suppressed .22 over a 5.56 carbine I've found. They run pretty darn well up to 1,000 rds if you upgrade the extractor. If you are not looking for a 1-to-1 analog for your duty carbine, want light weight (pistol is around 4.5 lbs with optic), and don't require them to be ruggedized....the m&p 15-22 is highly underrated.

I've had a dedicated. 22lr match upper for my AR for 22 years now. It shoots really well out past 100 yards. It is from Accuracy Speaks out of Arizona. I do not know if they still do them. I bought another from Compass Lake Engineering out of Florida. It is a flat top upper. He mentioned an out of battery detonation. If you ever have one please make sure you don't have a bullet in the barrel. I learned this the hard way. But I have had only ever had 2 out of battery detonations in 22 years.

Great products & quick shipping.Thanks Bore Buddy🇺🇲

Borebuddy is an excellent resource. Before them I was making many of the parts that they now offer for a very reasonable price. Congrats on the success. Design a 9mm kit for a 350 legend and I’ll be blown away.

I have the conversation kit and it’s a lot of fun. I can see how it leads to making a dedicated build.

I just went with the Tippmann m4 22 and have had great luck. The Tippmann is aluminum upper, lower and will except many AR parts. A lot of fun and good trainer.

I swear for the past year or so I have been thinking of something and boom next day you guys have a podcast for me on the topic. Just to think if someone gave will a 10/22 early on none of this would be possible.

This was a very interesting and informative episode. I learned about things I never even considered. Great Job!!!

The ultrasonic sonic cleaners are good for the bolt. I did the conversion kit with my 556/223 with catch22 and 15-22 magazines. But I started a dedicated build with my same Aero Precision upper and lower but with boonie packer 22 insert, cmmg barrel, 15-22 mags.

Love these .22lr podcasts. Very insightful.

My dedicated .22 upper is on it's way. Glad I found this video!

Wow this is so educational! I’m a retired Defense engineer (electronics) so I can keep up with the technical talk but I’ve learned a lot…. Unfortunately what that taught me is …. I have a lot to learn LOL

Really great podcast and learned a lot about .22 ARs. Now do 9x25 Dillon for a cartridge talk

Absolutely fantastic !!!! I learned so much. I will share this and watch it again to take notes and learn more.

This was a crazy helpful video. Must watch for anyone trying to buy 22lr AR

Tweaking really might be an understatement with AR Rimfire. Ran three 22 22mag and 17HMR. The 22 by far had the least issues, just running stingers though so there’s that. If you really want to know what goes on in a gun it pays to build at least one if your own. I know you touched on firing out of battery and that’s no joke, gasses in the face and exploded brass painting the inside of the receiver can be a real shock.

Interesting vlog am in the UK and bought my CMMG through Lantac UK.Lantac now build their own AR dedicated .22lr and use CMMG parts. When you bought a CMMG through Lantac they would polish the ramp,polish the trigger sear and cur a 11deg target crown on the barrel on every rifle. An interesting fact is that Lantac state on there website that super high velocity rounds should NOT be used and they give an example of CCI Stingers not to be used. Lantac are market leaders in dedicated .22 platforms so there meet be a reason for that statement. I used the CMMG mag once before buying the better mag kit and M&P mags.First thing I noticed out of the box with my CMMG was some slop between the upper and lower. I solved this by placing about 2mm of black RTV gasket sealer on the rear pin lug and letting it dry before putting the upper back on the lower.Six years later still no slop.I fire sub sonic (Eley Sport/ Contact) never had an issue. With a really cheap Hawk scope 6-8 x50 I can put ten rounds into a 1cm ring at 25 yards.I don’t use a weight but I can see the advantages.The UK are behind the curve on these weights, the only ones available are the older style with the screw in back plate so I will wait for the new ones with the roll pin back plate. My only criticism about the video is there is no real explanation on how to assess how much weight is required to get the best adjustment.Do you use a slow motion camera to see how much bounce is reduced?

I just ordered a 4.5" complete upper from BB. UPS says tomorrow is the day. Looking forward to having another caliber upper in the collection.

