Spikes .22LR Conversion?

[militarymoron]

We have built several of them and everyone of them we had to hand file (blend) the feed ramp and polish the chamber in order to get them to run well.

exactly what i had to do to mine to get it to feed. the bullet nose would end up caught on the sharp top edge of the chamber opening.

[SinnFéinM1911]

Spike's 10" Tactical Upper
YMH 7" Lite Rail
HK Style Diopter Front Sight
LMT Rear Sight

SinnFéinM1911, eye-pro are for pussies. That's what medical insurance is for.














JUST KIDDING!

Touche

[Nathan_Bell]

My Spikes runs fine, but I only have about 700 rounds through it, so I guess I should add "so far" to that. Was told to only shoot copper clad ammo though it and to keep it lubed.

[ech01]

Sorry guys, its been a while. VERY busy lately. Spikes Dedicated 22's are literally being sold out while in production. They are very popular for practice and CHEAP for practice. I'm somewhat tired of other dealers trying to badmouth our product without us having a say, so I'm going to write this one for you guys.

Through experience, 22LR rounds are finicky and that could be the problem with some of the "misfeed" problems. I assure you that modifying the feed ramp is a waste of your time and a waste of your money.

We use Federal 22LR ammo from Walmart in the brick boxes. Never a misfeed problem. I have 2 22LR conversions and have over 1000 rounds through each rifle.

I didnt need to "modify" it. I got it from Spike, lubed it up, and started shooting.

I live in Orlando, Florida. I am at the range atleast once a week with my girlfriend usually at EAST ORANGE SHOOTING RANGE. If you come out during the weekend, and see me, i will be MORE than happy to let you shoot my 22's. Thats usually what i do anyways. Bring one out for myself, and let other people shoot my second AR.

In fact, PM me and I'll set up a date with you to meet you up and shoot them. I live up in North Florida right now but I come home to Orlando every weekend to see the Girlfriend and my guns. And Mom of course

If you happen to catch some of my team mates at Shoot Straight in Apopka, just ask them if you can shoot their 22 AR's. They'll be more than happy to.

If you happen to catch Spike himself in Apopka, the man will even load your bullets and let you shoot his full auto 22LR!

I am not trying to insult anyone on these pages. Its only fair that we take a side. Yes, i work very closely with Spike himself and I am part of his company. BUT, I personally own 2 of these rifles and believe me, i wouldnt have done all the work in putting together videos, and advertising for him if i did not believe in his product.


My kids:



Spike's Personal FA 22LR:


I'm sure alot of you guys have already seen this but it never gets old:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FPJxrHiYSpI <----------CLICK HERE!

[rob_s]

Grant and MM aren't the only ones reporting this problem. While it's good to have a rep from Spike's here, the reports I keep seeing of this problem give me pause.

here is just one of the others that are having chamber issues.

here is another.

I would prefer to see an official "you have to shoot ammo x, y, or z" or an "all uppers require a break-in period" response rather than a "nothing is wrong, everything is fine, the people reporting problems are nuts" response like above.

[militarymoron]

Through experience, 22LR rounds are finicky and that could be the problem with some of the "misfeed" problems. I assure you that modifying the feed ramp is a waste of your time and a waste of your money.

that's through your experience. just because your uppers work for you has absolutely NO bearing on other people's experience, and it's insulting to discount them. extending an invitation to shoot your or spike's uppers doesn't make my upper work. if i had known that you'd be denying people's personal experiences, i'd have made a video documenting the inability of my spike's .22 upper to feed properly.

through MY personal experience, which is what counts to ME, my new spike's .22 upper would NOT feed any ammo reliably, including the federal walmart box. i couldn't even get the first round chambered half the time. pulled back on the charging handle, let it go, and the round would end up stuck, with the bullet nose caught on the top of the chamber. extracting the round, it'd be bent, and have the copper coating shaved off where it caught.
i rounded off the edge where it was catching and also smoothed out the feed ramp. since then, it feeds EVERYTHING I PUT IN IT. remington, CCI mini-mags, federal bulk packs etc.
if i didn't do the modification, i'd have sent it back to spike for a full refund, wasting BOTH our time and money.

quit denying people have experienced problems with their uppers and just focus on finding out WHY, then fixing it. with this kind of post, you're not doing spike any good. it infuriates customers like me who have experienced problems.
it's like having a shoulder pain and telling someone about it, and having them reply "your shoulder hurts? how can that be? MY shoulder feels fine! look! i can rotate my arms all the way around! woohoo!"

