The Advantage Arms Kit and the Officer Frame.

[Nushif]

Finally got a chance to actually mess with these today at my LGS.

When I saw them and asked about it, specifically about how they worked with an Officer size frame, the clerk looked at me funny, told me to unload my pistol in the backroom and we'd see about it.

So we did. And I am pleased to say I am now the owner of a brand new Advantage Arms kit that works on a "true" Officer size frame.
I highly doubt it would work on an even shorter frame, though, as the dust cover now barely reaches the front end of the slide.

So, I finally found an answer to the nigh unanswerable question:
Yes. There is a .22 conversion kit for Officer sized 1911s.

Picture with the exact name attached, range report to follow.

 

[Nushif]

The Range Report

I got to finally take out the conversion kit today. here's my impressions.

While it is not a simple slide swap achievable in "thirty seconds with practice" it is exceedingly simple to put the kit on the gun properly.
The slide to frame fit and finish is (of course) slightly off, but didn't impede function at all.

Now for the important bits.

Using Remington Golden Bullets (one of the recommended brand of ammunition, which happened to be on sale) I experienced two malfunctions. One was from a corroded round that was left over in my .22 glass from a looong time ago and one was a dud we couldn't get to fire with the lever action, either.
Everything else ejected, fired, fed, and all that jazz perfectly fine. Actually ejection was quite vigorous and fun to watch.
I fired about two hundred rounds or so during this test which would put the failure rate at 1%, both related to ammunition.
The gun grouped better than I shoot, so accuracy was very well within what I would reasonably expect from a conversion. The attached picture was a grouping I shot about 1/3 through my range trip, at seven yards and the groups I produced towards the end were about 30% smaller. The wife's were the the point where I saw two ragged shots on one paper, with six rounds going downrange.

At this point I am really trying to still be objective about this, but there is really nothing bad I can say within any kind of reasonable expectation of this little kit.

The picture attached shows my target (using deliberate untimed fire) about 1/3 through the range trip (again, at seven yards,) using an Officer sized frame, kit attached (so a 4.25 inch barrel) with fullsize mag as reference.