Great talk. I built one recently and love it. Nice to know more about the physics and different setup up issues by purpose.

This was immensely helpful guys, thank you so much! Just ordered my weight kit, I didnt realize how much that bolt bounced until I saw the video in slow-mo on the the site; then seeing it with the adjustable weight in slow-mo just stay stiff as a board- it was a no brainer.

A few years ago I got the CMMG conversion kit and three 10-rnd mags (Massachusetts) and used it on my S&W M&P Sport ver 1.0 (16") and it worked okay. But the gas tube blowback was really bad. The bulk .22 powder mess in the upper & lower was very messy! I found a very cheap 16" AR upper to dedicate to .22LR! I moved the gas block abt 6 or 8 MM forward to shut off the hot gas. Turning off the gas means 90% less crud to clean out of the upper & lower! My SSA stays a lot cleaner! Nowadays, I don't need a full face shield to shoot .22LR! Just glasses. I do have a few other .22 rifles, but nothing cooler looking than my AR-22 configuration.. :) Great video! Very educational. Subbed & Liked!

I've seen a 1:9 twist barrel stabilize 77gr OTMs out to a thousand. You don't need 1:7 unless you're shooting copper or long tracers. Also my cmmg22 conversion worked fine out of the box, it delivers a minute of squirrel out to 50 and that's all I need.

I just got my Vortex Diamondback HD 10x50 binos and they rock! Who would have thought that I’d find such a cool podcast and learn awesome info in the process of researching a bino purchase. Also learning a lot about daytime/nighttime coyote hunting from you guys. This will certainly be a great show.

I really enjoyed Will's response about pollution in a design. I invented a way to easily grease 4wd front axles and one of the biggest questions I get is if its so simple how come nobody thought of it for the last 80 years. I can refer to Will's response. Now I have a question. I am in the process of ordering the mac daddy setup from Bore Buddy through Valhalla Tactical Supply. One of the things that has happened to me, more than once, is that the spent casing gets turned vertical and wedged between the CMMG rail and the top of the inside of the lower. Its wedged in there quite firmly to where I have to take a small screwdriver and pry it out. This is with the stock CMMG, Aguila 40gr, and proprietary barrel. What causes that?

I got the cmmg 9" dedicated barrel complete bcg complete bore buddy kit installed whatever and everything I could from bore buddy matrix arms carbon handguard sico flash hider TN arms Polly lower ak style folding brace armorgedon suppressor charging handle 1-4 lvpo ar9 upper (no assist but smaller port) timney flat trigger thinking of going aluminum lower and Ar15 upper. was trying different charging handles had no luck with Griffin arms snatch. had a few failure to feed and double a few times buffer wise she's as heavy as she can right now, going to start maybe playing with the buffer weight, just to see what's up was using the cci ar22 ammo going to check out that sw magazine set up. thank you for this episode. ♥️ well now I guess I got to try another trigger.

Have the wonderful "HK" 416-22 and sibling Hammerli TAC 22... fun-fun-fun, dependable and consistent. Branched out into building AR9s & AR15s sooooo my natural interest and curiosity has become about building a 22 now. This conversation was very helpful and a good guide in which direction to proceed. Appreciated!

Hardcore 22lr. guy here. All my rifles are AR or 10/22 styled platforms. 223, 300blk, ar9, or classic and charger 10/22 flavored, and a sig 522. Sold my S&W M&P22. Ive been on the fence about building a dedicated 22lr ar upper for a while. Afer watching this video I cant do it. If my 22 cant do a few thousand rounds without being cleaned its of no use to me and the potentIal for a laundry list of other issues. My friends and I have probably put 1500 rounds a day through one of my 10/22 that already had a thousand or more rounds through it. My go to 10/22 is a 4.5 barreled charger pistol I run surpressed with a franklin armory binary trigger and it runs like a sewing machine. I will say cleaning is a pain on a 10/22 especially with the Franklin trigger. This is where the Fletchers 11/22 reciever comes into play. An absolute must with a 10/22 and binary trigger. Makes cleaning as easy as an AR rifle. I havent purchased one yet as I was still on the fence about an AR22 upper. All my research on both platforms has me sold on the Fletchers 11/22 reciever. Thanks to Bore Bubby for all the hard work and continuing to advance our hobby. Hopefully one day I will post how Bore Buddy has me sold on an AR22 upper as I would prefer to have more training on the AR platform

The only way to do this is using the redi-mag adapters with the m&p15 mags that have last round bolt hold. And all of the kit from borebuddy!

