Hey all - I'm tired of my mosquito's trigger and diva-ness. I'm looking for a new .22 pistol host for my Spectre, but I really need one with a rail on the bottom. I am also looking for a nice trigger (or at least one that can be worked on to achieve niceness) and one that's not super-fussy about ammo. (And of course a threaded barrel.) How well it suppresses is pretty high on the list as well.

Options I can think of off the top of my head are the GSG 1911, Ruger SR22, and M&P22. Of course I'm not limited to these, this is just what I could think of. I welcome your wisdom and experience.

Ruger 22/45 with rail. Do a trigger upgrade to VQ.

P226 22 Classic. You can get threaded barrels for them from Sig and use the Mosquito adapters on them to get a 1/2x28 thread pitch.

If you already have a Sig P series (220, 226, 229) just get the Sig threaded 22lr conversion kit for it. I use one on my P226 Elite so it ends up being basically the same thing as the 22 Classic. It functions 100% on all the ammo I've tried suppressed or unsuppressed. And it sounds great with my SS Sparrow.

Flipz,

What parts and pieces are necessary to do a conversion for a 228 to 22 LR threaded 1/2x28?

Barrel
thread conversion adapter
magazine

Barrel is on the SIG store

Where are the other parts available?

Thanks!

Sig sells the entire kit to swap it over.

After some looking I figured that out ... thanks!

Wondering if anyone has some long term experience with the SIG supplied aluminum slide for their 22 LR conversions. Any indication of problems similar to the Mosquito?

I've had my Sig P226 22lr conversion kit for about 3 years. It's great! Runs on all the ammo types I've tried and is very reliable. I never hesitate to recommend them.

The only con is that the slide does not lock back after the last round. This is the way it was designed because the aluminum slide would get chewed up by the slide release if it did.

Not a big deal at all though. Atleast not to me. It's just too much fun that I can easily overlook that one little negative.

Does the kit require a 22 can that has a booster in order to make the action work?

no booster required.

eastern_hunter wrote:Does the kit require a 22 can that has a booster in order to make the action work?

No, blow back style like others. I have amigo that buy both the 226 and 229, his 229 had some issues about being picky and he thinks it was the magazines.(mags not cheap either) Also some of the Sigs have difficult time with locking the take down lever when installing and removing.

BTW, it cheaper to buy the whole 22 pistol then get a 9mm or 40 slide! They had the slides with night sights on sale for for nothing!

Ruger 22/45 with Pac-Lite upper and lower rail.

Abiqua wrote:Ruger 22/45 with rail. Do a trigger upgrade to VQ.

I just bought one.......you don't have to do a thing to it...it has a threaded barrel and thread protector, top rail and bottom rail.....SWEET.

Emilio wrote: BTW, it cheaper to buy the whole 22 pistol then get a 9mm or 40 slide! They had the slides with night sights on sale for for nothing!

pretty sure they dont make the 22 pistols with the SRT though. after adding it, you are about even.

May be cheaper if you don't already have the SIG pistols. We have P220, P226, P228, P229, and P239 handguns already.

We started the young one with the P226 and it has served him well ... as that is what he is issued.

Emilio wrote:

eastern_hunter wrote:Does the kit require a 22 can that has a booster in order to make the action work?

Also some of the Sigs have difficult time with locking the take down lever when installing and removing.

As noted above, no booster is needed due to the nature of 22lr pistols.

As far as the installation and removal of the Sig conversion kit. All you need to do is put some very slight pressure against the front of the barrel. Once you do that the takedown lever will rotate just fine. Same thing needs to be done with my AA kit for my G34 to take it down. Not a big deal at all and its completely normal for 22lr conversion kits.

That railed 22/45 is actually pretty hot looking. I've just heard too many sad stories about the conversion kits, much as I love my SIGs. Might be time to buy a .22 that's pretty much built for function. That thing would be one hot mamma with a red dot on top and IR laser on the bottom. Yeah buddy.

Thanks for the input, all.

theTastyCat wrote:That railed 22/45 is actually pretty hot looking. I've just heard too many sad stories about the conversion kits, much as I love my SIGs. Might be time to buy a .22 that's pretty much built for function. That thing would be one hot mamma with a red dot on top and IR laser on the bottom. Yeah buddy.

Thanks for the input, all.

