1911 .22 Conversion opinions

[Leadfoot]

Looking at purchasing a .22 conversion for my Colt 1911.

I've heard of several different brands; Marvel, Kimber, Ciener...

Who has one, what brand, and do you like it? Was it worth the money? Suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[TonyT]

As the previous poster stated avoid Ciener like the plague - customer service is totally nonexistent. My unit came with a smoothbore barrel which shot shotgun like patterns at 50 ft.
I have had expereince shooting several others and my comments are as follows:
The original Colt unit, is all steel with a floating chamber which fouls easilly and is a pain to clean. It provides plinking level accuracy.
My Marvel Unit#1 is superbly accurate and reliable (the favorite of bullsye pistol shooters). Mine functions reliably with a wide variety of SV ammo. The slide is aluminum and does not lock back after firing the last round but I have not found that to be a problem.
The Jarvis unit is all steel and designed to lock back after firing the last round. Mine will only function reliably with CCI MiniMag or Remington Golden ammo. You have ca 5% ignition failures with the Remington Golden. Otherwise the unit is very reliable but unfortunately no longer manufactured. Not as accurate as the Marvel but better than either Colt orCiener.
The Tactical Solutions unit is an all steel improvement of the Jarvis unit which is designed to lock back after firing the last round. Great machining, very expensive metal magazines which do not aways lock the slide back after the last round. Less finiky with ammo choices - mine functions very reliably with Fed copper washed HP HV bulk pak ammo as well as Remington Golden (5% ignition failures) and CCI MiniMag. Accuarcy is the same as Jarvis unit.
Hope that helps with your selection.

 

[IfItFliesItDies]

Call me a purist, but chambering a 1911 in anything besides .45 ACP is pure blasphemy.

 

[Leadfoot]

Call me a purist, but chambering a 1911 in anything besides .45 ACP is pure blasphemy.

So I guess the .38 Super, which was designed for the 1911 is blasphemy too?

Anyway, the reason for a .22 Conversion is purely for the ability to train with the same gun that shoots .45, but to be able to do so in an economical way.

.22 in bulk can be as cheap as $0.04 per round, whereas .45, even if you're reloading is still about 4 to 5 times that per round.

I'm not planning on giving up .45 any time soon, but it would be nice to shoot one of my favorite pistols a lot more often because its a lot cheaper to do so.

 

[beauxdog]

I have both a Colt conversion and a Marvel Unit. The Colt conversion is ~ 20 years olds and the fellow had it right they are a pain to keep clean and the accuracy is just fair. However, it has claimed the lives of it's fair share of snakes. The Marvel unit now sits atop a STI frame and will eat one ragged hole if given the right ammo at 25'. It is not the cheapest of conversions and the cost if a factor. You will have to shoot a lot of .22's to make up the cost. It also doesn't really like the bulk ammo, so you will have to buy the more expensive "target" grade ammo for it. Take a look at both the new STI unit (designed by Bob Marvel) and the Tactical Solutions conversions. Both are supposed to work well but I have not been able to shoot either, just had reports from others.
At the cost of ~$500 for these units, it might be cheaper to just reload for your .45 cal weapon. You could get set up with a Dillon unit for not much more and be able to tailor your loads to what you need. Just a thought. If you want to see either of the ones I have send me a PM and we can get together.

Hope this helps,

Beauxdog

 

[IfItFliesItDies]

So I guess the .38 Super, which was designed for the 1911 is blasphemy too?

Anyway, the reason for a .22 Conversion is purely for the ability to train with the same gun that shoots .45, but to be able to do so in an economical way.

.22 in bulk can be as cheap as $0.04 per round, whereas .45, even if you're reloading is still about 4 to 5 times that per round.

I'm not planning on giving up .45 any time soon, but it would be nice to shoot one of my favorite pistols a lot more often because its a lot cheaper to do so.

Trust me, I'm perfectly aware of that. That's why I said call me a purist.