.22LR conversions for 1911

I just picked up a Sig Sauer branded 22 slide and mag kit. Comes with threaded barrel and my local NAPA has 4003 inline fuel filters in stock,........ he canned silently......

anybody else using a 22 kit on their Ruger 1911?
I got rid of all my other 22's when ammo got hard to come by, but now is reappearing on the shelves (at ridiculous prices)
I figured having this around will make for some fun target plinking or varmint shooting around the property

I have a Kimber 222lr kit that I use on my 1911 CMD sometimes. Shoots great.

I have one original Colt .22/.45 kit, and three Ciener 1911 kits. They all function great; the Colt has some recoil feel but isn't as accurate as the Cieners. I consider them all money VERY well spent.

Well Don, I have both the Kimber and the Sig kits and my personal
preference is the Kimber. Main reason . . . the Sig kit has given me
problems with one of the plastic magazines. Other than that, both
are great!

One war story of note:
I got a conversion kit for my daughter and we went shooting the next day.
Her husband used some VERY cheap "stuff" to start with and after a few
mag's worth, had a shot gun pattern. Long story short, he spent about an
hour getting the barrel cleaned out (my daughter was shooting mine and
smiling all the while).

I recommend some good ammo for the first box.

Pat-inCO said:

Well Don, I have both the Kimber and the Sig kits and my personal
preference is the Kimber. Main reason . . . the Sig kit has given me
problems with one of the plastic magazines. Other than that, both
are great!

One war story of note:
I got a conversion kit for my daughter and we went shooting the next day.
Her husband used some VERY cheap "stuff" to start with and after a few
mag's worth, had a shot gun pattern. Long story short, he spent about an
hour getting the barrel cleaned out (my daughter was shooting mine and
smiling all the while).

I recommend some good ammo for the first box.

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I have a stash of CCI Stingers, Remington Viper and some Ely match and some old school white box Winchester HP I will try. Do any other steel mags work in the Sig model? I did not know it had plastic mags

Don Lovel said:

Do any other steel mags work in the Sig model?

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I looked at both the P220 and 1911 kit and from what I can tell they are
both the plastic mag's. IIRC, the ones with the steel lip are so that it will
lock the slide back on empty magazine. Seems I've also read that the lip
causes other problems by wearing the aluminium slide at the lock back
notch.

FUN shooting.

The kit arrived today, initial check is that the kit needs some fitting to work in my SR 1911.
I was too tired to mess with it when it arrived today, I tried to install the kit and could not get it to go onto the frame correctly so the barrel ling & takedown pin would align, noted some scaring on the new piece where it contacts the inner frame of the SR 1911. Tomorrow I will sit down more focused and with a fine file and see what I can do with it.

It is a nice looking kit in a nice box with extra sight blades for the high vis 3 dot sights on it.

had a little time to work on the kit. Got it to install ok but it will not fire. I cannot see any sign of firing pin hitting the shells but the gun appears to be in correct battery position.

I guess I will mail it back to Sig in New Hampshire for warranty. Disappointed that after examining it and being careful with how it mounts, Firing pin will not hit the shells. I watched some youtube videos, seriously, I do not think it is going to be compatible with Ruger SR1911 frame, I might be missing some tiny detail, but It was just not a good fit from the start.
Anybody got any ideas on what I would be doing wrong?

1. Can you push the firing pin forward enough with a finger, pencil, pen, etc, that it protrudes enough from the breechface to ignite a .22? If not, there's your problem--broken or binding firing pin. (It should also move easily under spring pressure.)

2. Is your hammer actually hitting the firing pin? I've put 1911s together out of parts where the hammer was hitting the side of its recess at the rear of the slide. If this is happening, it can slow or even stop the hammer before it imparts enough energy to the firing pin. If it's not, you'll have to relieve either the hammer or its recesss (or maybe a little off both) where it's binding with file or stone.

If the hammer is hitting the firing pin, and the firing pin CAN move forward enough to ignite, then the thing should fire. Almost HAS to, in fact.

I bought a Ciener Platinum cup (adjustable sight model) conversion unit for my Colt Gold Cup some years ago to practice with the then cheap 22LR ammo. I found this Ciener unit to work perfectly in my Ruger SR1911 Govt. model. J.A. Ciener is still in business and I do see both new an used units on EBay from time to time. I do recommend the Ciener conversion kit.

Pat-inCO said:

I got a conversion kit for my daughter and we went shooting the next day.
Her husband used some VERY cheap "stuff" to start with and after a few
mag's worth, had a shot gun pattern. Long story short, he spent about an
hour getting the barrel cleaned out (my daughter was shooting mine and
smiling all the while).
I recommend some good ammo for the first box.

Click to expand...

Might want to use decent ammo for all the boxes.

I bought an old Colt kit in, say, '74, and the floating chamber got leaded so bad with cheap Remington Mohawk that it required gunsmith intervention.

Friends don't let friends shoot:



It's at least as bad as its successor, Thunderbolt.

edlmann said:

I bought an old Colt kit in, say, '74, and the floating chamber got leaded so bad with cheap Remington Mohawk that it required gunsmith intervention.

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Those thing will "lead up" eventually with any kind of ammunition, but I found I could run mine a good long time on the cheap plated Federal Walmark Bulks. I forget the exact number but I think it was around 1000 rounds.

My Cieners, on the other hand (no floating chamber) can routinely go 2000+ rounds with no more maintenance than a drop of lube on the slide rails when it starts to get sluggish. When I do get around to cleaning them, the chamber areas are absolutely filthy, and yet they're still functioning fine.

Seems to work and fit good.

SIG put their 22 kit on sale and I called them about compatibility with any 1911 and was advised would only work with SIG 1911.
For less than the price of the conversion kit I bought a GSG 1911 .22. The magazines are all metal and a friend uses them with his Kimber kit as the plastic ones that came with the Kimber wore out.

Toyman said:

SIG put their 22 kit on sale and I called them about compatibility with any 1911 and was advised would only work with SIG 1911.
For less than the price of the conversion kit I bought a GSG 1911 .22. The magazines are all metal and a friend uses them with his Kimber kit as the plastic ones that came with the Kimber wore out.

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You have to take the detent & spring out of the firing pin block safety then it worked great in my SR1911

I have a German made one that works on all of my 70 series 1911's.