Geissele trigger in .22LR AR Upper

BenL · Mar 9, 2015

I am posting this because when I was looking for an aftermarket trigger for my .22LR AR upper, I couldn't find any helpful information, and hope this helps someone else. My upper is built on a CMMG barrel and left-handed receiver assembly.

- Timney 3.5lb single stage trigger didn't work at all; not a single round would fire.

- RRNM worked about half the time.

- Wilson Combat worked 100% of the time, except with subsonic ammo (~90% of the time.)

- This weekend, I shot 550 rounds of .22LR, including 200 rounds of CCI subsonic, with a Geissele SSA-E 3.5lb trigger without a single malfunction, misfire, dud, FTF or FTE. The other 300 rounds were Federal Wally world bulk box ammo.

dontpanic · Mar 9, 2015

That's good to know. You saved someone a lot of money.

Another option is to replace the stock springs with the JP 3 1/2# springs. Costs $11 and I have had zero issues.

Boom Boom · Mar 9, 2015

BenL, do you think the hammer strikes are too light for rimfire on the non-Geissele? That would be my guess.

BenL · Mar 9, 2015

Boom Boom said:
BenL, do you think the hammer strikes are too light for rimfire on the non-Geissele? That would be my guess.

Definitely. I was shocked at how light the primer strikes were with the Timney. Some barely made an impression.

With the Wilson Combat and subsonic, ~1 time ever mag, the trigger wouldn't reset.

erwos · Mar 9, 2015

Huh. I thought I had used the RRA 2-stage with a 16" 22lr Spike's upper with no problems for a while. Which 22lr conversion do you have in your gun?

My current 22lr SBR blaster is using a STBT and some JP springs, which does well enough for dumping mags down range.

clandestine · Mar 9, 2015

Yup. Those other 3 options I wouldn't put in a 5.56 upper either.

Lighters springs and most aftermarket triggers don't hit fast or hard. If they do, they have tolerances that are so tight that dirty .22 uppers and suppressed center fire uppers choke them up.

Geissele has superb striking force and excellent lock speed. Supposedly the AMU used them because they couldn't find any aftermarket trigger that didn't have stringing issues due to inconsistent lock time till Bill Geissele showed up with his.

Kevp · Mar 9, 2015

Most .22 cal upper and conversion manufacturers recommend against using match triggers with their products. It's good to know that Geissele works.

photoracer · Mar 9, 2015

In .22 ARs I have used Timney 3# Competition, JP single stage w/Speedhammer, and Geissele Super 3-Gun. A lot depends on the lower you are using as I have had some that would not work with 2 out of three of these usually because I was trying for ultimate light weight. The original ATI100 polymer seemed to work with all of them but the new ATI200 w/steel reinforcements only liked the JP. The Mag Tac Sys magnesium alloy only liked drop in triggers as both the JP and the Geissele would not function in them. The Timney worked fine. Funny thing is all these triggers will work in the S&W M&P15-22 fine.
Yet everyone of these triggers are used by somebody in the top 5 world 3-gun rankings. If I used the excellent Aero-Precision AR uppers and lowers all three trigger worked fine. I am pretty sure the issues are that some of them are built slightly out of specs. Right now my lightest .22 AR weighs in at 3 lbs. 4 ozs. and I expect it to go below 3 lbs. before I am done.

BenL · Mar 11, 2015

erwos said:
Huh. I thought I had used the RRA 2-stage with a 16" 22lr Spike's upper with no problems for a while. Which 22lr conversion do you have in your gun?

My current 22lr SBR blaster is using a STBT and some JP springs, which does well enough for dumping mags down range.

Not a conversion. I started off with a dedicated Tacsol upper-based rifle. Could never get it to function 100% (5 different triggers, 5 different lowers, back to the factory twice), so gunbroker'd it and built a 22LR rifle with a CMMG .22LR barrel and upper receiver assembly. It's set up like my 3 Gun AR, for cheap practice. Just with cheaper glass (Nikon vs. U.S. Optics), different lower (Spike's vs. Noveske), and a different trigger (Geissele vs. Wilson Combat.)

