Anyone have / know about Chiappa .22LR AR uppers?

[AJMBLAZER]

Dad bought a DPMS 5.56 AR carbine this summer. At the same time he bought a Chiappa .22LR upper for it. Came with two mags and seems to be a poly upper. He hadn't really used it until Saturday and he only brought one mag. Seemed to have a lot of feeding issues and I don't think we ever got one complete mag through it. I tossed lots of lube at it and kept stressing it was brand new to him but he's a bit disappointed. I will say the mag kept sending the bullets up at odd angles which either caused nose diving into the ramp or them missing the chamber entirely.
One even went straight up in front of the bolt and jammed in place so bad we had to rip the .22LR round apart to get it out.

Any known issues with these? Seems like it wants to run but feeding was an issue once we got it lubed up a bit.

 

[12Bravo20]

What ammo were you using? Most .22 uppers/conversion kits require high velocity ammo to function correctly.

I own a Chiappa upper and haven't had any problems what so ever with it. I use either PMC Sidewinder or Federal Champion high velocity ammo in mine. Also take your time loading the magazines so that the rim of the top round doesn't sit behind the rim of the round below it. With rounds coming out of the magazine at odd angles, sounds like the rims of each round wasn't staggered correctly. I had the same thing happen first time I loaded up a magazine.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Trying to remember the name of the stuff. Remington in the green bulk 525 (?) package. My Ruger eats it up. Hollow points. Dunno if it's high velocity for sure but think it is...

 

[thelittlestchipmunk]

There's your problem, the Remington Golden bullets are notorious Jam-o-matics in autoloaders. Try with some CCI ammo.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Huh. My 10/22 eats it by the bulk box.

Seemed to be more of a feed problem than ammo though. It'd run but getting it fed seemed to be the issue.

 

[12Bravo20]

Most AR conversion kits and dedicated .22 uppers require the use of high velocity ammo to function properly. There are .22 pistols that require the same also. Remington bulk boxes are NOT high velocity. They will work in most Ruger 10/22 and Marlin 60/70/795 rifles just fine but won't function properly in AR dedicated uppers/conversion kits.

Also, like I said in my first post, check on how you are loading the magazines. The Chiappa uses Black Dog magazines just like the more expensive .22 uppers and conversion kits. With any high capacity .22 magazine, you must make sure the rounds are loaded correctly. The rim of the top round must be in front of the round below it. All rounds must be staggered in the mag like that for it to feed properly.

The first picture shows how the rounds should be loaded (staggered) in any high capacity magazine and the second show one staggered wrong that will definitely cause feeding issues like you described.

 

[MaterDei]

Feed problems in 22LR are very often ammo problems. I, too, agree that your first troubleshooting step should be ammo. If you were using good AR ammo I might think otherwise. Try some of the ammo recommended and your father might be a happy camper once again. Winchester makes ammo specifically for the AR platform called M-22. I've heard good reviews on it, you might want to give it a go as well.


Let us know how it goes.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Any of the bulk 500+ round stuff known to work? I've got a variety of different brands from past random "hey, it's on sale" purchases.

 

[12Bravo20]

Stick with high velocity ammo and everything should be good to go.

I have the same setup: Chiappa .22 upper and DPMS lower and haven't had any problems. I only use high velocity ammo in mine.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Thanks, I'll have to see what I can find.

Think he was expecting it to be as "eat whatever you feed it" as the Ruger and Nylon 66 we've had for decades.

 

[downingducksdowneast]

My Chiappa upper was a jam-0-matic with everything BUT CCI Mini-Mag HV, which I can put hundreds of rounds down range w/o a malfunction. I also run my upper pretty wet with Slip-2000 and have to religiously clean it after each range trip (even the best .22 ammo is dirty).

 

[Fishbed77]

Any of the bulk 500+ round stuff known to work? I've got a variety of different brands from past random "hey, it's on sale" purchases.

All of the bulk Federal or Federal American Eagle high velocity stuff works great in my CMMG dedicated .22LR AR-15 upper. Likewise, the bulk CCI "AR Tactical" ammo works fine as well.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Hmmmm, have to check the pile. Think I have some Federal.

 

[saenzrich]

My Cmmg is flawless with Walmart Federal bulk, winchester 333,555...it jams like crazy with blazer bulk round nose stuff, any remy stuff....I just stick with the cheap plinking hv walmart hp stuff and its 100%.

 

[driven]

40 grain HV fodder for sure

My Chiappa upper also jams up with hollow points. I've run about 200 rounds of the Win M-22 and they work great.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

I bought a box of the CCI AR Tactical "high velocity stuff" a few weeks ago. RNL that's copper plated and 1200fps...which isn't terribly High Velocity but okay...


...functioned about the same. My buddy's convinced it's the magazine. Thing kept giving us feed issues. Jammed another round straight up that I had to yank out with needlenose pliers. Bunch of double feeds.
It sort of looks like the mag is splitting down the center seam actually. You can see the edges of the seam aren't joined on top.

Any of the compatible mags better than these Chiappa ones? Any of them have a metal feed lip setup?
Unfortunately dad didn't give me both of his mags so I only have this one.

 

[urbaneruralite]

They should mark all .22 semi-autos with a tag that says "break it in with at least 200 rounds of CCI Mini-Mag."

Some of the .22 AR mags are picky about how you load them. The cartridge rims interfere and cause the rounds to come out at odd angles.

I have no experience with the Chiappa unit. I didn't even look at it due to the bad reviews, but then I have the sort of luck that led to a horrible experience with a M&P15-22.

DPMS offers a quality .22 upper. Its a lot like the one from Nordic. CMMGs are also good. Mine will run about anything and isn't particular how I load it either. For a really light upper there is the one from TACCOM3G.

Good luck!

 

[12Bravo20]

The Chiappa upper uses Black Dog type magazines, so Black Dog magazines will work. Black dog does make some with metal feed lips and I think that you can change out the polymer ones for metal on actual Black Dog magazines.