1911 .22

[FullMetalJacket]

I'm thinking about slapping a Cmore on one of those m+p victory pistols that just came out.

[Postal Bob]

I use a Kimber conversion on my all steel Kimber 1911 .45. This way I have the same lightened trigger, mag release, slide release, and grips. The gun is flawless using CCI mini mags. I use it in many action pistol 22 matches, and win. With an all steel frame, recoil is almost non-existent. Like stated though, the slide does not lock back on the last round. But for a competition pistol, that is something you don't need.

Btw, the correct term is magazines, not clips. Urgh!

[blacklab]

Scott, how did you add a thumb rest to your 22/45? Can you send a pic?

Postal Bob, when I type in mags, spell check lights it up in bright red and I'm too lazy to type magazines all the time. Its tough typing with one finger.

[chirpy]

The only problem I see with a conversion unit is it may not fit on any of your existing frames. I bought a match unit that will only fit on a frame that hasn't had frame to slide fitting! That is fine with me because the trigger is just about match quality and I don't use it for matches much.

Richard

[Steve RA]

If you want a complete gun as opposed to a conversion unit just get a S&W Model 41 in the barrel length you want and you'll be all set.

[KSwift]

The best complete factory gun is the Kimber Super grade.

A lot of folks throwing out complaints about the quality of "the Kimber" are talking about the conversion kits and not the actual full gun built by Kimber. Then on top of that, nearly everyone actually referring to an actual full Kimber are talking about the cheaper one; there are two full 22 1911s by Kimber, the Target grade and the Super grade. The only valid complaint in here is the weight, it is ridiculously light, the "toy-like" feel is a weird initial feeling but naturalizes quickly. The gun weight actually isn't that bad, the magazine weight is the really weird one, the mags are super light plastic, especially compared to the GSG-style metal ones. Never heard the breech face issue, but I also haven't burnt through more than a case of ammo yet.

The Super grade is now my "future heirloom" 22 pistol, and I've ditched lots of 22 pistols including all the ones named in this thread except the new S&W Vic. The price is way up there and this definitely isn't the best bang for the buck, but its the best, short of a semi-custom/custom.

But judging from the OP's responses, it doesn't sound like he's looking for a premium setup at all. Spend $180 and buy a used GSG 1911-22 or Kimber conversion kit, you'll be plenty happy and the money you save can go into "customizing", tuning and magazines. Do NOT buy a Chiappa-style, by far the worst 1911-22 ever. They're marketed under a couple different names but have an easily identifiable slide.

Edited February 1, 2016 by KSwift

[Hammerman]

I haven't seen anyone mention the walther/colt/umarex 1911 22. It's a good cheap 22 that runs on all the cheap 22's I've put in it so far. The slide stop isn't 1911, but all the trigger group, thumb and grip safety, grips, and msh are 1911 interchangeable.

I use it for practice because I can set it up just like my competition gun.

I would rate it better over the gsg, sig, or the Kimber. The only thing I've found is that the mag base plates break easily when dropped on hard surfaces.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Hammerman

[blacklab]

As of right now I'm leaning toward the Springfield lower with a Tactical solutions upper. The only reason I don't want to go with the Marvel upper is because it's made out of aluminum. The Tactical upper comes in at a little over 18oz. That would put it closer in weight to my 9mm. The Kimber super only comes in at 23oz. for the complete gun. I think that would be a little too light and I'm not sure if I could put the Nitro and Gun site on it. Nothing is written in stone yet, I'm still doing research.

Thanks for all the help so far, There's a lot of good info here.

[Bluemooncricket]

As of right now I'm leaning toward the Springfield lower with a Tactical solutions upper. The only reason I don't want to go with the Marvel upper is because it's made out of aluminum. The Tactical upper comes in at a little over 18oz. That would put it closer in weight to my 9mm. The Kimber super only comes in at 23oz. for the complete gun. I think that would be a little too light and I'm not sure if I could put the Nitro and Gun site on it. Nothing is written in stone yet, I'm still doing research.

Thanks for all the help so far, There's a lot of good info here.

I have a Tac Sol kit and while it is all steel and pretty nice, it feels like a super duper sloppy slide to frame fit while firing because the guide rod and barrel float. Nothing locks solidly to the frame like the Marvel and Nelson kits do. If I had the funds I would have already purchased the Nelson kit. The movement may not bother some people but it is a bit distracting to me while I'm shooting steel matches.

[v1911]

Also, if there is any work that needs to be performed on your Tac Sol, you have to send it back to them as they do not mail parts. And their mags cost as much as gold.

Do yourself a favor and call Larry at Nelson Custom Guns. Great guy to talk to. You'll have a great product and equally great CS should you need it. It may also be the only kit with last round open and the 2011 mags are also on sale for $30 a pop.

You won't regret it.

