Ciener Platinum Cup .22 Conversion

I know some of you might be interested in how my new Ciener Conversion performed. Those of you who aren't can skip the rest of this post. It's all gun stuff.

Basically, I took a box of everything I had around the house in .22 Long Rifle to the indoor range and blew them up. A few observations follow.

The aluminum slide and adjustable sights were a near-perfect fit on my SW1911's frame. Conversion is as simple as taking off the old slide/barrel and sliding the new one on. One note: My Wilson Bulletproof slide stop would not clear the magazines, but the stock SW stop works perfectly. Disassembly of the slide is easy, but requires a firm grip on the recoil spring guide to hold it compressed while the barrel is pulled out. Fortunately, the spring pressure is not all that high, compared to the .45 parts.

The aluminum magazines (only one came with the kit) hold 15 rounds, and seem to feed all of them without a problem. They can be easily taken apart for cleaning, and the surprisingly light spring pressure makes for easy loading. I like the fact that the back of the magazine can be removed. It makes it easy to clean the inside. Replacement mags are pricey at $35, but a spare is always a good idea.

Functioning on my SW1911 frame was nearly flawless. Full and partially loaded magazines functioned as I would expect. The kit is not designed to hold the slide back following the last shot. This is not really a problem, as there is enough room to pinch-check the pistol, despite the full length guide rod.

I fed it a box of each of the following with failures mentioned below each.

Remington Thunderbolt
1 Failure to Fire, which is typical of my experience with this ammo in my H&R Sportsman.

Remington Cyclone
None.

CCI Velocitor
1 Failure to Feed. This was the third magazine fired (47th round) in a brand new conversion kit, and was probably my fault for not seating the cartridges in the magazine properly. I dropped the mag, tapped it on my hand, and had no subsequent failures from a full box.

CCI Mini Mag
None.

Aguila Super Extra
None.

Aguila Supermaximum Hypervelocity
None.

Federal Champion HP
None. Ho-hum.

In total, I put close to 500 rounds through it (mostly the Federals) with 2 failures. Accuracy was as good as I was. At 15 yards, with a two-handed hold, 90% of the shots were in the black of a 25 yard NRA Timed/Rapid fire target, and the hits were right where the sights said they should be. The fliers were my fault, as I was more interested in how the unit functioned than in punching one ragged hole in the X-ring of the target. Some time soon, I'll shoot it from a rest, and report on accuracy.

I'm very pleased. If need be, I can now hunt squirrels with my ".45". :)