CMMG Bravo .22 Conversion: Long Term Look

I’ve been using the CMMG Bravo .22LR Conversion kit for my AR-15’s for almost 7 years now. So I figured it was a perfect time to give our readers a long-term review of this handy product. After thousands of rounds on the kit across several different AR-15’s I think I have a decent idea of how the kit works, and how it holds up.

CMMG Bravo .22LR Conversion Overview

WHY Should You Care About This Kit?

A valid question if ever one was asked. This very topic came up when I was talking to my friend about how he had to help his young son shoot an AR-15 in .223. He explained that his son, who is small for his age, was having a hard time with the rifle and its recoil. We began to discuss the CMMG Bravo .22LR Conversion kit and how beneficial it would be to young shooters.

The CMMG kit is a perfect stepping stone for shooters who are either new to shooting rifles or smaller in stature and desire to become comfortable with AR-15 rifles. The beauty of this kit is that it allows shooters to use a normal AR-15 rifle yet fire a .22LR caliber round with the use of a simple drop-in bolt carrier and a proprietary magazine.

Specifications

• Manufacturer: CMMG Inc.
• Location of Manufacture: Fayette, Missouri
• Build Material: Unspecified Stainless Steel
• Caliber: .22 LR

Price:

• CMMG Kit w/ 1 -10 Round Mag: $ 199.95
• CMMG Kit with 3 -10 Round Mags: $229.95
• CMMG Kit with 1-25 Round Mag: $199.95
• CMMG Kit with 3-25 Round Mag: $229.95

Other Notes:

• Available for Left Handed AR-15’s
• Available in 5.7 x .22LR Conversion
• Magazines available in FDE

Retailers:

• CMMG
• Brownells
• Palmetto State Armory

Build Quality & Hands On Look

When you first handle the CMMG Bravo Conversion Kit, you’ll notice it’s largely stainless steel and has a good amount of heft to it. The welds on our unit look perfect without any slag or voids. The finish has not dulled or shown any wear after thousands of rounds through it. This really is a nod to the quality of the raw materials selected by CMMG, their quality control, and construction process oversight.

The .22LR Conversion Kit is a complete drop-in unit that essentially looks like a normal AR-15 bolt that someone welded a stainless steel .223 / 5.56 mm shell casing onto the front of. Its design allows a user to swap from 5.56 to .22 LR in just a few seconds. Remove the stock 5.56 bolt, drop in the CMMG kit, and you are ready to shoot for a fraction of the cost.

The kit has proprietary magazines that have changed over the years. The new ones are lighter than the 1^st generation but function just the same in side-by-side comparison. All the CMMG magazines feature polymer bodies and followers, and successfully operated the last round hold open feature during our testing. The magazines survived our random drop tests onto asphalt at my local range. No issue with magazines overall, and they received a passing grade. MSRP for a 25-rounder is $24.95, but if you shop around, you can find them cheaper.

The bolt comes apart relatively easily if you want to break it down for maintenance or need to replace the bolt or components. However, I honestly just dunk the whole unit in my ultrasonic cleaner with some purple power or simple green and it cleans up just fine.

Range Session

The true test of any firearm, or in this case, conversion kit, is the field-testing segment. We tested the CMMG Bravo against 15 different types of .22LR ammunition. The full list of brands and types is listed at the end of the article, but we only found 1 that gave us issues, and that was the 40 grain CCI Quiet Target. This round regularly causes misfires and jams across many firearms so that wasn’t a shock. I attribute this to the 710 Ft per second velocity that the CCI Quiet Target advertises. Outside of this one round, the CMMG Bravo was boringly reliable across AR-15’s with barrel lengths of 10.5”, 12.5”, and 16”. It’s a note that shooting this kit with a suppressed SBR didn’t cause any unusual issues during our sessions.

When using my regular optics set up across a few of my AR-15’s, the 50 yards and closer distances that I have been testing is as good as it needs to be. It’s not an Anschutz, Bergara or some other high-end .22LR bolt action, but it’s enough to knock the center out of clay pigeons or snag some small game like rabbits and squirrels. I don’t expect this to be a 1 MOA rifle; it’s a kit for range time fun and a little small game if you desire, and it delivers on that just fine.

I’ve had this kit for years, and I can’t honestly tell you the number of rounds I’ve run through it. However, for this testing cycle, I ran 250 rounds through the kit without any extra lubrication or cleaning. The kit ran like it always has, smooth and flawlessly.

Magazine after magazine for the last few years, this kit has just kept providing me with hours of cheap .22LR shooting fun at a cost less than the average used Ruger 10/22.

Closing Thoughts

Affordable, American-made, and accurate are words I would use to describe this kit. I have proven that with minimal maintenance, this kit will reliably feed almost any .22LR ammunition on the market for years. I want to note this includes some very dirty and inexpensive options I’ve used.

If you are an AR-15 owner, and don’t have a CMMG Bravo kit, you are really missing out on a lot of fun and savings. At less than 50% the cost of a Ruger 10/22 ask yourself why don’t you have a Bravo yet? What are your thoughts on this offering from CMMG? Do you have a Bravo kit? If so, how do you like it? We want to hear from you, our readers. Drop us a line in the comments section or on social media.

Ammunition Tested:

• Federal American Eagle: 22 Suppressor (45 Grain)
• Federal American Eagle: 22 Lighting (40 Grain)
• Federal American Eagle: Value Pack (36 Grain)
• CCI: Quiet 22 (40 Grain)
• CCI: Velocitor (40 Grain)
• CCI: Stinger (40 Grain)
• CCI: Standard Velocity (40 Grain)
• CCI: Mini Mag (40 Grain)
• Lapua: Pistol King (40 Grain)
• Remington: Golden Bullet (36 Grain)
• Aguilla: 22 Super Extra (40 Grain)
• Winchester: Super X (40 Grain)
• Winchester: White Box Bulk Pack (36 Grain)
• Norma: Tac 22 (40 Grain)
• Armscor: (36 Grain)