TexasCHLforum.com

Academy has these on sale for 429.99. Does anybody have any experience with these? Comments?

Background: I don't have a 22 nor an AR - just looking for something to plink with and maybe shoot small varmits.

We have a blast with ours. I originally bought it for my 11 yr old son but the whole family gets a kick out of this one. Alot of fun in the AR platform with cheap ammo cost. Some have had problems that required sending the gun back to S&W but I have not had any after about 2000 rounds down the pipe. I put a cheap red dot reflex sight on it that works great. This is also our first AR platform longun. We have the one with the threaded barrel and flash hider installed. I dont' think Academy has these in stock yet at least in my area.

Let me know if you need any more info.

EyeToEye wrote:We have a blast with ours. I originally bought it for my 11 yr old son but the whole family gets a kick out of this one. Alot of fun in the AR platform with cheap ammo cost. Some have had problems that required sending the gun back to S&W but I have not had any after about 2000 rounds down the pipe. I put a cheap red dot reflex sight on it that works great. This is also our first AR platform longun. We have the one with the threaded barrel and flash hider installed. I dont' think Academy has these in stock yet at least in my area.

Let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks. I didn't realize that you could buy the threaded version now. There are lots of reviews lamenting the lack of threads - it looks like they shipped that after the non-threaded version. I think I'll try to find one of those.

S&W is selling the model with the flash hider now:

http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/ ... sFirearm=Y" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would definitely buy that over the standard version. Later in the year they will sell one with MAGPUL furniture installed (stock, grip, sights).

I picked up one with the flash suppressor today at McBrides. Neither Academy or Red's had that model; McBrides had several. I put about 75 rounds through it at 25 yards. I tried 50 yards, but realized that these 55 year old eyes just aren't up to that with the stock sights. Now I need to figure out what my options are for optics.

Congrats! You'll enjoy shooting it immensely.

Good to hear good things about this rifle. I wonder how it compares to a 22 conversion kit for a standard AR? If any of yall have experience with both, I'd love to hear the comparison.

aaronspuler wrote:Good to hear good things about this rifle. I wonder how it compares to a 22 conversion kit for a standard AR? If any of yall have experience with both, I'd love to hear the comparison.

My question exactly. Also, what type of lowers do they have. Is it a standard .223/5.56 (and able to be converted to said upper)? or is it a dedicated .22 lower? Thanks.

It is a dedicated .22 lower with a polymer upper. The good thing about this gun is that the bolt catch actually works so this would be a good rifle to learn the AR weapon system without breaking the bank. I'm thinking about getting one of these as well, but I also want to get a glock 19. Which one shall I choose???

In the course of my research, I found a review/article that explained why it was superior to an AR-22 conversion. Alas, I tried to find it the other night and after 30 minutes of searching, gave up.

IIRC, these were some of the major points:
1. Cost - especially if you haven't already got an AR15 to convert
2. .22LR is a little bit smaller that .223
3. The twist on 223 is quite a bit different than on 22

Based on his testing, he argued that 2&3 were why the gun was more accurate than a conversion.
I hope this makes sense - I know next to nothing about AR's. #1 was enough reason for me. I wanted to add a 22 rifle to my collection and this was an opportunity to also get some experience with AR type guns. And the fact that it looks cool didn't hurt either.