Nelson .22LR conversion for 1911

[Blackdog]

When I bought my Kimber I got the Kimber .22 kit too. Not as good as I wanted and I didn't keep it long, and I've wanted to replace it for a couple of years.
I finally replaced it with the Nelson .22 conversion kit.
The kit replaces the top end of the 1911- barrel, slide, sights, magazines, etc. I got the "Optics Ready" top end and mounted a Bushnell red dot on it.
The kit comes with two springs - standard and light. Using he standard spring the handgun shot Standard Velocity "Target" ammo quite well - from a rest, at 25 yards 10 shots went into an aspirin size hole in the target. Off-hand, well, the groups get a bit bigger. But darn it is fun to shoot.

A few years ago I shot Hunters Pistol Silhouette matches, did pretty well, got a national 2nd place award! So, I took the red-dot off the Kimber and replaced it with a 1-4x20 Leo with a fine crosshair/dot reticle. As soon as our winter is over (yea we have cold blustery winds here too) I'm gonna sight it in at 40/50/75/100 yards and try small bore Hunter's Pistol again. It's been 30 years - I suppose I get to start as "Unclassified" and go from there.

The idea of Hunter's Pistol is to hit the targets and knock them over. Chickens at 40 yards, Pigs at 50 yards, Turkeys at 75 and Rams at 100 yards. The small bore targets are lighter for .22 LR.

Sunday is suppose to be nice - will post photos if I have any luck,

Michael

FYI - I ordered a heavy spring to shoot 1200fps ammo, but that wasn't the right spring either. It DID shoot CCI Velocitors awfully well. Will use the medium spring for Standard Vel ammo when I sight in.

[North Country Gal]

Do keep us posted on this kit. I've tried the Kimber kit, too, and that was a no go. Then tried their full 1911 Rimfire version and that wasn't any better as far as reliability and function, just more expensive. Have all but given up on the whole concept of a 1911 rimfire.

Also like the idea of mounting a red dot or scope on a 1911. Have been tempted to do a mod on one our 1911s, but can't bring myself to alter something that already shoots so well. A rimfire kit might be the way to go.

[Mistered]

Have all but given up on the whole concept of a 1911 rimfire.

It seems most do eventually. The conversion kits are unpredictable to some working fairly well to nearly inoperative.
Back in 'the day' I almost got one for my first 1911 but after hearing of all the inconsistencies I didn't do it.
Too many good guns designed to shoot .22 without having to mess with converting a 1911.

[wingnut]

Odd man in…

The Kimber conversion worked well for me in both Practical Pistol and Hunters Pistol Silhouette matches with the following mods:
1. Use only mags with a last round hold-open feature. There is a European made steel mag that does this. They are spendy.
2. CCI Mini-mags was the only reliable ammo for me.

The Kimber conversion slide is made of aluminum and scratches easily. A spray can of flat black hides up to the major ones.

What did you not like about the Kimber conversion?

However, I do love my MKII & III Rugers for the same exercise.

Concerning the 1x red dot site (not a scope): After 30+ years of finding & focusing on the front sight, I spent a year trying with a red dot and could not repeatably & readily find the dot due to the accustomed grip angle.

The rear of the slide must be milled a lot to lower even the smallest red dot site for the usual grip angle of the “practiced” iron sighted 1911 shooter.
YMMV.

[Blackdog]

Odd man in…


The rear of the slide must be milled a lot to lower even the smallest red dot site for the usual grip angle of the “practiced” iron sighted 1911 shooter.
YMMV.

No so with the Nelson. The .22 kit replaces the entire slide. Mine has cross slots for scope/red-dot and no sights at all - they now offer a top-end with sights and slots - best of both worlds.

I know that each will vary - but mine likes Norma Tac-22 best. I tried CCI Tac and Fed AutoMatch but the #9 spring was too light and the #10 spring was too heavy. I'll stick to the #9 spring and Tac-22.

There are tricks to using the red-dot - like keeping both eyes open. My wife loved playing with the .22 red-dot. The Kimber has a great trigger and it translated to small groups. Hope to get the scope sighted in tomorow.

[fortyshooter]

I have heard a lot about the conversions but haven't got in to one of them yet. For .22 semi-auto I have the S&W Victory which shoots well.
How big are those Ram targets...1/4 scale?

[Mistered]

I think if I REALLY wanted a 1911 .22 I would look into one of the .22 only 1911s.
A friend of mine has the SIG model and while its a great shooter and well made it had to go back to the factory for a known problem - something about the design of his being a non-hold open on the last shot was causing issues with it slamming on an empty chamber and breaking the firing pin.
He had to send it back and it came back with the modification and seems OK now.
Personally I would probably look at the Kimber out of all the available ones.

[North Country Gal]

For me, I found any kind of 1911 rimfire setup to be extremely fussy about ammo as far as functioning, compared to a typical 22 LR semi-auto.

Getting comfy with a red dot on a handgun does take practice and for some, it can be a real headache. I typically have more issues finding the dot with the reflex style red dots than the tube style, but, yes, there are tines when finding that dot can be annoying.

On the other hand, one of the reasons I so love shooting 1911s are the typical big, blocky and easy to see sights. Makes some of the sights I've used on revolvers look really bad and downright pathetic, to the point of me getting very fussy about revolver sights. One of the reasons I so love my Kimber revolver are the excellent 1911 style fixed sights. Don't have to hunt for the sights on the Kimber. They're right there when I raise the gun, just like a 1911. About what you'd expect, given that Kimber makes so many 1911s.

[Blackdog]

I have heard a lot about the conversions but haven't got in to one of them yet. For .22 semi-auto I have the S&W Victory which shoots well.
How big are those Ram targets...1/4 scale?

The Hunter's pistol targets are 1/2 size. A 100 meter ram is about the size of a rural mailbox. Pistol Cartridge targets are the same size, but heavier steel.
M

[Mags]

I really like the idea of the conversion, but not at $500+ for the kit.