[BeerBaron]

I have a thumbrest on my 22/45 steel challenge gun. It's made by rim edge.

Feels pretty similar to my open gun.

[BeerBaron]

Might be easier to see in this pic:

Edited February 2, 2016 by BeerBaron

[BeerBaron]

I have to admit I've seen lots of guys running conversions on 1911 and 2011 frames choke a fair bit at sc matches.

Some ran great though. Ideally once I have my dedicated minor sc 2011 open gun I'd like to run a conversion on it for the rimfire sc match. It'll have to be reliable though.

I think a few of the issues I saw were mag related.

[zzt]

I RO at our 22 steel plate league. You get 2 10 round mags per run. 18 targets including stop plate. If you clear all targets youhave an opportunity to shoot at a 1" dia. bonus target worth a 5 second reduction if hit. Two runs with best time recorded. Best time so far is just under 7 seconds.

We see everything under the sun in this league from a custom 2011 with Tacsol upper to GSG's. We also see lots of failures.

Assuming your pistol or conversion functions properly, there are several things you can do to ensure success.

First is ammo. You want to use ammo that goes bang every time. That leaves out almost anything Federal makes, plus some others. Second, make sure your pistol likes the ammo, even when it's a little dirty. One failure to extract and you have no hope of winning.

If you use metal mags, tune them. High Standard shooters already know this, but every metal mag I've seen benefits from tuning, with the possible exception of GSG mags. Their design is such that they always hit base down.

Make sure every mag you have is clean and drops completely out of the pistol without assistance. If a metal mag, put a base plate on it. It's amazing how quickly a Ruger or Buckmark mag goes out of tune if you drop it on the feed lips. One misfeed and your time is hopeless.

BTW, there is nothing wrong with match chambers as long as you use ammo that works in them. My Hamerli pistol will put 10 rounds completely inside the diameter of a dime at 25 meters. It has a match chamber, yet it feeds CCI Standard ammo flawlessly. I've used it in this league and it runs perfectly.

[TJART]

I RO at our 22 steel plate league. You get 2 10 round mags per run. 18 targets including stop plate. If you clear all targets youhave an opportunity to shoot at a 1" dia. bonus target worth a 5 second reduction if hit. Two runs with best time recorded. Best time so far is just under 7 seconds.

We see everything under the sun in this league from a custom 2011 with Tacsol upper to GSG's. We also see lots of failures.

Assuming your pistol or conversion functions properly, there are several things you can do to ensure success.

First is ammo. You want to use ammo that goes bang every time. That leaves out almost anything Federal makes, plus some others. Second, make sure your pistol likes the ammo, even when it's a little dirty. One failure to extract and you have no hope of winning.

If you use metal mags, tune them. High Standard shooters already know this, but every metal mag I've seen benefits from tuning, with the possible exception of GSG mags. Their design is such that they always hit base down.

Make sure every mag you have is clean and drops completely out of the pistol without assistance. If a metal mag, put a base plate on it. It's amazing how quickly a Ruger or Buckmark mag goes out of tune if you drop it on the feed lips. One misfeed and your time is hopeless.

BTW, there is nothing wrong with match chambers as long as you use ammo that works in them. My Hamerli pistol will put 10 rounds completely inside the diameter of a dime at 25 meters. It has a match chamber, yet it feeds CCI Standard ammo flawlessly. I've used it in this league and it runs perfectly.

I got my son a GSG. He ran about 1k rounds of Blazer with about a 90%-ish cycle completion.

We went to a steel challenge this weekend and I bought the Federal 325 box... turned his GSG into a single shot. If anyone thinks I'm exaggerating, I have it on video. Was excruciating to watch.

[blacklab]

All this info has gotten a little over whelming. Before I jump into anything I think I might stick with my S&W 22a-1 for a while and see what I can borrow from other people at some matches. Before I drop a bunch of money on something, I'll see what's out there that is close to what I want and see how it shoots. I would like to try a 22/45 with a thumb rest, I didn't know they made them.

Thanks for all the help. I didn't know there was so many options or that it was going to be this involved.

[scottlep]

Hey Bob, I will send you a picture of the thumb rest I am using and then you can borrow my 22/45 if you want to try it. I originally had the RimEdge one but found it a bit small, then I made my own from an Arredondo thumb rest since it is similar to the size of the ones I have on my open and limited guns.

[CZinZA]

I RO at our 22 steel plate league. You get 2 10 round mags per run. 18 targets including stop plate. If you clear all targets youhave an opportunity to shoot at a 1" dia. bonus target worth a 5 second reduction if hit. Two runs with best time recorded. Best time so far is just under 7 seconds.

We see everything under the sun in this league from a custom 2011 with Tacsol upper to GSG's. We also see lots of failures.

Assuming your pistol or conversion functions properly, there are several things you can do to ensure success.

