Advantage Arms 1911 .22lr Commander Conversion Kit

[Jason_G]

So I bought an Advantage Arms .22 lr Commander kit for my '08 Dan Wesson Commander Bobtail, which is my carry weapon. I figured that it would allow me to shoot a higher volume of rounds (.45 ain't cheap anymore), while keeping the trigger and nuances of my carry weapon's lower half.

The kit set me back about $235 + shipping (about another $12).

It has black serrated Kensight adjustable sights, with a fairly tall front post. Although not on their website, I have seen some of these kits with threaded barrels, so my guess is that they use one set of sights for all of their kits, and they have to be tall enough to "see over" the can on the supressable kits. These sights barely fit in my Milt Sparks Summer Special II, so they may be a no-go for kydex/plastic holsters that don't have a very tall sight channel. There is a steel insert in the aluminum slide that allows the slide to lock back when empty, which is not a function that is present on some .22 conversions, and it's something I really wanted, since this will be a trainer, not a target pistol. The magazine is plastic, except for a metal insert on the follower that engages the slide stop when the mag runs dry. The magazine seems to be of good construction, but I was slightly disappointed to see that they do not drop free. They have a rough texture though, so maybe with some use, they may start to drop free. I'm tempted to put a little sandpaper to them. There is a card in the kit that states not to use certain brands of ammo, such as Federal, or Remington Thunderbolt. It goes on to state that Rem Golden Bullet, CCI Minimags, and a few others are recommended. It also states not to dry fire.

While I was waiting for the kit, I was really concerned that the slide wouldn't cycle because, as some of you may know, on a bobtailed MSH, the mainspring is not the conventional MS you find on a government or commander model, because they are too long. The MS on a bobtail is usually a 23# officer model spring, and that's the case with the DW CBOB. Knowing that at one time for these kits, it was SOP to swap out the MS on government and commander models, which usually range from 18.5# to 20#, to an 18# or 17# spring to allow proper cycling made me worry that I'd be doing mainspring swaps every time I wanted to run the kit, since I am running a 23# spring. I had even decided I would just buy a dedicated MSH with a lighter spring in it, to make the swap faster.

My second concern was that the slide to frame fit might be either too tight for the slide to fit, or on the other hand, sloppy loose. I was prepared to buy a slide file in case it was the former, and was praying that it wasn't the latter.

Well, I am pleased to say that neither of these concerns were necessary. The kit went on the frame (fit was great) and ran 36 gr Remington Golden Bullet HPs with no cycling issues whatsoever. I didn't even oil the frame rails, because I wanted to see this kit at its worst lube-wise, so I would know what sort of malf's to expect. Nada. Ran great. The only hiccup that I had seemed to be mag related (or maybe operator error, not ensuring that the rounds were seated perfectly in the mag ): on the first mag I ran, the last round failed to feed. No jam though. I could not replicate this malfunction again. I wasn't too worried about it, as I expect to see some malfunctions with anything that shoots economy rimfire ammo, and especially if it's a conversion on a centerfire weapon.

So obviously the main reason I bought this kit is the economy. Ammo prices are getting ridiculous, even if you roll your own, and it's killing me to not be able to practice as much as I want. Being a high school science teacher, I started doing some calculations:

A box of 525 rounds of Rem Golden Bullet is about $20, which means the price per round is around $0.04.
A box of 500 rounds of .45 ACP practice ammo (WWB) is about $225, which puts the price per round at about $0.45.
At those prices, that means that upon shooting one box of .22lr ammo (525 rnd pack), the kit is "paid for" in ammo cost savings, and the shipping would be "paid for" after another 24 rounds.

I, unfortunately, haven't had a chance to see what it does on paper yet. Where I live, there is a ditch at the back of our property, and I usually use the opposite side of the ditch as a backstop, but it had water in it, and I didn't feel like getting my feet wet (wuss, you can go ahead and say it ). But I did toss out one of those small water bottles (I guess they're about 8 oz bottles), which is about 3" diameter, and I was able to dance it around pretty easily from about 10 yds, without ever adjusting the sights, so it appears to be pretty much dialed in, and looks like it will have at least acceptable accuracy to do what I want to do, which is use it as a trainer for defensive pistol shooting. Of course, I'll still be shooting .45 ACP as often as I can, but this will allow me to shoot a higher volume of rounds, and I'm a firm believer in trigger time.


All in all, if you're looking for a good .22 conversion kit, this looks like it might be a good one. Still early to say that definitively, but it's looking like a winner so far.

Thought I'd share in case anyone else might be wondering about them.

I'll post back when I get to put it on paper, and maybe add a few pics.

FWIW, I'm not affiliated with AA in any way. If this thing turns to junk after 500 rounds, you'll hear about it.

Take care guys,

Jason

[AutoMag]

Great choice on a conversion kit Jason, in my opinion the best one on the market.

I have had an Advantage Arms Target Model on a dedicated RIA frame now since November of 2006 and have had fantastic results with it. I have not had any problems at all with the kit. The Advantage Arms kits also offer the last shot hold open feature. I know, I have a grip screw missing!!

[Dred]

Similar experience with the AA Commander Length Conversion. Flawless through 250 or so rounds so far. 3 more mags arrived for testing last week, so back to testing.

Took a bit of file work on the slide and a bit of manual manipulation to get the slide operating freely on my VBob. One failure to fire on a CCI MiniMag round, but that round flew through without incident on it's second pass.

I've only fed Remington Golden Bullets and CCI MiniMags. I'm simply thrilled. Slide lock back is 100% to date (beating my Checkmate experience). I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on a slide refinish and Heinie Straight 8 sight replacement to complete this budget training tool. It will be my range practice go to.

I like it.

[Thedragonslayer]

Originally Posted by AutoMag

Great choice on a conversion kit Jason, in my opinion the best one on the market.

I have had an Advantage Arms Target Model on a dedicated RIA frame now since November of 2006 and have had fantastic results with it. I have not had any problems at all with the kit. The Advantage Arms kits also offer the last shot hold open feature. I know, I have a grip screw missing!!

FINALLY UNDENIABLE TRUTH THAT JOHN HAS A SQREW MISSING!!!!

[Jason_G]

I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on a slide refinish and Heinie Straight 8 sight replacement to complete this budget training tool. It will be my range practice go to.

That's probably my next project as well, getting a matching set of sights.

I have a Ruger 10/22 faux M1 carbine idea that's trying hard to take priority though...


Jason

[Lane]

Originally Posted by Thedragonslayer

FINALLY UNDENIABLE TRUTH THAT JOHN HAS A SQREW MISSING!!!!

Is that the next step past having a screw loose?

[AutoMag]

You guys are clowns!!!

[NAMVET72]

Originally Posted by AutoMag

Great choice on a conversion kit Jason, in my opinion the best one on the market.

I have had an Advantage Arms Target Model on a dedicated RIA frame now since November of 2006 and have had fantastic results with it. I have not had any problems at all with the kit. The Advantage Arms kits also offer the last shot hold open feature. I know, I have a grip screw missing!!

He can't afford Grip Screws, so do you expect John to be able to afford 22LR ammo???????????NADA

[AutoMag]

OK, you got me there !!!

I cannot afford a hex head grip screw, anyone want to donate some, but I do have well over 100,000 rounds of 22LR ammo!!

[Roverron]

So will the target model work on a commander/ officer frame? Or only on a full size? And is AA's conversion better than Marvels? For training, I think using a 22 con would be good for wife,either on my T3 which is same size as what she's ordered or my valor