I’m a fan of the Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22. There are a lot of .22LR AR’s out there now but I’m pretty content with my M&P. I got one when they first came out, so mine was pretty basic. M4 stock, A2 grip and a non threaded barrel. Not too long after I got mine they started offering threaded barrels with A2 flash hiders on them. I wanted one, but my gun ran like a top so I didn’t want to mess with it. That was until I finally messed with it, and gave myself a reason to upgrade.
The Slippery Slope of AR Mods
I’ve read over the years of folks having some feed or ejection issues with their M&P’s. In fact my buddy has one that glitches at least a couple times a range session. Mine has run flawlessly though and that kept me from messing with it for years. Earlier this year though I broke down and started modding it.
I had a Franklin Armory BFSIII AR-C1 binary trigger that I had originally installed in an SBR AR with a .22LR conversion kit. While that was a neat set up I thought I’d get more use out of it in a dedicated .22 carbine. The M&P, being my only .22 caliber AR, was my obvious choice.
Now, I have to put a disclaimer here: Franklin Armory does not recommend using their binary triggers in polymer lowers. With this noted, I did see a number of folks online had been using them in the M&P without issue. I decided to give it a shot, knowing in advance I couldn’t blame Smith & Wesson or Franklin Armory if I had any issues.
Installation
Installation was pretty straight forward. The M&P uses a standard AR fire control group so the Franklin Armory BFSIII AR-C1 trigger went in without issue. Where I did run into a problem was that the Smith lower had molded in selector switch stops that prevented me from rotating the selector switch to the third position for binary fire. Not an insurmountable issue. It’s a polymer lower, and I had a file so I just filed those down. If I hadn’t already voided my warranty before now, I probably did at that point.
With the selector switch stops filed down I could now rotate the selector switch properly. A quick trip to the range confirmed that everything worked perfectly. The binary on the M&P was pretty awesome in fact. It upped the fun factor on an already fun gun. Steel plate racks and plastic jugs didn’t stand a chance with me armed with the binary equipped 15-22 and a handful of 25 round mags.
But Now it Needs Painted
The only glitch I had was that I scratched the lower up a little when I was filing off the selector switch stops. It wasn’t horrible, but it bothered my OCD. The obvious fix was to just paint over that crap. So out came the rattle cans. I used ripped burlap strips to create the pattern and hit it with some Rapco paint. I was pretty happy with the results and all was good with the world.
Range Time
I ran the gun like that for a while until one fateful range session this summer. I was out with a buddy and his daughter’s boyfriend and we were running the M&P. My buddy had a batch of some sketchy old .22’s and he loaded some up for the M&P. A few rounds into a binary string we got an odd pop. I cleared a jam and when we went to shoot again we were getting one round fired, no extraction. A closer look at the gun revealed that the extractor was blown off. It seemed that it had an out of battery discharge. Possibly from running the binary trigger, or possibly from the old ammo. Most likely a combination of the two. Either way, we were out of commission for the day.
An Excuse to Upgrade
I obviously had to replace the extractor and was initially planning on just getting another OEM one. My buddy suggested that there might be something better out there though. I honestly wasn’t sure what was available for the M&P. Since mine had always run well before I started messing with it, I hadn’t really looked at what was out there.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was actually a good bit of aftermarket support for the 15-22’s. I came across Volquartsen Firearms when I was looking, and decided that that was the way to go. Volquartsen has a great reputation, and they know .22’s. I saw a good number of positive forum posts on their M&P parts as well. My initial plan was to just get a bolt rebuild kit. I had reached out to Volquartsen with some questions though, and after talking to their media rep, I decided to go all in and get their Performance Bundle for the M&P 15-22.
Not only would the Performance Bundle give me the bolt parts I needed, but also a new carbon fiber, threaded barrel. That would finally allow me to run a suppressor on my M&P, which I’d wanted to do for a long time. I have a lot of rounds through my rifle and it’s one of the family favorites to shoot. So I didn’t mind investing a little bit of money to not only get it running again, but to improve it in the process.
The Volquartsen Performance Bundle
This bundle includes Volquartsen’s Lightweight Carbon Fiber barrel and Competition Bolt. The THM tension barrel includes a special taper-honed match barrel and chamber. Their Competition Bolt is precision machined, DLC coated, and includes our SureStrike Firing Pin and Exact Edge extractor. The kit is available with a compensator, but since I planned on running a can I opted for the kit with just a threaded barrel and thread protector instead. The kit includes a barrel wrench to swap out your factory barrel. I did get some pare parts to rebuild my old bolt too, just as a spare. MSRP on the kit as I got it is $475. It’s $546 if you want the compensator. All of the components are made in the USA.
