Help me spec out dedicated AR22 upper

[55fairlane]

Ok all, I need your help suggesting what parts from who for my build.
I am a high power competitive shooter, both service rifle and match rifle, but clueless on an AR22.
I am currently shooting a hand me down Chiappa m4-22 , all parts swapped into an Anderson sport upper & 2 inch round hand gaurd.
Last Saturday while getting some practice in for rimfire sporter, my bolt assembly failed, again. I have another new assembly on order,hoping the assembly shows up in time for Camp Perry.
So with that being said, I am looking to build another dedicated AR22 upper. We have a 7½ pound weight limit on our guns, so ordering a compass lake or rock river is out the question. Plus a don't have another $1000 to drop on the upper.
Barrel needs to be light weight like an m4 profile
So, who's stuff ? What magazine? What ammo do you have good results with?

I will stuff it all in a "slick side" upper (no forward assist, no dust cover, no deflector) another round 2 inch hand gaurd, drop it on my rock river lower, and have my rimfire match rifle.

 

[Whisky Tahoe Foxtrot]

Well one thing (actually two things) is the bore diameter and twist rate.
22 LRs like .220 bores with 1:16 twist

Shooting with a conversion kit in your AR lets you shoot cheaper ammo but not necessarily as accurate as a purpose built rifle. If you can get a $130 22LR semi auto like a Rossi to shoot better than a conversion kit in an AR, what is the point? Only you can decide that. Practicing with your AR configuration is what a conversion kit is great at.

Ok, three things...Ammo
For competition, the 22LR ammo can be the deciding factor. It you plan to shoot with Tenex, you will want the best components. You can get away with a lot cheaper ammo and components if your goals aren't as challenging as 22LR benchrest.

Borebuddy.com has a lot of cool components for improving reliability and potentially accuracy with "AR"22 style builds.

 

[68Hoyt]

Right to bear has cmmg and RTB ( cmmg made ) parts
Keystone Accuracy takes green mountain blanks and contours them how you want , they use a modified cmmg bolt , the ones I’ve read about are accurate
all above use black dog mags
How much accuracy do you want and how much do you want to spend ?

 

[68Hoyt]

And how close do you want it to mail your match rifle ?

 

[68Hoyt]

FYI ,,,,,,There are some compass lake parts to build an upper in the classifieds

 

[Jeff Porter]

Keystone .22 GreenMountain Rimfire barrel with the CMMG bolt using Black Dog mags and SV ammo of some flavor ( mine prefers SK std or CCI SV) will clean the MR31 at 100 yards in my SR/22 made to match my SR. Spend the money and get one from John. You won’t be disappointed.


Edit to add .re read your OP. You probably won’t be able to make Rimfire sporter weight and match your highpower rig and this will be about $900. Get a tricked out 10/22 for Rimfire sporter, if you want a smallbore quality HighPower trainer, get the Keystone upper.

 

[Cemetery21]

I got lucky with a PSA rimfire barrel. It has the profile you want.
I built it just to have a plinker, but it shoots CCI SV into 3/4" groups at 50 yards.
Looks like the upper is out of stock right now and I don't see just a barrel/bolt listed.

https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-16-22-lr-1-16-nitride-13-5-m-lok-upper-with-bcg-ch3.html

or https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa...-15-lightweight-m-lok-upper-with-bcg-ch4.html

 

[jelenko]

Keystone .22 GreenMountain Rimfire barrel with the CMMG bolt using Black Dog mags and SV ammo of some flavor ( mine prefers SK std or CCI SV) will clean the MR31 at 100 yards in my SR/22 made to match my SR. Spend the money and get one from John. You won’t be disappointed.


Edit to add .re read your OP. You probably won’t be able to make Rimfire sporter weight and match your highpower rig and this will be about $900. Get a tricked out 10/22 for Rimfire sporter, if you want a smallbore quality HighPower trainer, get the Keystone upper.

++ on the Keystone 22 upper. Feeds from a mag reliably.
One was used to win a state 22 prone match.

