bigu2fan Posted April 18 Report Share Posted April 18 I got one of Todd's upgraded recoil springs for his S&W 76 .22 lr conversion kit, and tested it out today (4/18/26) in my S&W 76. Previously, I had to exclusively use the originally supplied "extra power" recoil spring in my gun. Using that spring, and CCI Mini-Mags purchased from TargetSportsUSA, it was unstoppable. Incredible performance over several thousand rounds. I could not "pull singles" in full auto, but that was fine by me. The shortest burst I could get was two rounds. That's about the same performance as when shooting the gun in 9mm. With the upgraded recoil spring I used today, I am able to pull singles with the same CCI Mini-Mag ammo, which is a definite upgrade in my book. The gun is still just as incredibly reliable in short or long bursts or pulling singles. Really a top notch product. I also tried some CCI-Mini mags in the 100 round rigid plastic containers (the TargetSportsUSA stuff is in 50 round cardboard boxes) and it worked perfectly as well. I don't know if it's the same ammo as in the 50-round boxes from TargetSportsUSA, just packaged in different containers or if there is a substantive difference. Just wanted to mention it. Next, I tried some old Winchester M-22 ammo with the upgraded spring, and it worked well also. That ammo, however, in my experience does have the occasional bad primer no matter what gun it is used in for me. It is inferior, in my opinion, to CCI Mini-mags. Finally, I tried two types of Federal bulk pack with the new upgraded spring and the original "extra power" spring, but that ammo is not to this kit's liking in my gun. In short, I fired about 500 rounds of the CCI Mini-Mags of both types and old Winchester M-22 (maybe 10 years old) and performance with the upgraded spring was flawless. My gun won't run on Federal .22. That said, I see KickStand has had great success with his kit and a variety of different manufacturers' .22 ammo. Double thumbs up to Todd! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPFiveO Posted April 19 Report Share Posted April 19 I haven't tried any of the new Federal bulk pack. I have (had) an ammo can full of 90's vintage copper plated 36 grain hollow point ammo that always ran pretty well with my Ciener M16 .22 kit. I broke that can open specifically to use in my S&W 76 kit. That ammo has been flawless and I've had only one failure to fire in 5000+ rounds. It looks like there was likely no primer compound in that particular round as I tried it again making an X across the back of the case with no ignition. Definitely not the kit's fault. I'm anxious to see what other cheap bulk .22 ammo out there runs well with the kit as it's almost time to restock. Multiple friends have tried all kinds of different ammo and the kit just doesn't care, it eats everything and asks for more. I will admit at this point that I've been a bit negligent in my maintenance duties. I should probably disassemble and clean everything before starting on the next case of ammo. I've run through over 5000 rounds of the Federal bulk pack and untold numbers that friends have fed it. I tried to field clean it a while back by squirting oil on the bolt face and breech face and scrubbing it with a GI toothbrush. What that did was push a lot of crud into the chamber which caused a few failure to feed malfunctions. The solution was to keep trying and sure enough, it self cleaned and went on to digest several hundred more rounds without a single malfunction. This thing is AK-47 of .22 Subguns. The new spring and some more mags are on the way and I'll probably clean it before trying out the new stuff. But I almost don't want to mess with success. This thing always pleases and it's not shooter intolerant. Anyone can just pick it up and do a mag dump. It produces a smile every time. Well, multiple smiles usually. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KickStand Posted April 19 Report Share Posted April 19 How to: change the new magazine body and Testing SubGun24’s new and updated recoil spring. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clc3251 Posted April 19 Report Share Posted April 19 1 hour ago, KickStand said: How to: change the new magazine body and Testing SubGun24’s new and updated recoil spring. Thanks for posting this. My mag bodies didn't come with instructions and I would have thought the retainer pushed in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KickStand Posted April 20 Report Share Posted April 20 14 hours ago, clc3251 said: Thanks for posting this. My mag bodies didn't come with instructions and I would have thought the retainer pushed in. No problem man. Glad it helped someone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill in Bama Posted April 21 Report Share Posted April 21 I meant to order some of the new mag bodies with my last order but somehow failed to get them on the list. I had made my own witness holes in one of the original mags and I was off a bit from how Todd does it on his new ones, but now that I have some of the new ones I can use them as a pattern to drill holes in my original mags. That said, I still will probably buy some new mag bodies the next time I order. To beat a dead horse, the customer service from Todd is above anything I've ever experienced, he keeps coming through for us, so if you haven't tried him out yet, what are you waiting for. The last video from KickStand should convince you of what a dead-reliable kit this is, and I can't wait to get out again and burn through some more .22. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KickStand Posted April 26 Report Share Posted April 26 Todd’s NEW 50 round mags are awesome (Video below). I ran these today with his new and free recoil spring. His Lightnin Grip Adapter (even works with the 50 rounders). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPFiveO Posted April 27 Report Share Posted April 27 I'm not sure what else I can say at this point. I got Todd's new recoil spring and three of his 50 round magazines. He also sent me an adapter for the McFadden Lightning Loader which I'll be ordering today! I went to the range yesterday and tried out the new magazines and recoil spring. I didn't do anything I should have done. I didn't clean the kit or the gun. I didn't add any fresh oil. It just had what was on it from the last trip to the range. All three 50 round magazines ran perfectly right from the start. I ran each one at least three times. Then I did that thing that machine gunners do sometimes. I loaded up all six magazines and did back to back mag dumps. The first three mags were the 40's loaded with some new Remington ammo that came in a white bucket. Not even sure what it was, looked like it could have been Thunderbolt. The next three mags were the new 50's loaded with the remnants of my 1990's Federal bulk pack 36 grain copper plated hollow point bullets. I had a failure to feed on the first round with one of the mags, I don't even remember which one. I absolutely chalk this up to not having the mag fully seated properly. In just over 60 seconds there were 270 pieces of smoking .22 brass on the ground. Other than the self induced malfunction all the magazines ran flawlessly. At the end the barrel was smoking hot. There was a gray slurry covering the bolt. It's begging me to clean it but it's still running like a Rolex. I forwarded the video to Todd and told him to feel free to post it. I can't think of a better endorsement for his product. This is hands down the most fun I've had with any machine gun in my 34 years of collecting NFA. If you have a 76/760 series Subgun and don't have one of these kits you are missing out big-time. To date I've emptied my 5500 round can of the Federal bulk pack. I can attest that at least that number of rounds were provided by others shooting it with various types of ammo. I should have done a better job of documenting any types of ammo it didn't like but that has happened so infrequently that I didn't bother. I had 11 people at the range yesterday and in the end there were 11 smiling faces all thanks to Todd's incredible kit. He's really come up with something here. With the cost of ammo going up and staying up this is the answer to the question of how to still have fun with a machine gun and not go broke. Hopefully Todd can get the video posted soon. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subgun24 Posted April 27 Author Report Share Posted April 27 Thanks @MPFiveO. I posted your video. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clc3251 Posted April 27 Report Share Posted April 27 When will the 50 round mags be available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subgun24 Posted April 27 Author Report Share Posted April 27 50 round mags are available on my website www.subgun.store Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill in Bama Posted April 27 Report Share Posted April 27 I don’t know how I missed the availability of the 50’s but I’m putting in an order right away. Todd, you just keep hitting home runs! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPFiveO Posted April 27 Report Share Posted April 27 4 hours ago, subgun24 said: Thanks @MPFiveO. I posted your video. Thank you for posting that Todd! If that doesn't sell the kit on it's reliability alone I don't know what will. That was about $16 in .22 ammo versus $54 in 9mm ammo. What's not to like about that?!? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.