[Chicken Shoot]

Ok .. after seeing the S&W MP15/22 for sale on here and wishing I could win the lotto, I noticed a post where someone said they just purchased an upper for $300. Now ... that has me wondering if this S&W can be turned into a regular .223 AR?? I was not aware of that if that's true. Can someone please tell me more about these guns? Have I been mislead in believing these are only .22LR capable with no swapping of parts?? This is just a .22 designed to look like an AR correct?

 

[llink78]

that was prob me. i own a bushmaster ar15 and picked up a dedicated .22 upper made by ATI. so you remove your .223 upper replace with the .22 complete upper, use my black dog .22 mags and start shooting for way cheaper

 

[llink78]

and yes most lowers are multi caliber

 

[Chicken Shoot]

and yes most lowers are multi caliber

Really ... now this makes me think of buying one of these AR based .22's then. I mean .. if I owned an AR, I would definitely convert it to .22LR anyway due to the cost of the ammo, so why not just start with it in .22 and build it from there. Is this the same lower that is used on the centerfire S&W? I was just on S&W's site and can't find this info.

 

[llink78]

as far as i know starting with the S&W .22 is good, i might be wrong though.

 

[llink78]

looking on there website real quick it looks like the S&W lower is made out of a plastic of some sort. not sure if a .223 would shred that lower at some point since most .223 lowers are all metal. your prob better off starting with a ar15 .223 and buying either a .22 upper after or getting the .22 conversion with replaces the bolt and mag.

 

[PA Guns & Ammo]

I thought I read somewhere that the S&W 15-22 lowers have different pin spacing and the magwell is smaller than that of an AR15 so that is why you can only use S&W 15-22 mags for it. So your basically stuck with a 15-22.

James

 

[llink78]

so best option is an AR15 with a .22 upper. the S&W .22 ar seems very limited

 

[PA Guns & Ammo]

so best option is an AR15 with a .22 upper. the S&W .22 ar seems very limited

AR15.com has a crapload of info. That is where I read about the 15-22. The main reason why I did not buy one is that you are stuck with 10 round magazines since no other magazine will fit not even pre-ban conversion mags. You can get magazines that hold more than 10 rounds for the 15-22 but they are post-ban. Your best bet is to use an AR15 lower with a dedicated .22 upper. You will have two guns rather than being stuck with one.

James

 

[llink78]

what i did, can't wait to go shoot it this Saturday. picked up 100 rounds of remmington high velocity 36g HP ammo. if it works well with one or none failures i will be ordering 5000 rounds.

 

[jmpaolic]

I have a 15-22. It's one my favorite guns....it goes with me to the range every single time....shoot the Stag, shoot the 15-22. I would definitely recommend one! Just nice to have a dedicated .22 platform rather then switching uppers at the range. IMO.

No way can you put a .223 upper on them. Pin spacing, may well size and if you get one and open it up...the buffer tube is just for looks....it's solid. No spring, no buffer. The lower and buffer tube are all one piece....of polymer....doesn't feel cheep though...."plastic" sounds cheep.

Still a fine firearm, I have prolly 3,000 rounds through mine and I can remember maybe one hiccup. Yes the 10 round mags are a bitch but I bought 5 that helped a little.

 

[jmpaolic]

That being said I wouldn't pay more than $400-$500 for one, and it's prolly only worth $350 but i think you pay for a "cool" factor in the price. I see guys askin $500-$650...that's just crazy.

 

[WarrenDee]

That being said I wouldn't pay more than $400-$500 for one, and it's prolly only worth $350 but i think you pay for a "cool" factor in the price. I see guys askin $500-$650...that's just crazy.

And what exactly, aside from the cool factor, makes these better than the 10/22? just curious. seems to me to be an awful lot of money for a .22. now if they had in 22 mag, I'd be interested.

 

[jmpaolic]

It is alot of $$ for a .22LR. But if AR's are what you like then you might be willing to fork over $200 more than a 10/22 (it is as accuarate as a 10/22 As far as I can tell). The OP did not ask for a comparison to a 10/22. He wanted to know the logistics of the 15-22

 

[Chicken Shoot]

what i did, can't wait to go shoot it this Saturday. picked up 100 rounds of remmington high velocity 36g HP ammo. if it works well with one or none failures i will be ordering 5000 rounds.

Let me know how that Remington ammo works for you. I can't run it in anything I have now because it's so dirty it screws up the action. (in the semi's anyways) With that said, I thank you all so far for the info. I wasn't really sure what you could do with this gun. Do I think it's better than other .22's?? Well ... I don't know. I have seen one at the comp shoots that a guy uses on occasion and it seems to be one heck of an accurate gun!! Of course he's running it in the scoped class and he's a heck of a shooter and he's added weight to it, but it's holding it's own. I really don't care about the cool factor, but I do find them interesting since all I own are competition .22's and collectible ones as well. All of this info is a great help and I'm not scratching it of the list of guns to buy anytime soon.

 

[llink78]

the main reason i own the .22 upper instead of using say a 10/22 is to practice with my AR and get use to everything. nothing like shooting off the same platform for a 1/8 of the cost as shooting the .223 i guess i don't like change

 

[Les]

I'm going to go the dedicated upper route. Guess I'll have to order a new one as I can't find a used one that anyone will part with. I'm going DPMS when I buy.

 

[Chicken Shoot]

I'm going to go the dedicated upper route. Guess I'll have to order a new one as I can't find a used one that anyone will part with. I'm going DPMS when I buy.

This is the route I'll go as well when I get up the funds for the AR15. Keeping the ammo cost down is a good thing.

 

[pmills]

I bought a cmmg dedicated 22 upper, about $330 shipped, if i make it postban, pin and weld a brake on it, and trim the bayo lug i can put it on any lower i have, all in i'd be around 540-570 (assuming i buy the parts and put the lower together) not counting the cost to pin and weld the brake. Right now i use it on a pre-ban lower.

So i ended up paying about 1-150 more than a S&w 15/22 but have a more versatile rifle, i also noticed when i picked up a 15/22 that they are very light,

 

[DannyDifalco]

NO you cannot turn the M&P 15-22 into a REAL AR. The lower receiver it all cheap polymer and it has no real buffer tube. The fire control group is totally different too. Just buy the M&P 15 slick side for $600