Product Description: AR-15 Style Rifle manufactured by Smith & Wesson chambered for the 22 Long Rifle Cartridge. Styled after their M&P 15 Series of Black Rifles, it has a sixteen inch barrel and I measured a one in fifteen inch twist rate; their web site states 1:16”. The barrel is available threaded or un-threaded. According to Smith&Wesson’s web site, the MSRP is $569.00. At 5.5 pounds it is light compared to a stock carbine, and this may affect handling characteristics during some drills.

I started this project as a way to be able to practice carbine drills inexpensively. I looked at 22LR conversion kits. Price was acceptable, but the good ones were in the $200 range, or more. And, a downside to that option was the 22LR residue in my AR barrel. So I decided to look at complete units as an option.

I had an opportunity to pick up one of the new model M&P 15-22 Rifles with the threaded barrel at what I thought was a reasonable price; $429 and four spare magazines at $15.95 each.

The unit looked good as received:





The bird cage appears to be a stock USGI A1 Flash Suppressor. If that is true, the barrel is threaded ½ by 28 and should take any after market devices; including sound suppressors.



The “captured” take-down pins work the same as on a standard AR Platform, so I took the upper receiver off and cleaned the barrel, breech face, and bolt face. The lower receiver fire control internals looked clean, well lubricated, and appear to be steel USGI (semi auto) parts, with the exception of the selector. It is a nylon or polymer part that looks like a “normal” AR-15 selector.



The sides of the lower receiver are a little wider than a stock AR Lower and the trigger/hammer pins to not come flush with the sides of the receiver. I’m not sure if any of the anti-walk pin sets would fit; but those are probably not necessary on a 22LR. Pin spacing mic’s out to be the same as an AR-15 lower receiver and aftermarket “drop in” trigger groups should fit if anyone wanted to make that investment for the 15-22. I lubricated everything “as usual” and reassembled the rifle.

The lower receive will NOT accept AR-15 magazines. The factory magazines have a twenty-five round capacity, and are easily disassembled for cleaning or maintenance. Shown below from left to right are – follower and spring, “load assist” button, magazine body, floor plate and the push-button piece for removing the floor plate.



The lower receiver and 6-position mil-spec buffer tube appear to be injection molded of a nylon or polymer resin, and are formed as a single piece. The buffer tube is hollow and has a Smith&Wesson logo rubber plug in the outside end. The receiver end is solid. A carbine style adjustable buttstock is installed.





The trigger guard is flared slightly for gloved use, but is integral with the lower receiver. It is molded as a single piece, so you won’t be able to add the MagPul Enhanced Trigger Guard. I also don’t think I will be able to replace the pistol grip. The screw used to secure it appears to be an allen or socket-head bolt, and looks like the factory deliberately rounded out the inside so it can’t be removed. I am going to send S&W a note on that one, just to be sure.

The upper receiver and handguard (separate pieces) are also formed of the same nylon or polymer resin and have an integral picatinny rail. They are not “T” marked, but slot spacing is correct for rail mounted accessories. The sights are both removable, and while they do not fold they are acceptable for use with a red dot sight. The rear A2 Style Sight, at a minimum, would need to be removed if a scope is to be used.





The front sight is a square post with the four-detent style adjustment:





On the handguard, I installed a ladder rail cover on each side, and four of the Magpul XTM panels on the bottom for ergonomics. Those, along with trying the fitment of the VLTOR EMOD Stock almost makes it look like a real carbine:



After cleaning I took it to an indoor range that has 25 yards as the maximum distance. I had a variety of ammunition with me, as I had read some interesting stories about the first few off the production line. I chose to zero with CCI Mini-Mag solids, and after 4 left clicks and 6 up clicks it was printing about one half inch low at 25 yards. Almost exactly at the six o’clock hold position. That zero should be fine for any iron sight work I choose to do.

I had one failure to feed in the very first magazine. That may have been me. I took a front bench rest for the zeroing portion of the range session, and was putting pressure on the magazine with my front hand while shooting that initial magazine. The picture below is a composite of three shots of the same jammed cartridge. Left-most is a slight down angle showing the dented nose where it jammed into the upper portion of the chamber entrance. Middle image shows a side view with the dented nose and the bend in the case. Right-most view is the dent caused by the bolt riding the case while attempting to chamber.



I ran another 250 rounds through it off hand using the CCI Mini-Mags, some 20 year old Winchester Wild Cat shells, and some Super-X. All were plated, and none were hollow points. Even with my old eyes, it kept a two to two and a half inch cluster around point of aim. No other failures of any type were seen during this range session.

There is a gun show coming up February 6th and I will probably end up with an inexpensive red dot sight on it for practice.

Now back to the original premise, “Is it a serious tool for practicing carbine drills, or just a fun plinker?”

It is definitely a fun plinker. People at the range wanted to line up to shoot it. But the jury is still out on it being a serious practice tool. It is very light and has a heavy trigger; the advertised 7 pounds is not far off. With the EMOD stock on it, it handled fairly well and came up from a medium low ready (range shelf on each line) to “on target” very quickly but I could not do target transitions laterally.

Until the ground dries up, and I can get out to work some very basic drills, I will only say the S&W M&P 15-22 definitely has potential.

I will update this thread as the project progresses, and will include opinions of others that have an opportunity to shoot the M&P 15-22.

I hope this has been informative, and thanks for taking the time to read it.