Setting Up .22 LR Training Rifle

All right, let's take a look at setting up a dedicated 22 Long Rifle training gun. Now, we all know that there have been shortages of various types of ammo in the past that have affected whether or not you could train in any reasonable way with your full-size gun, because that ammo was expensive or hard to find. And we also know there've been some shortages of 22 Long Rifle in recent history, but it definitely stands to reason that in a standard market in a typical time, you're gonna want to have a cheaper way to train than shooting full power ammunition all the time. Having a dedicated 22 Long Rifle is a great way to do that. And the nice thing about the 22s and the AR community is they've really gotten much more reliable over the last few years. Whether using a conversion kit or something that's a dedicated purpose built 22 caliber only gun like this one, you can get some great reliability. And when the ammo is on the shelves, you can get some great value. Now training with a sub-caliber is never gonna be one-to-one, but you can make it as consistent as possible by making sure your rifle is set up as consistently as possible. It doesn't make any sense to have one rifle set up with a 22 that's completely different from the gun that you're trying to emulate while you're training. So it wouldn't make sense, for example, to take a Plinking 22 or a semi-automatic, a small-game type hunting 22 and say, well I'm practicing with my AR. You're not doing that at all. So when you have your AR set up for home defense, this is my current go-to gun. I've a sling on it, of course, but I took that out just to get it out of the way. That's not on here. What do we have? We have a collapsible stock, which stays pretty close in. We have a laser and light. We have a backup iron sight. This one's obviously a plastic sight but it's a pop-up backup iron sight. And that mates up really well with this aim point, my red dot. And what I've done is I've set up now a 22 dedicated for training in a very similar way. I've got a collapsible stock that's collapsed in. I've got an iron front sight. It's not a pop-up, it doesn't need to be, that's fine. It's fixed. And I've got an older laser light unit that I don't use anymore as a primary. But what's important to note here is it's mounted in exactly the same place and it has a thumb or finger activated button on both sides. So the manipulations of that light and laser are going to be consistent. The use of the iron sight is going to be consistent when I made it up with this aim point. Now here's the thing. The aim point is an expensive piece and any red dot that's worth having on your gun is gonna be a costly piece. And to have two of those, to put one on your dedicated 22, probably doesn't make that much sense. So very quickly you can see that I've got, pretty much a one-to-one relationship here. Very similar feel, very similar length, very similar fit. A lot of the similar accessories. And all I really need to do is throw this quick detach lever. I'm gonna take this off of the gun. When I take that off of the gun and lay that one down, I'm just gonna bring it over here. I've got a mark to let me know where I need to put it on this gun, and I'm gonna lock that down and boom, I'm ready to train. So I can take my dedicated 22 Long Rifle AR. It's a little bit lighter. It's easier to train with during a long day. It's gonna give me most of the same exact manipulations. It's gonna give me similar feel. Obviously, I don't have to worry about recoil management, but let's face it. We're talking about a home defense gun or maybe acting on a patrol rifle kind of situation around a patrol vehicle or inside of a house, inside of a workplace, inside of a retail environment. The marksmanship challenges with the AR-15 platform for defensive purposes really aren't that significant. So I'm not as worried about the recoil management marksmanship issues. I'm much more worried about the manipulations moving with the rifle, getting comfortable with the rifle. And I can do all those things with the 22 Long Rifle version. When I'm done, make sure I pop this off. And once I get that off the gun, I'm gonna lay this back down here, pick up my actual rifle, which by the way, I also have less wear and tear on. Again, I have this marked, so I know exactly where to put it. I also have less wear and tear on my home defense rifle, right? I'm staking my life on this rifle. So I want as little wear and tear, as little abuse on this as possible. So it's really important that you do go out and train with your full size gun. You ensure that it's reliable. You ensure that you can hit the target. You ensure that you can manage the recoil, but once you've established your fundamentals, let's take better care of this gun than we would if we were beating it up all the time, getting lots and lots of reps, training lots and lots of banging in and out of the truck, wherever it's going, moving around on the range, getting dirty, getting cleaned. We start to wear those parts out, wear the springs out. Less wear and tear using a dedicated 22 Long Rifle training gun that is set up appropriately so that we get as much realism as possible when we're practicing with that sub-caliber.