Literally, a day after I ordered a conventional .22LR conversion kit for my AR, I saw that BoreBuddy was releasing a modular one, the 22LR Quiet Conversion Kit.
What’s a Modular Conversion Kit?
A traditional .22LR conversion kit for 5.56mm ARs replaces the bolt carrier group (BCG) of your rifle. This allows it to use .22LR ammunition. It uses the existing 5.56 barrel and conversion magazines, which are sized to fit an AR mag well and have an insert to align and feed .22 ammo. Part of the conversion kit consists of a chamber adapter that fits your AR barrel and will accommodate .22LR rounds.
Conversion kits like this make it easy to shoot inexpensive .22LR ammo through your 5.56mm rifle. However, they do have drawbacks. The biggest one is accuracy. Typically, 5.56 barrels aren’t optimized for .22LR bullets, so you won’t get the kind of accuracy out of them that you would through a dedicated .22 barrel.
It’s not uncommon for a shooter to start with a conversion kit and then decide they want a dedicated .22 upper instead. The problem is that most conversion kits work with 5.56 barrels and won’t work with a .22 barrel. You need to get a separate .22LR bolt carrier group for that. That’s where the modularity of the BoreBuddy comes into play.
The BoreBuddy 22LR Quiet Conversion Kit
The BoreBuddy 22LR Quiet Conversion Kit works just like other conversion kits—if you have a 5.56 barrel. In addition, when you decide to upgrade to a dedicated .22 upper, the BoreBuddy kit stays with you. The chamber adapter is a separate piece with their kit. Simply remove it, and their bolt carrier group works with your .22LR barrel now.
The 22LR Quiet Conversion Kit comes with a collar, chamber adapter, hardened firing pin, power extractor, and a 6 lb recoil spring. It has all the upgrades that users typically do to other conversion kits. It includes one 15- or 25-round Black Dog magazine, a pressure plug, and a charging handle insert. The MSRP is $249.50, which is more than other conversion kits but cheaper than first buying a 5.56 kit and then having to buy a second .22LR BCG later.
To learn more, check out BoreBuddy.com.
