I thought some of you would be interested in a 22lr review. From the get go I will apologize as this will pretty well just give you an idea of it's performance. Not Really a few review.
I bought the spikes because it is electroless nickel and I figured it would be easier to polish on than a matte black model offered by the other companies. From what I understand all of these little conversions are similar if not Identical to one another. It has a small rubber o ring cut into the end to act like a chamber plug and reduce blow by into the action as well. I believe spikes is the only one with the o ring.
I got black dog mags, which are supposed to be the best. I did not follow the manufacturers directions of light oil as I wanted to create some wear marks for a guide to polish it up. So I run 2 mags full and of coarse jams every 3 or 4 rounds due to no oil.
I take apart and hit all of the friction marks with a dremel cotton wheel and polishing compound. Give her a good light slick down on the moving parts. I also polish up the piece that goes into the chamber shaped like a 223 casing. I read reviews online that powder fouling will make the mouth want to lodge in the chamber. So hopefully slicker metal will prevent this. The surface of the conversion appears to be bead blasted.
Well cycling is flawless. With the ammo scare I couldn't find the manufacturer recommended Federal cheap rounds so went with some cheap Rem Hi Vel. Every round cycles well, but they do advise to let the parts break in, which was why I dremelled them to aid in that process. After about 5 mags I swapped to sub sonics and they ran well with the other included spring. Did not run well with the heavier spring that came in it. But no jams with the lighter included spring and low velocity ammo.
This conversion utilizes your .224 barrel. The 22lr is smaller in diameter than 22, I think it is .218. At any rate this is not a match gun. You can practice or hunt but don't expect a tack driver. I have no magnification with a dot. Informal groups resting against a vertical beam to my porch were the averages that follow at 50 yards. Rem 40 gr hi vel ammo 2.05". Rem sub sonic 40 gr 1.6". PMC sub sonic 36 gr 1.3". Aquilla sniper sub sonic 60 gr 1.4".
None of those groups are bad by any means. That is actually better than a stock 10-22 and adequate for hunting or practice.
It takes a few seconds to pop the rear pin, take the bolt out and add the new rimfire conversion with the factory charging handle in place and button it back up. The mags fit just like the centerfire mags. The bolt hold open and forward assist do not work on the rimfire. The only problem I ran into was I had a reduced power hammer spring. I had to put the stock poundage spring back in so the hammer had enough force to shoot the rimfire rounds. This kicked my trigger pull up to about 5 lbs. But I can live with that to save money shooting. If you search around a bit you can find good deals on them with more than one magazine included.
http://www.spikestactical.com/z/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=72_75&products_id=176
