Just got the Kimber .22 conversion kit last week for my Custom II and thought I'd post my experience with it -
Installation:
Swapping between slides is very quick as you can remove the entire slide (with barrel and recoil spring still in the slide) as one unit and replace with the other slide. Getting the .45 on/off takes a little practice (as the recoil spring is under tension), but getting the .22 slide on/off is very easy. Total time to change slides is less than a minute. Initially I had a difficult time positioning the .45 slide so that I could remove/install the slide stop, but after practicing about 6 times it became pretty easy. If you don't want to fight the .45 recoil spring, you can just do a regular field strip on the .45 slide to remove/install it. Since the recoil spring in the .22 slide is so much weaker, it won't be necessary to remove anything to remove/install the .22 slide.
Initial preparation before break in:
When I first installed the .22 slide the fit was tight - the slide would not go to battery due to friction between slide and lower. So before going to the range I manually racked the slide 150 times, disassembled, cleaned, lubricated and then it operated very smoothly. I suspect if I hadn't done any preparation the first 150 rounds would have resulted in a lot of failures to return to battery until things smoothed out.
Ammo used:
I used the recommended ammo (CCI mini-mag) for the first 100 rounds and that went without a hitch. Since it went so well and since the Mini-Mag is hard to find, I thought I'd try some Winchester M-22 that Big 5 carries (it's pretty cheap - about .05 a round). This worked flawlessly as well, and for the entire 400 rounds I didn't have a single malfunction of any kind - I did however wipe the feed ramp with CLP once at 300 rounds just because it was starting to get dirty and I couldn't resist wiping it down. I'll have to try some more cheap ammo (like the Federal Bulk), but for now I'm happy I've found an alternative to harder to find mini-mag.
Live Fire:
In 400 rounds there was not a single malfunction, and the only unexpected 'click' is when you empty a magazine, since the slide doesn't lock back, the hammer drops on an empty chamber (this is by design because the slide is aluminum and according to Kimber, dropping the firing pin on the empty chamber won't hurt the firing pin even though this is a rim fire). Initially the sights were low and slightly to the left, but since they are easily adjustable that was quickly fixed with a screwdriver. I was quite surprised how well the slide cycled and extracted brass considering how small the round is... I emptied several magazines (10 rounds) in under 4 seconds each without any malfunctions and the cycling seems very smooth and consistent. I'm sure I could have gone faster with no problems, but that was about as fast the the RO was comfortable with.
After the 400 rounds of .22 I switched to the .45 and found that my groupings were much smaller than I've been shooting before the conversion kit, so the practice with the .22 does seem to transfer when you switch back to the .45. Groupings with the .22 are still smaller than with the .45 slide from 30 feet on, but closer than 30 feet they are nearly identical.
Cleaning:
The take down of the conversion kit is very easy - less than 2 minutes to take it off the lower and have it completely stripped,and a minute to put back together. It is almost identical to taking down the .45 slide, except that since the recoil spring is weaker, you don't even need any tools for it.
Overall Impression:
Much to my surprise, I am extremely pleased with the conversion kit. The smaller recoil took a little getting used to, but once I did, I really started enjoying sending lead downrange and being able to work on Trigger control and Sight alignment knowing that it was about 1/10 of what it normally would cost. I originally was planning to only spend a couple hours and 200 rounds, but it was so much fun I spent nearly 4 hours and 400 rounds at the range. I found that I was actually enjoying shooting the .22's at paper just as much as with the .45. Same trigger, same grip and feel (the weight with the conversion kit still feels much like with the regular slide because of the .22 bull barrel) really gives you the experience that you are firing a 1911 - just without the recoil and blast.
It's not exactly the same experience as firing .45 caliber, but extremely enjoyable in a different way. I suspect that I'll be shooting much less .45, but overall a lot more rounds than I've been shooting and for much less. There's also something cool about practicing with a few hundred rounds of .22 and then switching to .45 - it's hard to explain, but I think the contrast in recoil and blast actually makes it even more fun to shoot the .45. (kind of like practicing racing a car normally, then turning on the nitrous oxide)
Initially I was hesitant to get a conversion kit since it is about the same price at a Buckmark or Ruger 22/45 or mkiii and it seemed like getting a whole pistol made more sense, but after actually using it on the Custom II, I'm really happy that I went with the conversion kit instead. It just totally enhances the experience of having a Custom II and I'll sure be getting a lot more out of it being able to use lots of inexpensive rounds...
Here's a couple pictures -
Stock .45 ACP:
Conversion Kit .22 Mode (I got Silver so I'll know instantly if it's .22 or .45 - plus I think it looks pretty good in silver...)
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