 

[kzin]

Rimfire Sporter accuracy requirements are not extreme.
7.5# with a 6x scope is very light.
Any light profile 16" 22lr barrel you find should be ok.
Then buy the bolt that matches the barrel.

 

[Ksmirk]

I should have the last part at my house this afternoon per the tracking, I went with RTB bolt and upper, found a CMMG M4 barrel but how it shoots I've got nothing just yet. I can't say enough good things about RTB as they were rather helpful with questions even tried to help me get barrel specs from CMMG if all goes well I'll let you know how it works but it's whole meaning in life is plinking around.

I will say that some of the stuff is kinda hard to come by.

Kirk

 

[55fairlane]

And how close do you want it to mail your match rifle ?

I am not looking to build a rimfire clone of my service rifle or my match rifle

 

[55fairlane]

FYI ,,,,,,There are some compass lake parts to build an upper in the classifieds

Of course, I'm a little short of his asking price....but that's OK, I would need to turn the barrel to reduce weight

 

[55fairlane]

I should have the last part at my house this afternoon per the tracking, I went with RTB bolt and upper, found a CMMG M4 barrel but how it shoots I've got nothing just yet. I can't say enough good things about RTB as they were rather helpful with questions even tried to help me get barrel specs from CMMG if all goes well I'll let you know how it works but it's whole meaning in life is plinking around.

I will say that some of the stuff is kinda hard to come by.

Kirk

Keep me posted.....I'm interested in your results

 

[55fairlane]

Keystone .22 GreenMountain Rimfire barrel with the CMMG bolt using Black Dog mags and SV ammo of some flavor ( mine prefers SK std or CCI SV) will clean the MR31 at 100 yards in my SR/22 made to match my SR. Spend the money and get one from John. You won’t be disappointed.


Edit to add .re read your OP. You probably won’t be able to make Rimfire sporter weight and match your highpower rig and this will be about $900. Get a tricked out 10/22 for Rimfire sporter, if you want a smallbore quality HighPower trainer, get the Keystone upper.

Keystone is a little more money then I currently have & I don't like 10-22's ....

 

[55fairlane]

Rimfire Sporter accuracy requirements are not extreme.
7.5# with a 6x scope is very light.
Any light profile 16" 22lr barrel you find should be ok.
Then buy the bolt that matches the barrel.

No you don't need extreme accuracy, but why not get the best you can afford.....

 

[Twdmar]

I have a couple cmmg carbines and a keystone service upper. The keystone is a laser and the cmmgs work well. If you don't want to spend a lot of money, get whatever right to bear for a volt and get a barrel. Then get any cheap upper and cheap handguard.

 

[kzin]

No you don't need extreme accuracy, but why not get the best you can afford.....

You don't want to pay a grand for a custom upper.
Doesn't look like anybody sees much difference in the lower priced stuff.
With current supply you may not have every possible choice actually available.

I have a model 1 pencil barrel. It's plenty accurate for RS.
They're really pissing me off by not having replacement firing pins in stock ever, though.

 

[nilebartram]

Can not go wrong with Compass Lake!

 

[Ksmirk]

Well the 2nd outing with the CMMG dedicated upper was a success I'll have to say.... just a hint that rimfire and reduced power hammer springs don't play well together hence the 2nd outing lol I didn't have a scope on it since well I've other 22LR's for when I feel like being picky about where the bullets go BUT I'll have to admit I was a bit impressed with the accuracy using a red dot.

I got the bolt and upper from RTB and picked up a 16" M4 barrel from E. Arthur Brown as RTB was backordered and I got a bit itchy to get it out and some CMMG 25rd. mags...... never could get 25rd. in the one I had at the range but 20rd. were just fine, had a couple of rounds not torch off but they did the second time around but mainly Eley HV??? the CCI Std. and some RWS target seemed to work just fine. Overall ran about 250 rounds and was tickled!

The bottom 2 targets were at 25 yards with a red dot off bipod and CCI Std. 5 shots each and yipper the one on the left had a brain fart low hit I tried a bit harder on the right one! the others were when I was zeroing in. So hope that gets you the questions answered you were after 55fairlane, pretty sure with a scope I'd have been better BUT I'm pretty happy.