Marvel 1911 conversions and ammo

[pklin1297]

Hello all,

I just got my Marvel 1911 22lr Unit 2 conversion kit, and am itching to go to the range to try it out. So far upon first inspection, this looks to be a quality kit, and finish and fit is much better than my Kimber kit I sold...

Anyway, Marvel recommends running either CCI mini-mag 40gr round nose high velocity, or the Rem. Thunderbolt with this unit. I have used the Thunderbolt before and found it an extremely dirty and inconsistent ammo so I went out in search of the CCI. But right now this CCI seems to be in high demand so everywhere I went they are out of stock.

I am looking for suggestion of other ammo I may be able to try from other owners of this kit, or any 22lr conversion kit for 1911s. I know of many more 22lr high velocity round nose ammo, but I don't want to go out and buy a bunch just to try... In particular, I am looking at some Aguila 40gr round nose high velocity ammo and was wondering if anyone had good or bad experiences with it?

Any recommendations/comments is welcomed. Thanks much!

 

[hatidua]

Re: Marvel 1911 conversions and ammo

I watched about ten different ammo's being tested with a Marvel conversion kit yesterday. Some wouldn't go two rounds but the Remington ammo seemed to run the best. It wasn't mine, or me shooting, just what I observed.

 

[Felixxt]

Re: Marvel 1911 conversions and ammo

I am very curious to see how it shakes out for you because I was stuck between getting that conversion and the tactical solutions. I ended up getting the the tactical so far I have about 500 rounds through it and love it the kicker with it are the mags (65$) each and it is extremely accurate.

 

[pklin1297]

Re: Marvel 1911 conversions and ammo

Remington Thunderbolt and the like seems to be all I can find around here these days, with the usual Winchesters and Federals but those are recommended. I will give the Thunderbolt a go since I have it already and just break in the unit.

I never thought about getting the Tac Sol kit... It was always the Advantage Arms, the Wilson Combat (Marvel unit), and the Marvel. Since MidwayUSA happened to have the Unit 2 Marvel on special price, I snagged that deal. It turns out the Unit 2 Midway was selling is the round profile with flat serrated top version which was what I wanted anyway. I wanted a plinker that has decent accuracy so I did not go with Unit 1 (too expensive anyway). I can't wait to try it out...

 

[Super Bee 950]

Re: Marvel 1911 conversions and ammo

I use Remington standard velocity in mine, and it works great. Eley 10x also works well.

 

[pklin1297]

Re: Marvel 1911 conversions and ammo

Super Bee 950, if you don't mind me asking, how many rounds have you shot through your conversion, and have you changed your recoil spring to a lesser weight than factory?

Reason why I'm asking, is because I've heard of people buying lighter recoil springs from Marvel which allowed the kit to shoot with standard velocity ammo which I would prefer because it tends to be more accurate, at least to me. I did purchase a 9 lb. spring from Marvel which should be lighter, but somehow upon comparison I think it is the same weight as the spring already in my kit; I will try to confirm with Marvel later.

 

[Felixxt]

Re: Marvel 1911 conversions and ammo

The tac sol conversion that I have has not been picky with ammo but I have only used CCI and Remington HV and standard through it so far sorry I forgot to add that to my earlier post

 

[pklin1297]

Re: Marvel 1911 conversions and ammo

Will try out my Marvel kit tomorrow... Hope all will be well.

My Advantage Arms kit for my Glock also came in today, it is like Christmas in October!

 

[pklin1297]

Re: Marvel 1911 conversions and ammo

Tried the kit today. Prior to the shoot I cleaned and lightly oiled the kit per instructions, and also disassembled the bags and cleaned and dry-lubed them also. I shot the session with CCI mini mag 40gr round nose as suggested...

Initially, I had failures to feed where either the nose hits the barrel hood, or the previous round would extract but the slide would not move back far enough to pick up the next round.

Originally I thought maybe it was the Promag magazines that I picked up when I bought the kit (they had great reviews), but it was doing this with the factory GSG 5 magazine also.

I went through about 100 rounds of the CCI and 50 rounds of Remington Thunderbolts. Eventually I got fed up and stopped shooting the kit because I was getting FTFs (slide would not move back far enough to chamber next round) on every round.

I also brought my new Advantage Arms Glock kit to try today so I decided to move to this since I was getting frustrated with the Marvel. First round out of the kit I had a round that failed to chamber when the nose hit the barrel hood. After clearing that, I shot 50+ rounds before I had another FTF (next round did not chamber). After clearing this malfunction, I shot the rest of the session without another failure. Needless to say, I was having a lot more fun shooting this AA glock kit. By the way, this AA kit was an used (barely used) kit when I bought it, and I got three mags with it, which all functioned well.

Regarding the Marvel, I already have an 18-lb. mainspring in my 1911 so I don't think that could've been the problem, but I did notice that when the Marvel slide was moving back to reset the hammer, it was having a bit of a tough time. I am going to polish the hammer where it contacts the kit more, but beyond this I'm not sure what else to do to correct the FTF problem...

I haven't given up on the Marvel kit yet, because when it did function, it was very accurate (the AA kit was on par accuracy wise, which to say was very good). I will have to go try this kit again, but if you guys can offer any solution regarding the FTF problem, please let me know... Thanks much!