Monday, April 13, 2009

Range Report: Conversion Kits...

I asked a while back about various conversion kits I'd been thinking about. I was looking for input from folks that had owned or used such kits; ideally looking to separate the cream from the chaff, as it were. At the very least, I wanted to eliminate the "ZOMG this POS never worked!!!1111" kits from consideration.

Commenter OrangeNeckInNY left the following comment:
I have the Kimber conversion kit, which I haven't even tried out yet. I bought it after the election. I suppose I could take it to the range tomorrow and put a few hundred rounds through it, along with the Browning Buck Mark 7.25 Contour URX, and give you a full report afterwards. With pictures.
And, sure enough, true to his word, he did:

It was drizzly, cold and windy, but I had a great time. Had the range all to myself and I even did the whole move and shoot thing.

Anyway, to answer your question, the donor frame is from my Kimber 1911 in 10mm. I should've just bought the Buck Mark with the money I spent on the conversion kit. And that's only because I'm having a hard time getting a frame to convert my conversion kit to an entity unto itself, so that I'll 3 complete 1911s - a 10mm, a .45 acp and a .22LR (all Kimber).

Anyway, here are the pictures for you to look at. Don't let the hits on the conversion kit target fool you. Those are very nice groups. At the end before I left, I was shooting at things that were on the ground - shot casings, cardboard boxes, rocks, etc. - ranging anywhere between 7 yards and 50 yds. BOTH pistols were hitting
everything I aimed at. So really, you can't go wrong with a complete gun or the conversion kit.

The ammo I used were Federal Standard Velocity (red & black box), Federal High Velocity (blue box) and CCI Subsonics. The subsonic rounds cycled just fine in my Buck Mark, whereas I had to manually cycle each round in the Kimber. If I missed anything, let me know and I'll see if I can answer you.

-OrangeNeck
He provided pictures, as promised:

Browning Buckmark and Kimber with conversion

And the results:

Good shootin'!

It's nice to find someone even more anal-retentive than me... *g*

Thanks for the write-up, OrangeNeck. It's helped me to choose to get a conversion kit for my 1911, to start with. Depending on how that goes, I might expand into other kits...

That is all.

9 comments:

Weer'd Beard said...

A guy at MRA has a Kimber conversion kit too. I haven't shot more than 50 rouds through it but in that time I found it to be painfully accurate and stoppage-free.

TXGunGeek said...

OK Jay, I've got 3 Ciener 1911 conversions and 1 AR conversion. Of the 1911 conversions, One is the STD A1 fixed sights, one is the Platinum cup that I got the front sight milled off and replaced with a Dawson Precision Fiber and the third has a red dot mounted in place of the rear sight replicating my open gun. All three work like a charm with good ammo. Had a problem with the cheap Remington bulkpack stuff but any good hi-vel ammo cycles them fine. Probably in the 10's of thousands of rounds through them and no issues. I did have to do a bunch of custom fitting to get the Platinum and the dot sighted conversions running on my STI frame but once that was done they're rockin and rollin.

Jay G said...

I'm tending to lean towards the Ciener for the very simple reason that it's the cheapest one I've found. I need to find out of they make 10 round magazines for it, though - Midway only lists 15 rounders, and I have no desire to go to prison over a .22LR magazine...

Thanks for the testimonial. I'll be ordering something most likely next week...

Anonymous said...

I seriously debated a .22 conversion for my 1911.

For the money, I decided to get a dedicated pistol, and picked up a Ruger 22/45 last week.

Arthur said...

I just picked up a 22/45 as well.

Really nice gun and really great value for the money.

I've heard some have had feed problems, or problems field stripping it, but mine has swallowed every cheap bulk pack ammo I've thrown at it and comes apart and goes back together very easily.

Oh and nickle sized groups @ 25 yards using my porch railing as a rest is astonishing accuracy for me - with walmart federal bulk pack. :)

Jay G said...

Y'all aren't helping, you realize that, right?

:)

There will be another .22 auto-loader down the road. Probably 2 or 3, actually - a S&W Model 41 is in my future acquisitions once I can squirrel away the coin; and I'd love to pick up a stainless Ruger Mark III Hunter...

But I also want to get, at the very least, a conversion for the 1911 and maybe the G30. Centerfire guns shooting inexpensive rimfire ammo - what's not to love? All the practice time of dry-firing with the added bonus of actual shootin'...

Definitely want at least one kit before next winter...

OrangeNeckInNY said...

I paid $279.99 + tax for the conversion kit, and $399.99 + tax for the Buck Mark. In retrospect, I probably could have just done with the dedicated .22 pistol and left my 1911 alone.

TXGunGeek said...

I'll add that I have a couple actual .22 auto loaders. The conversion kits serve a different purpose. The Platinum with the fiber front sight and the one with the dot sight are so I can shoot my actual race guns without paying for the expensive ammo even though I do reload. Having the EXACT same grip, trigger and sight picture provide for step between dry fire and live full power fire that is a training tool to make me a better shooter for less cost.

The real .22's are play gun's for teaching and for others to shoot. I occasionally shoot them myself too.

Jay G said...

You hit ALL the reasons I want to get both a conversion (or two/three) *and* another dedicated .22LR pistol, TXGunGeek.

I have one .22LR autoloader right now, my S&W model 422. It has an inexpensive BSA red dot sight on it, and is a fun little plinker in its own right.

But I want something a little less finicky for teaching, as the .22LR autoloader is the second gun I have new shooters try out.

Guess I just have to keep an eye on Midway for the Ceiners when they come back into stock...

Either that or suck it up and go for the Kimber...