I have had a CORE 15 tac iii dedicated upper for 12 years. I found out quick the Black Dog mags were not great. I bought the Better Mag Adapter and use m&p .22 mags. Reliability? Superb. So many rounds through it that the CMMG bolt broke in half at the lug. Replaced for free by cmmg. 8 kids at home. I buy a lot of .22lr. 😂 San Tan lower/ Geissele SSAE trigger.

I love shooting long range and shooting the 22lr. So I built a 22lr MK-12 AR upper clone and it is by far my favorite rifle to shoot and it's stupid accurate.

Love the look and everything with the one you have built. Anyway you can post a link of all the parts you used to build it?

AR22 is the gateway to precision 22. Precision Rimfire is the most fun I have ever had at a 100 yard range. Lol

That’s cool I didn’t realize until toward the end this is the bore buddy guy. My 16in loves the death jam unfortunately even when clean and with the bore buddy charging handle insert. My cmmg bolt does lock up nicely tho and doesn’t bounce around

I would be insanely interested in hearing Will talk about straight blowback in general more specifically the amount of buffering mass needed to Safley operate a straight blowback system in relation to barrel length. Also I would like to know any equations if there is any or how to create my own to Safley determine the buffering mass needed to operate any said powder charge/energy created by the cartridge to effectively create any straight blow back system from scratch regardless of caliber

Could you arrange to cover the accuracy of 22LR dedicated upper? I went through the same path as mentioned in the video, i.e. starting with CMMG conversion kit then building dedicated upper. However, accuracy wise, I did not see any improvement, all the same about 2" group at 50 yard (more tham 10 type of ammos used in the testing), between using convention kits and CMMG dedicated upper (CMMG 16.1" barrel + collar, reusing the BCG body/frame from conversion kit). Considering all the facts described in the video, correct twist rate (1:16 vs 1:7), longer barrel (14.5" vs 16"), bullet and barrel diameter matching (.223 vs .224), should we expect to get better accuracy using dedicated upper?

Once I installed my Bore Buddy onto my CMMG conversion kit, I have not experienced any failures 2500 rounds later.

I’m debating between a Nordic components upper v. Tippmann m4. Anyone have suggestions?

thnkyou i learn alot & this will be one of my go to video as i do my 1st build. also his website is very helpful too

A case detonation will often blow the extractor off. I have an old Colt 22lr conversion bolt for the AR15 and that's exactly what happened to it. And I can't find the parts of this Colt conversion bolt. I've also had a case explosion blow the extraction off of a 10/22.

I’m using one lower for 556 and my 22 LR upper but my poor man’s trigger job is too lite for the 22 LR pin, so the LaRue trigger will be installed.

Well that's crazy because I have an AR that's an A1 Vietnam era with a 20-inch pencil Barrel with a 1 and 12 twist it shoots the 55 grain accurately at 450 yd I've shot 7-inch group. I haven't really shot my cmmg on paper but from what I can tell blinking it's pretty accurate. I just got a new A2 heavy barrel chambered in 223 Wylde so I can shoot 223 and the heavier 5.56, but even that I've shot the 62 grain green tips out of the one in 1 and 12 twist and it shoots pretty accurate up close but I'm guessing at longer distance it would start tumbling or something. Anyway I do think I'm going to get a dedicated 22LR upper. 22LR is so much more fun to plink and it less expensive.

Back when AR's were legal in NZ my mate had a 20" AR that he used a CCMG converter in. It was decently accurate with the CCI Velocitors (2 MOA-ish) and acceptably reliable, but terribad with anything lower velocity. I currently run a Hammerli R1 .22LR AR style for pest plinking which isn't bad and a Jard J72 in .17WSM for "fun stuff".