First is ammo. You want to use ammo that goes bang every time. That leaves out almost anything Federal makes, plus some others. Second, make sure your pistol likes the ammo, even when it's a little dirty. One failure to extract and you have no hope of winning.

If you use metal mags, tune them. High Standard shooters already know this, but every metal mag I've seen benefits from tuning, with the possible exception of GSG mags. Their design is such that they always hit base down.

Make sure every mag you have is clean and drops completely out of the pistol without assistance. If a metal mag, put a base plate on it. It's amazing how quickly a Ruger or Buckmark mag goes out of tune if you drop it on the feed lips. One misfeed and your time is hopeless.

BTW, there is nothing wrong with match chambers as long as you use ammo that works in them. My Hamerli pistol will put 10 rounds completely inside the diameter of a dime at 25 meters. It has a match chamber, yet it feeds CCI Standard ammo flawlessly. I've used it in this league and it runs perfectly.

I got my son a GSG. He ran about 1k rounds of Blazer with about a 90%-ish cycle completion.

We went to a steel challenge this weekend and I bought the Federal 325 box... turned his GSG into a single shot. If anyone thinks I'm exaggerating, I have it on video. Was excruciating to watch.

Yeah. Mine doesn't like Federal ammunition either. It likes Lapua though. I guess GSGs have expensive tastes

Sent by Jedi mind control

[Mpikomy]

I haven't seen anyone mention the walther/colt/umarex 1911 22. It's a good cheap 22 that runs on all the cheap 22's I've put in it so far. The slide stop isn't 1911, but all the trigger group, thumb and grip safety, grips, and msh are 1911 interchangeable.

I use it for practice because I can set it up just like my competition gun.

I would rate it better over the gsg, sig, or the Kimber. The only thing I've found is that the mag base plates break easily when dropped on hard surfaces.

This^

I ran one of these at the Northwest Regional ISSF match this year and had absolutely no problems at all. If you really want a 1911-style 22 pistol I would go with this one.

[blacklab]

I was looking at the Walther on GunBroker. The price is right, hopefully I can find someone that has one and try it out. That would make life a lot easer. Lighten the trigger, slap a C-more and thumb rest on it and done.

[zzt]

I just watched the take down and cleaning video for the Walther. Interesting design. Half 1911 and half not. Unfortunately it is distributed and warrantied by Umarex. If you are unfortunate enough to need service, you will be quoted months before they order and receive the part(s) you need, or they send your pistol out to someone who can actually repair it. In this case, if it is a 1911 part that breaks, you can buy the part and fix it yourself.

[Hammerman]

I just watched the take down and cleaning video for the Walther. Interesting design. Half 1911 and half not. Unfortunately it is distributed and warrantied by Umarex. If you are unfortunate enough to need service, you will be quoted months before they order and receive the part(s) you need, or they send your pistol out to someone who can actually repair it. In this case, if it is a 1911 part that breaks, you can buy the part and fix it yourself.

I broke the firing pin in mine after about 12,000 rounds. Probably dry fired it too much i guess. I called them up and ordered the part, along with all the springs for replacement and I had them in about 10 days. That wasn't too bad. I did try to order replacement base pads for the mags, but they wouldn't sell me those by itself. Also the roll pin that was holding the steel firing pin block in came out broken, which I was able to order a replacement for as well. For the price of the gun, I'm surprised how reliable it's been. I still have the stock ignition kit in mine, but I was able to get a 4lb, crisp trigger out of it by only replacing the sear spring.

[zzt]

Hammerman, you were more fortunate than I was. I wanted service on my Hammerli target pistol and was quoted 3 or 4 months.

I don't know what size the base of your mags are. Compare them to the base of a Buckmark mag. If the same or close, Allchin Gun Parts makes stick on bases that are attractive and add weight. They are Aluminum, so the won't break. He will have more of them in next week. He offers them in black and silver or all black.

[lawboy]

If you want a 1911 style .22 for steel challenge, build it on a 2011 frame. The reason is that the magazines for the 2011 frames are far superior. There are just 2-3 companies making them and they are very uniform in design and specifications. There are a lot variations of the old Colt Ace magazines out there as well as newer polymer magazines for the 1911 conversions and the result is FUBAR. The guns do not feed reliably enough for steel challenge. For plinking, sure. For hunting, sure. For Bullseye competition, eeeeeh ... maybe sometimes. For steel challenge absolutely not. I have had built guns on both platforms and I will sell my Marvel and Colt 1911 .22 magazines if you want them. I run a 2011 .22 now and it actually RUNS.

Edited February 4, 2016 by lawboy

[blacklab]

Lawboy, I seen a few companies offer a 2011 conversion kit with mag. From a financial point I thought a 2011 platform would be a little overkill for a designated .22. All though it would be a nice gun to have, that's another thing to put on the options list. Thanks for the idea.