Good choice! I have the exact same kit for my Stag. It really does work well. It cost me $138 all from Amazon. (They don’t carry the targetmaster anymore but other companies do.) 1000 rounds NO Malfunctions. In response to someone’s question, the bolt hold open works every time.
I bought two spare mags, black dog brand, from amazon for $25 apiece. In California you can only shoot 10 round mags so my mag is blocked. Black dog sells two kinds, the 10 rounders and the 26 rounders for people in the Free States. But i disassemble the mags for cleaning sometimes, and i noticed the block is only a molded in protrusion that blocks the follower from holding more then 10 rounds. You could remove it in about 5 seconds with an x-acto saw blade. If i move to another state, i will disassemble the mag (it’s just held together by some small phillips screws) and simply remove the molded-in plastic block and then it will hold 26 like everybody else’s.
Anyway here is my two cents, some information you or somebody else may find helpful, about using and maintaining the rifle and targetmaster kit when shooting .22 LR…
A couple Use copper plated bullets only. You can shoot lead but the barrel will lead up fast. Even with copper plated you are going to get leading in your barrel, big time. This is a bad thing and could damage the barel if ignored too long
I use lead away cloths cut into patches, lead remover from Hoppes’, and Kroil and the patches still come out dark. When they come out with minor streaks of light grey that’s probably as clean as the barrel is going to get. In general no chemical alone is going to get the lead out of the barrel even if you soak it overnight, it needs to be physically removed. I posted a question about this, Received several interesting replies, and most people said don’t worry about the lead. BUT one person said they fired lots of .22 lr in their AR, cleaned the barrel normally, then one day noticed a bulge in the barrel! He had to replace the barrel after that, the only sensible fix…was there a correlation between lead in the barrel, and the bulge? the pessimist in me says there must have been. So I do try to remove as much of the lead as possible from the barrel!
I clean the barrel with brass brushes, soak it in the lead remover, then work it with the brass brush some more. Then 5 or 10 lead away patches cut to size, to fit tightly. I repeat this entire procedure shortly after, whether the gun is fired or not. I don’t try to get it perfectly clean but i spend 15 minutes -half an hour on cleaning the barrel alone.
Maybe the fastest way, but one i haven’t tried yet - some people recommend wrapping an old cleaning brush with “chore boy” copper pad strands (from the cleaning section of most grocery stores, usually used for pans etc.) strands. They say when they do this they put down a clean paper towel below the muzzle and can see the lead falling out. So doing this will cut the lead out and not harm your barrel (the copper is softer then the barrel steel). Do not get copper COATED pads, don’t use these - get the “chore boy”, they are pure copper.
Also targetmaster recommends firing one 5.56 round per every 250-500 shots of .22 LR. to clean out the gas tube. The indoor range i go to most of the time doesn’t allow this, rimfire and pistol cartridges only. What to do? I got the gas tube cleaner pipe cleaners from brownells, this also looks worth a try:
http://www.midwestindustriesinc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=145
Then i hose out the gas tube with brake cleaner, followed by compressed air (i have a small compressor that cost me $40).
I do clean the conversion kit itself. i take it apart after 500 rounds for cleaning, it’s easy to do. If you’ve ever taken apart an AK47 recoil spring, the principle is the same.
To disassemble the conversion kit, pull back the bolt and hold it back tightly. Now use your other hand to pop out the rail ends from the chamber part (when assembled the spring tension of the bolt spring on the bolt is what holds it all together.). Hopefully the photo gives some idea of how it comes apart. Now ease the bolt forward slowly so it doesn’t become a projectile, and remove the spring. That’s as far as i go for disassembly, I feel you can get the firing pin and extractor clean enough without trying to remove them, and maybe making more problems.
Clean everything well with brake cleaner or your favorite cleaner. I hose out the bolt, particularly firing pin hole and extractor, with the brake cleaner. Scrub the bolt rails indents, the bolt face, and exterior portion of extractor with a toothbrush. Then hose it off well again, use compressed air if you have it, and you are done with the bolt. (You could remove the firing pin and extractor if you really want to be thorough but i don’t, the above stripping is as far as i go.)
I clean the hole in the bolt, where the spring goes with a nylon brush and hoppes or CLP. Then a patch wrapped around the brush. Pay special attention to the chamber area - time for the lead away patch and chore boy again, lead will build up here if neglected and you don’t want that. A nylon or brass brush works well, wrap with a cleaning patch for final cleanliness test. Some people clean the chamber by chucking a brass brush into a drill but I think that’s over-kill, to me.
Lube - i like to put a thin film of grease on the rails where the bolt slides, top and bottom. A few drops of clp on the spring. A drop on the extractor, and one drop in the back of the firing pin. Then put everything back together.
I store it in a plastic bag after giving it a good soak with CLP for anti-rust. I store it in a zip lock bag then stuff the whole thing back into that nice square plastic box they send it in. Before use, i wipe off excess lube, and before inserting the unit into my upper, i also grease the outside of the chamber part to make it slide in easier, and to minimize wear on the chamber of rifle and conversion kit.
I disassemble the mags once in a while, but usually the follower is the only part that gets dirty. I don’t lube the spring - although a light dusting of some graphite on the spring wouldn’t hurt. Petroleum products on most plastics are usually not a good match so i use no oil or grease here. I clean the follower with hoppes or clp, wipe out the inside of the mag, wipe off the spring, and put it back together. It’s probably not necessary to take apart the mag more then every 2000 rounds or so, if that - unless you drop the mag in the dirt or something like that, wiping off the follower with solvent is usually good enough.