I would love to hear what y’all think the best 16” .22 barrel is for the money that is currently available…ish.

Will is a great guy. BoreBuddy will get you what you need to use 22lr Ar platforms.

I'm not the only 1! Yes please do a 9×25 dillon talk!

I just built a 22lr ar15 and wish I watched this beforehand. I'm not too far off, but I am gonna have to buy a couple more things

Am I the only one having trouble finding the m&p magazines he mentioned? I can't find them anywhere except Smith & Wesson and it doesn't have a price.

Will, do you recommend a particular barrel for sending 40gr'ers copper jacket hollow-point standard velocity out to 300+ meters? Is there a 5R rifling of sorts for less deformation from the lands? Have you found 1:16 is still the best for accuracy? Thanks in advance! P.S. Would you also run the 1:16 on a 4.5" barrel with a can?

Would the Tipmann be a good option for a non tinkerer who loves his M&P 15-22 but wants to up his game a bit?

Just discovered this. Love everything Vortex!

39:38 correct me if I’m wrong but you are using your safety flag wrong. The long skinny part it meant to go down the barrel to prove there is no round chambered…not to stick in the mag well.

Gents, great show as usual. Interestingly enough I just bought a Bear Creek Arsenal upper last week. It has not made it to the range, but is there any parts that you could recommend to make it more reliable. Can it be made compatible with the S&W magazines? Thank you for keeping the good and informative pod casts coming. You guys are great at putting out interesting and out-the-box content like this that no one else is doing.

It's funny he is talking about timney triggers because I am having a problem with my timney trigger isn't hitting the firing pin far enough. It doesn't have that overhang over the lower that my LaRue does. So I'm getting light primer strikes. I was playing around with it last night and took my firing pin spring out and put a spent casing in and with the hammer all the way up against the lower it doesn't touch the firing pin when the firing pin is touching the rim of the case. So I had to put my LaRue trigger in my AR pistol that I run my cmmg conversion bolt in. The LaRue trigger goes more than far enough. On a side note I love borebuddy. I have their reliability kit and I just ordered the extractor kit and firing pin kit. I am hoping the firing pin from them helps so I can run my Timney in my AR pistol.

Great episode, thank you.

The Catch22 with the stick on mag spacers is superior to the bettermag adapter imo. The catch is ;) you need to dedicate your lower or use there V2 slip on setup. No experience with how well the V2 Works

Glad he touched on fouling and reliability, 22lr is some dirty dirty stuff. Make sure you wipe your 22lr rounds down before running them w a rag w a drop or two of clp on it,itll keep from fouling up the chamber as fast,even for bolt actions.

Get the McFadden Lightning Loader for your mags. Thank me later!

Im thinking about building dedicated .22lr upper with a binary trigger. Im assuming i will need all of the bore buddy products. Any other issues i should be aware of

after i stopped using lead nosed ammo and only use copper i never clean anyways and i never have jams. federal .45 grain is my fav 22lr

Like the video, my kit I'm running AR 7075 upper and lower with very tight tolerance, and have no movement in the bolt to buffer, barrel. Cmmg charging handle, no gas in the face, Running a standard polished mil spec trigger single stage, but running a lowest tension hammer springs, no cycling issues. the best ammo for me, is this federal 1000fps subs suppressed plated.. Never any misfires, cleaning to a minimum. Gunpowder is not cheap/harsh/ smokey. 7.5" 1.7 arstoner barrel accurate to 250 feet, 12" targets, quite. Sounds like a nail gun. Alot of fun.

10/22 is still a great option.

The AR tactical ammo sounds like buzzwords, but what they did is rounded the bullet off and added a sorta of waxy coating as lube, so it should in theory reduce malfunctions like failure to feed. It's ideal for automatics over bolt actions and revolvers.

@BoreBuddy will the better mag adapter work with a bear creek arsenal complete upper? Would I just need the m&p mags? Or will it also work with the black dog mags? I think the m&p mags will run in the BCA upper.