The 22/45 would be a great choice. It's the standard for 22lr pistols for a reason.

That said, I love my P226 conversion kit. It's run 100% from day one on all the ammo types I've put through it suppressed or unsuppressed. I haven't had any issues with it and never hesitate to recommend it.

Yeah, I've kind of shied away from the Browning/Ruger school since I've always found their pistols to be butt ugly. However, it does make sense that not having to move an entire slide in recoil could lend itself to better reliability as the same force only has to operate a smaller bolt.

Yeah, the 226 kits are really tempting, but I just know with my luck that the damn thing would never work. As I'm already the proud owner of an SBRed GSG-5 that refuses to operate reliably as well as an unreliable Mosquito, I think I know where I come on the totem pole as far as stuff that might work.

The nice part about the 22/45 is that if it doesn't work, it can go right back to Ruger. Trying to get GSG to fix my GSG-5 was an expensive mistake; "just use Minimags." Yeah, that is just MAGICAL advice for a guy who BOUGHT THE DAMN THING TO SBR AND USE WITH A CAN. Dammit.

theTastyCat wrote:Yeah, I've kind of shied away from the Browning/Ruger school since I've always found their pistols to be butt ugly. However, it does make sense that not having to move an entire slide in recoil could lend itself to better reliability as the same force only has to operate a smaller bolt.

Yeah, the 226 kits are really tempting, but I just know with my luck that the damn thing would never work. As I'm already the proud owner of an SBRed GSG-5 that refuses to operate reliably as well as an unreliable Mosquito, I think I know where I come on the totem pole as far as stuff that might work.

The nice part about the 22/45 is that if it doesn't work, it can go right back to Ruger. Trying to get GSG to fix my GSG-5 was an expensive mistake; "just use Minimags." Yeah, that is just MAGICAL advice for a guy who BOUGHT THE DAMN THING TO SBR AND USE WITH A CAN. Dammit.

Minimags didn't work in your GSG5? I have a few customers with them and they run like a raped ape with Minimags but for subsonics they use CCI SV. They SBR'd theirs as well.

Try some CCI SV and see if that fixes your issues.

Wow, Bender - great idea. I'd been using CCI subs as I figured there was no better option, but since SV obviously stays subsonic, that is a brilliant idea. Yeah, it runs fine with Minimags, of course; it seems to be having some feeding issues with the subs, but I'll bet SV clears the whole thing up. Sure appreciate the tip! It is a great gun, would love for it to be running 100%.

twodollarbill wrote:

Abiqua wrote:Ruger 22/45 with rail. Do a trigger upgrade to VQ.

I just bought one.......you don't have to do a thing to it...it has a threaded barrel and thread protector, top rail and bottom rail.....SWEET.

I have the same pistol w/ the rails. I wanted sights. Great little gun.

I wanted a Tacical Solutions upper for my MKII but the dealer had this in stock! I like the MKII better but love that this gun was already threaded.

theTastyCat wrote:Wow, Bender - great idea. I'd been using CCI subs as I figured there was no better option, but since SV obviously stays subsonic, that is a brilliant idea. Yeah, it runs fine with Minimags, of course; it seems to be having some feeding issues with the subs, but I'll bet SV clears the whole thing up. Sure appreciate the tip! It is a great gun, would love for it to be running 100%.

Can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not. I don't think you are but.....

No, seriously! I really had never considered SV. Every manufacturer says use minimags, and I think we all hold CCI subs to be the best subs available, but it hadn't occurred to me that SV would still be subsonic in the 7" barrel of the SBRed GSG-5. That would certainly give more juice than the subs, hopefully ironing out my reliability issues.

I think your post saved me a serious amount of aggravation; there's little point in trying to sell a gun like an SBRed GSG, and I was super-pist since it appeared it would never function the way it needed to. I really think CCI SV will be the answer; I'm off tomorrow so I'm off to the shop to try to score some. Thanks again.

Yep, SV is the answer. Ran perfectly! Bender, you seriously saved me like 30 points of blood pressure after spending a hell of a lot of time, effort, and money setting this gun up and trying to get it reliable.

theTastyCat wrote:Yep, SV is the answer. Ran perfectly! Bender, you seriously saved me like 30 points of blood pressure after spending a hell of a lot of time, effort, and money setting this gun up and trying to get it reliable.

Glad I was able to help!