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AR 22 LR upper scope?

david walter

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Jul 22, 2007
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Out west, but not too far west
I have two (PSA and Bear Creek) uppers in 22LR that are surprisingly accurate at 50 yards. I want to put a suitable scope on one for plinking past 200 yards.

Suggestions?

Also, lightweight scope for a lightweight 10/22? With some type of drop compensating reticle? Mostly for hunting.
 
Any base type PRS scopes would be more than enough, say something like a Vortex Diamondback Tactical x6-24. Guess it depends on your budget and how much you want the info available to use inside the scope/reticle and how small the targets might be.
 
I have two (PSA and Bear Creek) uppers in 22LR that are surprisingly accurate at 50 yards. I want to put a suitable scope on one for plinking past 200 yards.

Suggestions?

Also, lightweight scope for a lightweight 10/22? With some type of drop compensating reticle? Mostly for hunting.
I’m trying to copy the handling and distance abilities of my bolt guns, thus I went with a Strike Eagle 5-25X56 on the AR conversion.
IMG_6405.jpeg
 
I have an M&P 15-22 that was setup with a RDS/Reflex sight and magnifier to mimic my other caliber AR rifles. My wife loves the 15-22, probably because it's so light. But she's always said she wished she had a duplex reticle and more magnification than the 3x. And I'd like to get her into bolt guns (mostly to save ammo by slowing her down). So when I saw a deal on a Vortex Diamondback HP 4-16x42 I jumped on it. Its got side focus too! It's mounted but she hasn't seen it yet. I'll surprise her the next time she tags along on Range Day.
 
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We use 3 different setups from Vortex from cheapest to most expensive:

Diamondback Tactical 4-16x44 in a 30moa mount
Venom 5-25x56 in a 30moa mount
Strike eagle 3-18x44 in a 30+moa mount

All work great out past 300.
 
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I strongly recommend a parallax adjustable scope that can get under 25 yards. Non-adjustable scopes are often set well beyond typical 22LR ranges. And many adjustable scopes have minimums too far out as well.
 
Trying to keep it under $500
If you prefer to NOT buy Chinesium scopes at that price, and If you can up your budget just slightly (to $569) for something that is made in the Philippines and has real Japanese ED glass and a lifetime forever warranty by a company based here in the USA...

This is what I recommend...

 
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What kind of upper is that? That's solid! It doesn't look janky like most .22LR AR uppers. Are you running a can, or is the barrel just that big in diameter? What's the specs?
Its a 9mm upper with cross machine tool 17 inch arca rail, 18 inch m40 profile 1/14 twist ar blank machined to accept to the carrier and bolt, chambered for eley contact, barrel is tucked inside the rail just enough to hide it and protect it, but it gets ran with the can 100% of the time.

20231219_225242.jpg
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Its a 9mm upper with cross machine tool 17 inch arca rail, 18 inch m40 profile 1/14 twist ar blank machined to accept to the carrier and bolt, chambered for eley contact, barrel is tucked inside the rail just enough to hide it and protect it, but it gets ran with the can 100% of the time.

View attachment 8322457View attachment 8322458
Who makes the receiver and .22LR conversion kit you used? Does it use standard AR barrels & nuts?
 
Upper receiver is a 9mm rock river upper, and its a ar15 barrel blank machined to work with the barrel nut and cmmg kit, the black your seeing is the barrel itself.View attachment 8322462
Who did the barrel & nut build? I'm curious because this interests me into possibly building something using a similar upper. I found that Arms Republic makes a billet 9mm upper receiver that is damn-near identical in design to that one, and for a reasonable price. Did you just use the CMMG kit minus the front piece that normally fits into a .223 barrel, or did you have to do any mods to it?
 
Who did the barrel & nut build? I'm curious because this interests me into possibly building something using a similar upper. I found that Arms Republic makes a billet 9mm upper receiver that is damn-near identical in design to that one, and for a reasonable price. Did you just use the CMMG kit minus the front piece that normally fits into a .223 barrel, or did you have to do any mods

Who did the barrel & nut build? I'm curious because this interests me into possibly building something using a similar upper. I found that Arms Republic makes a billet 9mm upper receiver that is damn-near identical in design to that one, and for a reasonable price. Did you just use the CMMG kit minus the front piece that normally fits into a .223 barrel, or did you have to do any mods to it?
A local SOT to me did all the barrel work and put the upper together, the forend had to have the anti rotation tabs ground off to work with the upper because the 9mm uppers are thicker up front, but the ejection port is the perfect size to prevent rounds getting back in the action. Its a standard cmmg kit just without the adapter or collar for use with a 223 chamber. The carrier rails just lock into the barrel. He showed me the first one he built and ran last year at matches and I was impressed with the idea of it for a trainer because I shoot alot of gas gun matches with centerfire and over the last few years got into rimfire and this allows me to shoot more matches and get good training in. It has the same trigger, grip, and stock as my center fire match rifle and the same rail so it works perfectly. He's started to make more of them if
 
