Review: Glock 27 Advantage Arms .22 conversion kit

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Review: Glock 27 Advantage Arms .22 conversion kit

Last weekend my daughter and I entered a local non-sanctioned IDPA match at a local sportsmen club. While that may not seem impressive, I should mention that my daughter is 9 years young and she out-shot some adults.

The nice thing about doing a non-sanctioned match is that there are some liberties that one generally does not have in sanctioned events. This played in my daughter’s favor, because she was able to use a Advantage Arms .22 conversion kit on my Glock 27 lower. I had used the conversion kit only about 3 times previously and then it started collecting dust until this spring when I dusted it off for my daughter to take to the range.

Accuracy:
The accuracy of the conversion kit is excellent and the low recoil makes it fun to shoot.  1″ groups free-hand at 7 yards is not a problem.  I would give it an “A” in this category.

FTF’s/FTE’s:
For the most part the conversion kit cycles quite well as long as one uses the recommended ammo.  In my case I like the Federal Auto Match ammo.  Everything works quite well as long as you are operating in a clean environment.  So, if you are just target shooting and you retain the magazines everything works as it should.  However, if you intend to use it more for tactical training, you may be disappointed.  Once the magazines get a little dirt in them, they are done (even if you try to wipe them off and blow them out like a regular mag).  I understand that other magazines experience that issue as well, but these seem to be much more susceptible to dirt than the standard Glock magazines. UPDATE:  My new conversion kit came with a new magazine design, that is easy to clean. Rating: OLD STYLE: “C”  vs. NEW STYLE: “B+”.

My daughter started shooting with “clean” magazine and then a “dirty” magazine that I wiped and blew out by mouth between stages:

Customer Service:
The first thing I did when I got home was to try to clean the magazine.  For the old magazine design, the most effective method turned out to be washing the whole magazine in water and soap. They are not easy to disassemble and since I can’t do that for my daughter at the range between stages, I called Advantage Arms Customer Service.  Let’s just say that there went 6 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back.  I explained the issue and what competition the conversion kit was being used for.  The woman on the other end pretended to know what I was talking about about and the responded “Well, just don’t drop them in the dirt!”.  I figured she didn’t know how IDPA matches work, but she assured me that ” …we have those here as well”.   So, after admonishing me and giving me impression that she didn’t know what she was talking about, I would have to rate this experience with an “F”.  UPDATE:  I had a recent issue with my new G17 conversion kit’s slide catch.  This time I was just asked to e-mail technical support instead of describing my issue to her.  I think that worked out better for both of us.

Cost:
Due to the relatively high cost of the conversion kit, I think it should be more reliable than it is.  The kit costs $275 with one magazine and then $25 for every additional magazine. Overall one ends up spending at least $300 on one Advantage Arms outfit or $325 if you splurge on 2 spare magazines.  For the cost one could easily purchase a Walther P22 or a Mosquito form SigSauer.  However, if you want to train on a Glock this is still the way to go.  Rating: B-

Overall:
Like I stated in the beginning, it’s a decent kit as long as one uses it in a non-tactical fashion and with the new magazines, which I upgraded all of mine the function is much better.  I wish the customer service rep would have been a little more helpful maybe qualified my issue better, and advised that they changed the mag design.  The old mags are just sitting on the shelf now and have not seen any use in about a year.

Sometimes, “The Net” has better advice than a Customer Service Rep, so feel free to chime in.  If you have any good advice on cleaning the magazines during competition or a different conversion kit that my daughter should try post your comment below.

Shoot Straight!

 

 

 

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