.22LR Practice rifle:

3 Gun rifle:

erwos · Mar 11, 2015

OK, so perhaps "conversion" was not the word I was looking for. But you're using the dedicated CMMG system, like I am.

BenL · Mar 11, 2015

erwos said:
OK, so perhaps "conversion" was not the word I was looking for. But you're using the dedicated CMMG system, like I am.

I thought you meant this:

erwos · Mar 11, 2015

There's not a lot of difference; the dedicated uppers just have a special barrel that doesn't require the adapter. The actual "action mechanism" is pretty much the same.

Erno86 · Mar 11, 2015

I broke around three Rock River Match Grade hammers, while shooting my dedicated 22 AR's. Rock River replaced then for free --- but may I suggest sticking with a beefy mil-spec hammer, with heavy trigger and hammer springs, that you can order from Brownells; for better rimfire primer ignition.

If you go to a training school...trainers suggest using mil-spec hammers in any type of AR --- if not --- make sure you bring extra AR hammers.

rob-cubed · Mar 11, 2015

I have a CMMG HBAR profile .22 upper on an Engage lower with a Geissele G2S in it. Runs like a top. I shoot that way more than any other gun I own.

Install and be happy... :thumbsup:

photoracer · Mar 11, 2015

According to many on the AR15.com forum they like the accuracy of the Taccom mil-spec .22LR barrels. Now before I built my custom one out of what I had I just used a CMMG SS conversion kit with the 3 25 rd mags. At the 2012 Ruger Rimfire World Championship I swapped from my S&W AR15-22 to this particular conversion kit in a DPMS upper I had built on the cheap attached to my 3-gun lower (Geissele S3G trigger and Ergo F93 Pro stock) just because my 15-22 felt funny for some reason even though it was working fine. Had no issues with the AR + .22 conversion and used that in the Wounded Warrior side match where I finished 2nd in the rifle to Paul Dandini both of us beating the world champ John Allchin who finished 3rd. Now I have seen TacSol uppers have issues in this event before (BJ Norris 2011 event in NM). So while I use a lot of TS parts in my pistols I won't use their uppers in competition. I prefer to build my own. Taccom makes some improvement parts for the CMMG bolt kits including a better extractor and a higher grade steel firing pin. I broke the stock CMMG firing pin, likely from dry-fire practice.

Sticky · Mar 11, 2015

Hmm.. I run a Timney 3lb single stage on my 15-22 and it runs flawlessly, even in simulated full auto with a slide-fire stock when I wanna get crazy with it. That said, I used KNS pins to install it, since the MP lower doesn't like that setscrew to keep it in place.. worked like a champ.

erwos · Mar 12, 2015

M&P15-22 is a somewhat different animal than we're talking about.

BenL · Mar 12, 2015

photoracer said:
According to many on the AR15.com forum they like the accuracy of the Taccom mil-spec .22LR barrels. Now before I built my custom one out of what I had I just used a CMMG SS conversion kit with the 3 25 rd mags. At the 2012 Ruger Rimfire World Championship I swapped from my S&W AR15-22 to this particular conversion kit in a DPMS upper I had built on the cheap attached to my 3-gun lower (Geissele S3G trigger and Ergo F93 Pro stock) just because my 15-22 felt funny for some reason even though it was working fine. Had no issues with the AR + .22 conversion and used that in the Wounded Warrior side match where I finished 2nd in the rifle to Paul Dandini both of us beating the world champ John Allchin who finished 3rd. Now I have seen TacSol uppers have issues in this event before (BJ Norris 2011 event in NM). So while I use a lot of TS parts in my pistols I won't use their uppers in competition. I prefer to build my own. Taccom makes some improvement parts for the CMMG bolt kits including a better extractor and a higher grade steel firing pin. I broke the stock CMMG firing pin, likely from dry-fire practice.

I've been looking at Taccom's "reliability kit" for a while. It sounds like a good addition.

photoracer · Mar 12, 2015

BenL said:
I've been looking at Taccom's "reliability kit" for a while. It sounds like a good addition.

So far it has worked for me.

BenL · Mar 13, 2015

photoracer said:
So far it has worked for me.

Just ordered one. :thumbsup:

Geissele trigger in .22LR AR Upper

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