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Good quality AR-15 dedicated .22 LR Upper?

B

Bangarang

NRA Life Member
Full Member
Minuteman
Jun 6, 2013
179
46
NH
Can someone recommend who makes a good quality .22 LR dedicated upper for AR-15s?

By quality I mean with an accurate barrel, as well as functionally reliable, and without pot-metal or plastic receiver parts. A reliable quality mag would also be important.

I've read up on the CMMGs and they have mixed reviews.

Thanks, B
 
What is your accuracy expectation?

Nordic, their DPMS cousins and Tactical Solutions are all very popular. TACCOM seems to have a pretty good following too.

Or you can spend a lot of $$$ and get a Compass Lake.
 
I would like to try out JP's upper in 22lr, they look good and I'm sure they shoot if their name is on it.
 
I bought a custom 22LR upper from MGPCustoms:
Home Page
This target was shot at 100 yards with some swirling winds, probably 5-8 knots.
The dots are 3/4" and I was shooting off of a bare wood block in front, and a sandbag in the rear.

MGP used some of the CMMG parts, but machined the barrel so that I would not need the brass extension bushing. Therefore this is a dedicated upper. The only thing it needs is for the ammo supply to improve...

 
Last edited:
Get a CLE (Compass Lake Engineering) Upper. Not inexpensive, but you pay for what you get. You will not be disappointed.
 
This is my CMMG based dedicated .22lr. Solid, accurate, eats everything. This is a cmmg bolt group and .22lr barrel, everything else is hand picked AR components. The only negative (and it's a simple fix) is the cmmg bolt group has a plastic forward assist block in them now that gets hung up and causes the bolt to stick back. Just remove it or don't ever run it...problem solved. (These pics have a pmag in it because it was handy) The blackdog mags run great.
IMAG0662.jpg

IMAG0665.jpg
 
I run a 20" cmmg a4 upper with a national match carry handle to simulate my service rifle. It's a good training device, but it's not going to win any accuracy awards.
 
I have the complete cmmg dedicated .22lr upper and it has been a good upper. The only ammo that it didn't like (just have to run the bcg wet and it worked fine) was Remington ammo. Otherwise me and boys shoot it a lot and hard! It has been gtg for us!!
 
c1steve said:
I bought a custom 22LR upper from MGPCustoms:
Home Page
This target was shot at 100 yards with some swirling winds, probably 5-8 knots.
The dots are 3/4" and I was shooting off of a bare wood block in front, and a sandbag in the rear.

MGP used some of the CMMG parts, but machined the barrel so that I would not need the brass extension bushing. Therefore this is a dedicated upper. The only thing it needs is for the ammo supply to improve...

Click to expand...

Damn for a .22 at 100yds that is pretty respectable especially a semi.
 
I run a JP 22 upper, and LOVE it, accurate, reliable, and it oozes quality. I've sold a bunch of other 22's since I got it, because it's the only 22 rifle I ended up shooting. I have only ran Black Dog mags with it. The gun digests every type of ammo I put through it.
 
I own a pair of the DPMS 22lr uppers, just like the one that someone posted earlier in this thread. they both shoot very well, grouping 1/2" at 50 yards very consistently with CCI SV ammo. that is a fond memory because that ammo is no longer available here and I feel lucky to find any kind of 22 ammo at a decent price. I have put lots of federal value pack, winchester 555, and federal automatch through it since the SV ran out, the accuracy is poor with this stuff, running more than an inch at 50 yds. the only bright spot is that the upper is super reliable. it has had rare misfires, but examining the cartridge after a safe period of time shows that the firing pin has indented the rim properly, so it was definitely an ammo issue. I haven't tried any of the higher end ammo because it is out of my league with the amount of shooting I like to do. the downside of the DPMS upper is that they do not support spare parts for this unit, because I wanted to have spares for myself up here in Canada. no firing pin, recoil spring, extractor, or ejector was available the last time I checked. the DPMS unit is basically a Nordic receiver/bolt set with a DPMS 22lr barrel. it isn't top shelf, but it is a very good value.
 
I had a Spikes on top of a Bushmaster lower. Had to play with the hammer spring to get it to run correctly. I decided I wanted the Bushy lower for another build so I completed a 80 polymer lower and built a dedicated 22 with the Spikes upper as the heart of the weapon. It's fairly accurate and works perfect with Black Dog magazines. I got it tuned now that it will run standard velocity 22 ammo in warm weather. Very quite that way. The rifle will not run reliably on standard Vel. ammo in cool or cold weather unless I feed it high velocity ammo. But these uppers are meant to run HV 22 ammo so that's not really a fault of the rifle. I'd love to convert it to 17 Mach 2 and be able to reach out and get the tree rats and blue jays at farther ranges. The little bastards know to stand off now, LOL.
 
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