A local SOT to me did all the barrel work and put the upper together, the forend had to have the anti rotation tabs ground off to work with the upper because the 9mm uppers are thicker up front, but the ejection port is the perfect size to prevent rounds getting back in the action. Its a standard cmmg kit just without the adapter or collar for use with a 223 chamber. The carrier rails just lock into the barrel. He showed me the first one he built and ran last year at matches and I was impressed with the idea of it for a trainer because I shoot alot of gas gun matches with centerfire and over the last few years got into rimfire and this allows me to shoot more matches and get good training in. It has the same trigger, grip, and stock as my center fire match rifle and the same rail so it works perfectly. He's started to make more of them if
If he's interested in making more of these barrels that are pre-cut and headspaced to use the CMMG kit, and these billet 9mm uppers (doing a lot of research tonight, I like the Arms Republic ones because they're available and affordable) and a nice quality barrel (with 1:9 twist for subsonics) I'd be interested in buying one... Not sure if they are the same specs (for headspacing) as the RRA upper you have, but if he was willing, I'd even be willing to buy the upper, CMMG kit, and handguard, and send it all to him to have it fitted and headspaced, and tell him the barrel specs I'm looking for.
 
This was not a cheap upper due to handguard choice and his time, I would maybe take a look Bore Buddys uppers and see if those maybe fit your use criteria? If not then I can contact him about making more, I wish I had bought all the rock river uppers they had when they were on sale. He obtains the blanks, machines them and then you'd have source everything else. They can be done on a regular upper but the 9mm upper really is the way to go. Also the ammo you want it chambered for. How far away from southwest Virginia are you?
 
This was not a cheap upper due to handguard choice and his time, I would maybe take a look Bore Buddys uppers and see if those maybe fit your use criteria? If not then I can contact him about making more, I wish I had bought all the rock river uppers they had when they were on sale. He obtains the blanks, machines them and then you'd have source everything else. They can be done on a regular upper but the 9mm upper really is the way to go. Also the ammo you want it chambered for. How far away from southwest Virginia are you?
Yeah, I know the routine. I build all my own AR's and source parts for all my bolt-action builds before taking them to my local smith. He's not much into AR's or rimfires, so that's why I wouldn't ask him to do that. I really like the looks of the 9mm upper, plus, the smaller port is a plus for keeping out debris, and brass from flipping back around into the port. A Bentz Match chamber is really all that's necessary, since I shoot CCI SV. No, I'm pretty long ways from VA.
 
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Yeah, I know the routine. I build all my own AR's and source parts for all my bolt-action builds before taking them to my local smith. He's not much into AR's or rimfires, so that's why I wouldn't ask him to do that. I really like the looks of the 9mm upper, plus, the smaller port is a plus for keeping out debris, and brass from flipping back around into the port. A Bentz Match chamber is really all that's necessary, since I shoot CCI SV. No, I'm pretty long ways from VA.
BoreBuddy has a good selection of Bentz chambered barrels available. 1:12" twist for the heavier bullets.
 
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A local SOT to me did all the barrel work and put the upper together, the forend had to have the anti rotation tabs ground off to work with the upper because the 9mm uppers are thicker up front, but the ejection port is the perfect size to prevent rounds getting back in the action. Its a standard cmmg kit just without the adapter or collar for use with a 223 chamber. The carrier rails just lock into the barrel. He showed me the first one he built and ran last year at matches and I was impressed with the idea of it for a trainer because I shoot alot of gas gun matches with centerfire and over the last few years got into rimfire and this allows me to shoot more matches and get good training in. It has the same trigger, grip, and stock as my center fire match rifle and the same rail so it works perfectly. He's started to make more of them if
Keystone Accuracy1.jpg

Without the chamber adapter or collar, then your barrel must look like this right? This is one of my Keystone Accuracy builds. It's interesting that someone else has taken the time do this level of machining. There is much discussion about the collars but I like NOT having one more piece moving around inside the receiver at the barrel-breech/bolt interface.
 
View attachment 8336629
Without the chamber adapter or collar, then your barrel must look like this right? This is one of my Keystone Accuracy builds. It's interesting that someone else has taken the time do this level of machining. There is much discussion about the collars but I like NOT having one more piece moving around inside the receiver at the barrel-breech/bolt interface.
Your extractor cut looks a little different, yeah the idea of one less peice moveing around was the idea, trying to squeeze as much accuracy out of this thing as I can.
 

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