22LR is a very interesting round and it has been around forever, but why don’t people take a bigger interest in 22 magnum? 22 mag is almost as cheap, it has good platforms, and is twice the power.

I have a "friend" lol with an FRT and 22lr kit. Its very fun lol

@38:40 you can tell this guy wasn’t lying when he said he’s never owned a 10/22… “For the tinkerer” Dude needs to check out Midway/Brownells/Tandemcross etc etc. 10/22 is the tinkerers gun… smh.

i went to a cmmg kit for my 20'' upper 1-9 .works ok with the fed auto mag 1200 fps bulk and fps higher . then picked up a gsg stg-44 copy ..foe iron sight work .. only trouble is scope adjustment .. setting ..thus a 22only scope is best

I have bought some of your parts and they have noticeably improved my CMMG dedicated upper. I have a Rise 140 drop in trigger that seems to work well, perhaps I just got lucky. I do hate the CMMG magazines, they have a terrible fit perhaps you can engineer a solution that takes the wobble out of these popular but poorly designed magazines.

I have BCA dedicated upper that apparently uses a proprietary bolt and barrel. Are there any Bore Buddy products that I can use?

do I have this right? A dedicated 22 upper will be more accurate, less leading due to less freebore? any other advantages over a conversion after adding the spacer and weights to it?

8mm mauser train still chuggin

Wow I learned a toon thanks guys

I have the HK416 .22lr rifle and love it. I’m a beginner it serves its purpose of acclimation and practice but wish I’d known it was not a true AR build. I want to build my own AR-22 some day but not sure what the communists at ATF have done to that dream

So here's my desired build: 4.5" upper and a Franklin Armory BFSIII binary (I have a registered SBR lower with the BFSIII already installed for my 7.5" 300 Blk build). I'm looking at the RTB 4.5" complete upper. Other than the weight kit, what else would I need for this build? Would it require lighter springs or hammer or anything like that? If so, then another registered lower and a dedicated build would probably be needed, right?

REALLY Interesting! Thanks a ton! Now I'm going to be hundreds of dollars poorer though... ;-) 😀

Is the Franklin binary trigger for AR15s really a cassette style trigger?

That is correct!! They are reverse

I had 2 rounds pop at the rim and a couple half extractions because of bolt bounce. I bought the rifle bundle kit but now im wishing I would’ve bought a dedicated upper from the get go.😢

Boy am I glad I just got a m&p 15 22

my cartridge triggers work fine with my 22lr cmmg conversion kit

What about integrally suppressed 22LR barrels??

I like the Larue name drop. I feel like a lot of their products are overpriced, or I just can't appreciate them maybe, but I love my MBT 2 stage, especially for the price, but even if it was more expensive it feels amazing and even with the heavier weight 'duty' spring it's got a great break and reset.

Uintah Precision needs to come out with a 22lr bolt action upper receiver. Now that would be fun and a really accurate bolt action.

Excellent! What are the best .22 barrel sources? Is the forward assist necessary?

Goin shootin with v-22 .

Just get a Tippmann Arms M4 22Lr

Stupid question, but if I buy the .22lr conversion kit bolt for my 1:9 twist 5.56 upper NOW, can I just take the fake 5.56 off the front of the BCG and use the rest of the BCG on my dedicated upper when I am done building it?

Thanks

I'm like Mark,have a bunch of the Aguila SS 60gr, any recommendations on best way to shoot it? I'd heard it needs a faster twist than standard 1/16 so thought it would be perfect using the conversion to use my 1/8 AR barrel? My other choices are to test in S&W MP 15-22,revolver,Ruger Mark IV or 10/22(but sounds like Mark had difficulties getting it to cycle) or a friends lever action.

50:10 polishing

I'm curious about the bolt bounce issue. Is the CMMG bolt too light? Why would CMMG do that?

Anyone can point me in the right direction, I am looking for a collar with a feeding ramp that is slightly bigger. I need a collar,that has the inside diameter of the collar bigger than the standard CMMG one. Any help? Thank you in advance!

Science!