...I've had a 22lr conversion kit for my ARs a long time. Great idea but never could get it to work reliably so it's been gathering dust. Recently I was digging through my box of AR parts and ran across a 9" bbl I had cut down to use on an AR pistol. I could never get it to run properly with 5.56/223 ammo so it's been gathering dust as well.
So I set it aside then got distracted with something else and came across my conversion kit. Kinda had an Ah-Ha! moment. Why not fit/use the conversion kit with the barrel on an AR pistol? Dug out an old upper and an old Hogue free floating handguard. The handguard is old school 80's vintage.
So I mounted the barrel and handguard on the old upper (actually an upper with the top ground off it, no rail, no handle no sights) as proof of concept. The conversion kit is blow back operated so it doesn't use/need a gas block. I then put that on one of my pistol lowers.
I loaded up some mags and tested them on my 22 bullet trap in the basement. The first shots jammed but I squirted some Breakfree in it and got is running better than ever. It's not perfect but it runs better than it did in my full sized ARs.
Now that I proved it will work, I'll mount the bbl on a flattop railed upper. The barrel comes just to the end of the handguard without a flash hider on it. Going to have to dig out a flash hider for it. The blue tape is just to distinguish it as a 22 at a glance.
