The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

The Tac R1 belongs to a family of rifles that all use the same inner mechanism inside an airsoft copy shell (I have the Colt AR version). If you need to strip it down you have to pull the whole assembly including the barrel out of the back of the upper and it's quite fiddly to strip down and worse to put back together. The version I have doesn't have an extremal bolt catch which was a pain until I modified it. You can adjust the strength of the recoil spring to cater for different ammo.
On the whole I like mine for the full metal feel and it's generally reliable but doesn't like manually extracting unfired rounds.
Also the thread at the front of the receiver is not standard size so aftermarket forends don't fit.
Magazines are robust and don't break when dropped but are relatively soft plastic which means the feed lips wear quite quickly leading to feeding problems and then you have to junk a £30 mag.

If I was buying another one I'd go for the 15-22. People seem to have the least problems with them once they've upgraded the firing pin. There's plenty of upgrades available and the light weight can be an advantage.

I love my 15-22. Have had no issues with it whatsoever. It seems to work more reliably than the Chiappa M4 upper I had on my Spikes Tactical AR15 lower. When the damned government stole my AR15s, that was the end of that. Apparently Chiappa won't sell the lowers separately.

For my money, my Tippmann M4-22 Elite S is the absolute dogs.

Not crazy money, and it is all aluminium and (virtually) all Mil-Spec.

Magazines are reliable and have had a lot of thought put into them. Forward bolt assist works, bolt hold open is 'proper' and doesn't just lock back on the magazine follower.

Next on my list is the longer barreled Elite L version....

Airbrush wrote: No idea if Nick will build any. You have to look at Marks .22’s as custom rifles, they were very labour intensive to build, best on the market at the time imo.

I got a couple of 22 ARs left from a small batch I finished before the lock-down, to the same overall design as Mark's. As you say they are custom built but as these are made from 223 AR parts they are as solid and weighty as the big rifle. They use CMMG or Black Dog magazines and function great.
Consequently they are not as cheap as the more plastic designed-as-22 rifle out there but they will take any of the regular accessories or add-ons (including triggers etc) as the standard rifle and can be configured accordingly.

If its just for plinking get whatever tickles your fancy, most will run reliably enough for that once you find the right ammo.

The Hammerli is a rebadged Umarex 'H&K' 416 trading on the Hammerli name.

If you're going to need competition level reliability/shoot 'action' type comps get a 15-22, end of.

Thank you all for the advise so far! It would definitely seem like you get what you pay for. For that reason I think I have ruled out the Hammerli, whilst I do like the idea of the all metal construction and the price. The fact that you can't change anything on the rifle going forward is a bit of a shame. Likewise it sounds like a PITA to strip.

I have heard of the Bradley Arms and I would happily look into one, but they seem very hard to come by. I would be interested to gauge some more opinions before I pull the trigger (no pun intended) I think I may have narrowed it down between the S&W - Lantac - Kriss

Regards to just plinking, that is what I think the main use will be. It absolutely won't be for hunting however I may look into comps? Im just not sure yet. This is all still very new to me. I have been shooting for years, but new to section 1 so still finding my feet. The range I go to is a great set up, very friendly etc. However it is only 25M range's and don't hold competition. Not sure what distance people shoot at these comps or what the set up is like having never looked into it? Competitions do sound appealing to me, I like the atmosphere and its more rewarding than just punching holes in a paper target on your own, just wanted a little bit of range time 1st.

I've had 2 15-22s, a standard 16" and a custom 12" barrel, for short range mini-rifle they're excellent. Newer ones aren't as reliable as my quad railed originals, extractor problems and some firing pin issues. Parts that luckily can be replaced and are easily acquired in the UK, nowadays.

2 CMMGs and now a Lantac LA-SF15, the match chamber just edges it in the accuracy stakes.

Lantac buy unchambered barrels from CMMG and have them hand chambered, shortened(if required) and re-crowned in the UK.

The current and next batch of LA-SF15s also assembled in the UK, receivers and handguards are made by Lantac USA, triggers are from ALG.

Due to covid19 I've had to sell my Border barreled CMMG that was built for me by Lantac, luckily it lost very little of it's value and I recouped the purchase price in the sale.

I think that's one thing that differentiates Lantac from other brands, they do hold their value well. I paid £1375 for a Straight Pull Raven .223 in 2013 and sold it last year for £1450.

Snapped this pic on the day of picking the LA-SF15 up, last time it looked like this too as the Magpul MOE grip and stock were put onto the 15-22 to return it to standard before selling.

Another option is the guys at Northwest Customs https://nwcustomparts.com/product-categ ... re-builds/

For a first rifle I'd go with a 15-22 or a 10-22. Both are cheap and almost infinitely customizable. Save the money initially until you get some practice in and figure out if you really need a more expensive option.

At least that's what I told myself starting out - and I still have my original 15-22 - just with a different trigger, BAD lever, stock, safety, mag release, sights etc !

Welcome and good luck in your search.

- daman

daman wrote:For a first rifle I'd go with a 15-22 or a 10-22. Both are cheap and almost infinitely customizable. Save the money initially until you get some practice in and figure out if you really need a more expensive option.

At least that's what I told myself starting out - and I still have my original 15-22 - just with a different trigger, BAD lever, stock, safety, mag release, sights etc !

Welcome and good luck in your search.

- daman

Good advise. However, I too did the same with a 10/22. Buy a cheap(ish) .22LR to start, then spend many times the purchase price making it what you wanted in the first place - mine now has very few standard 10/22 part left, other than the receiver and the bolt!