Barrel and Bolt Install
Installation was pretty easy but I did need to look some things up. Despite the S&W M&P looking and handling like a regular AR, the upper is actually put together a bit differently. The barrel installs through the rear of the upper receiver. You slide it in place then slide you handguards on. With that in place you use the long barrel wrench, which slides over the barrel, to tighten the barrel nut. Obviously you gave to take the old barrel off first to do this. It wasn’t hard but it isn’t intuitive either. I found a good video from Brownells that walked me through i.
I had to look up how to tear down the M&P bolt as well. While the Volquartsen bolt does come assembled you still need the recoil spring and guide off of your old bolt. I used Volquartsen’s video to walk me through that process. Again, it wasn’t hard but it was nice to have a guide showing how to do it.
But Wait, There’s More!
Since I was swapping things out anyway, I decided to upgrade my charging handle as well. At GunCon last summer I ran into Next Level Armament. They had a really nice ambidextrous charging handle for the 15-22. The M&P 15-22 Ambi Charging Handle is made in Michigan and is top quality. Next Level makes 5.56mm and 7.62 versions too, so if you’re using a 15-22 as a trainer you can have the same operation as your centerfire rifle. MSRP on the charging handle is $65.00.
Back to the Range
With everything installed it was back to the range. So far the Volquartsen parts have proved to be more durable than my original, probably worn, parts. Operation is smooth and reliability was been 100%. Just like my gun used to be before I started messing with it. I will say I didn’t use any more of the ancient ammo that caused the out of battery discharge however. No reason to push my luck.
The Next Level Arms ambi charging handle is nice. I don’t actually have one of their charging handles on my 5.56, but after using this one on the M&P I plan on getting one. I’m probably doing that in the reverse order as most folks, but that’s okay. Honestly, even if the only AR you run is 15-22 this is a darn nice charging handle to have on it.
Accuracy
Volquartsen is known for accurate barrels and this one is no exception. I was getting ragged one hole groups out to 25 yards, the most distance I’ve shot my rifle at so far. That’s with my inexpensive TruGlo Tru-Brite open red/green dot sight. I honestly thought about upgrading my optic since I upgraded so much else on my rifle, but decided not to too, at least for now. The TruGlo has worked great on this platform and my boy likes the form factor of the sight. I had actually swapped out at one point for a closed emitter optic and he grumbled about it so I switched back. I was getting exceptional groups from the bench as is so I’m leaving it alone. At further ranges I might benefit from a different, or magnified optic, but this is working for me so far. Plus it’s painted to match the gun.
Suppressor Options
I have a couple options for suppressor use with my 15-22 but one that I found works great is my Bowers Bitty. Most folks associate the Bitty with ultra compact pistols, like the Beretta 20X or similar. It is great for the little guys, but a lot of folks over look that it’s a great rifle can as well. The Bitty is rated for .22LR, .22 Magnum, .22 Hornet, .22 TCM, and 5.7x28mm. It’s also rated for full auto .22 LR so it’s actually perfect for the M&P 15-22 with a binary trigger. I’ve used the Bitty on my Ruger American Rimfire and was really impressed with it on a rifle.
The Bitty only adds 2.8 inches in length to the gun as well, and just 2.6 ounces. Considering that I slimmed down the M&P with a carbon fiber barrel already, it’s nice not gaining back that weight with a heavy can. The Bitty ruins for $390. It’s not the cheapest .22 can out there but it’s more capable than many of them, and most are twice as big and twice as heavy. You don’t have to worry about the usurious tax stamp right now either. Now if we could just get to the point of buying suppressors over the counter we’d really be in business.
A Worthy Upgrade
I didn’t set out planning to update my M&P beyond just adding the binary trigger, but in hindsight I’m glad the way things went. The Volquartsen Performance Kit updates the reliability, durability, and accuracy of my M&P. This is one of my favorite guns to shoot and it sees a lot of range time so it’s a worthwhile investment. It now shoots better than I do, but that’s not a bad thing. If I ever do decide to put more serious optics on my rifle I know the barrel is up to the challenge.
I’m loving finally having a threaded barrel too and being able to finally run the Bitty as well. After seeing my upgrade my buddy is looking at getting Volquartsen parts for his finicky M&P too. If you have an M&P with any issues, whether self inflicted or not, then it’s well worth looking into Volquartsen. You can do anything from rebuilding your bolt, to buying theirs, or buying the whole Performance Kit like I did. Even if your gun does run great, chances are it’ll run even better with some Volquartsen parts and a Next Level Arms charging handle added to it.
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