[ech01]

" We use Federal 22LR ammo from Walmart in the brick boxes. Never a misfeed problem. I have 2 22LR conversions and have over 1000 rounds through each rifle. "

as with all guns, there is a break in period too =)

Please dont get me wrong. I didnt say anyone is nuts, what i said was that modifying the kit anymore than we have done is wasting time and money.

There are two types that you can shoot, the lead and the copper.

We always recommend the Copper for OBVIOUS reasons which is what we keep hearing that our customers are having problems with. And NO, we are not just ignoring the problem. We're working on getting the bolt to accept all types of ammo.

So. if you're new to it and just got one. WE say: USE type X = Federal 22LR ammo (or any copper round)!


Military Moron, it was not my intentions to insult you in anyway. My apologies, If you still are having problems, do what should always be done, please give us a call and we will try our best to help you resolve the problem. This post doesnt need to be turned into something negative.
What I said was "Through experience" I did not say "Through MY experience" with 22LRs. If you shoot 22LR regularly, you would have probably experianced that there are very definite differences in 22 ammo. I am not/did not "discount" or "deny" anyones input or experience. Please do not put words in my mouth.


I tried to write the post as positive and neutral as possible, however, as i said, it wasnt fair for other dealers to bash our product without someone from our side having a say. Thats all it was. And no, you guys are not venting to thing air, we actually read these forums and fix the problems that may arise. Our apologies for not being as responsive on the forums.

Happy shooting!

[C4IGrant]

" We use Federal 22LR ammo from Walmart in the brick boxes. Never a misfeed problem. I have 2 22LR conversions and have over 1000 rounds through each rifle. "

as with all guns, there is a break in period too =)

Please dont get me wrong. I didnt say anyone is nuts, what i said was that modifying the kit anymore than we have done is wasting time and money.

There are two types that you can shoot, the lead and the copper.

We always recommend the Copper for OBVIOUS reasons which is what we keep hearing that our customers are having problems with. And NO, we are not just ignoring the problem. We're working on getting the bolt to accept all types of ammo.

So. Choose type X = Federal 22LR ammo!

have a good day!

Military Moron, it was not my intentions to insult you in anyway. My apologies, If you still are having problems, do what should always be done, please give us a call first and we will try our best to help you resolve the problem.

I have built several of the Spikes Tactial uppers (buy the barrels and modified bolts). NOT A SINGLE ONE has ever worked right out of the box.

Blending/polishing the feed ramps, polishing the chamber and then polishing certain parts on the bolt has been the ONLY way we have gotten them to work with a wide range of ammo (including copper coated type bullets).


C4

[rob_s]

ech01, a followup question...

Are you anything more than a salesman and computer guy for Spike? The reason I ask is that you have discounted a corrective measure that two of our more respected members of this forum have found to work for them, and I'm curious to know if you discount it because you have some technical (engineering) or practical (gunsmithing) background that qualifies you to make that statement, or if you're just saying "it's a waste of time" because you have two uppers that work without it?

Personally, unless/until Spike's addresses this issue, one that has cropped up all over the various forums from more than a few respected members, I would only buy an upper from Grant, as he has identified and found a solution for the problem, while the OEM so far (through you as a proxy) has done nothing but deny it.

I agree with MM; I'm not sure that you're doing a very good job of representing Spike's, and in fact may be doing quite the opposite.

As to "call Spike's", I've tried calling and emailing in the past and I always get someone like you that is very enthusiastic but of absolutely NO help technically. I wound up using Anvil for my 9m SBR build simply because I couldn't find anyone at Spike's that knew their ass from their elbow, and Spike was either out, busy, or what-have-you. Jon at Anvil PERSONALLY answered my emails, negating entirely the need to call, and was extremely helpful with the process. This mirrors my experience at the gunshows where I've seen and spoken to Spike; every 5 minutes some lacky has to come up and ask some rudimentary question about this or that, indicating to me that Spike is the only one that knows anything about anything.

other, obviously, than making videos to post on Youtube.

[rob_s]

BTW Grant, have any of your modded uppers in stock again? I think I'm back in the market.