Kind of an unusual 'conversion' question...

[JAB]

...just out of curiousity.

I used to have a Phoenix .25. I got it during the ammo shortage when I noticed that .25acp ammo was pretty much always on the shelf at Walmart even when the shelf was more or less bare of handgun ammo (even .22lr) otherwise (although that ceased to be the case shortly after I bought the Phoenix - I guess everyone else had the same thought.) My first handgun was a Titan .25 (which was apparently stolen from my mom's house at some point) so I also have a bit of nostalgia where the .25acp is concerned. Being that I have since gotten another Titan .25 at a gun show, I was no longer shooting the Phoenix and ended up trading it toward a Nagant revolver.

Anyhow, I have also shot Phoenix .22 pistols and they are essentially the same gun as my .25 with the only difference so far as I could tell being, obviously, the chambering. The only barrel offered for the .25 is the 3 inch barrel but there is the option of a 5 inch barrel for the .22 version. In fact, Phoenix sells the five inch barrel on their website so that the owner of one of their .22 pistols can choose to swap back and forth between the 3 and 5 inch (they also sell a kit that comes with the pistol and both barrels.) All that leads to my thought/question behind this thread:

As the two pistols are essentially the same except for chambering and being that the chamber is part of the barrel and as (at least from what can find) the SAAMI pressures for .25 acp and .22 lr appear to be very close, I wonder if the five inch .22 barrel would work on a three inch .25 gun. In other words, would the five inch .22 LR barrel essentially act as a '.22 conversion kit' for the .25 version of the gun?

Yeah, I realize that there may not be a whole lot of reason to do this. It isn't like either cartridge is devastatingly more powerful than the other. Mostly, the biggest advantage would be having a cheap plinker that could fire .25 acp if the shooter wanted (or if there were another shortage and .25 were the only ammo available) while mostly burning through .22 LR because ammo is much less expensive.

Edited August 30, 2012 by JAB

[UncleJak]

I don't think that is a good idea....

I'm sure someone smarter than me will chime in soon....

[nightrunner]

Im thinkin that wouldnt be a good idea as the diameter of the .22lr bullet is .222" and the .25acp bullet diameter is .251".

[MadMarx]

I do not believe the 25ACP centerfire firing pin will even hit the 22 rimfire primer.

[peejman]

I do not believe the 25ACP centerfire firing pin will even hit the 22 rimfire primer.

This is the hitch. Swapping out the chambered barrel isn't a big deal, assuming you swap springs too. The firing/feed/extraction mechanism won't work switching from centerfire to rimfire.

[Mykltn]

This is the hitch. Swapping out the chambered barrel isn't a big deal, assuming you swap springs too. The firing/feed/extraction mechanism won't work switching from centerfire to rimfire.

Not to mention the .25 is a rimless cartidge and the .22 is rimmed.

[JAB]

I do not believe the 25ACP centerfire firing pin will even hit the 22 rimfire primer.

Ah. I hadn't even thought of that.

But then how do the .22 conversions for other centerfire handguns (like the conversion kits for Glocks) get around that? I've never seen such a kit so I don't know what all is included or how they are arranged. Are the barrels bored off-center or something?

Edited August 31, 2012 by JAB

[quietguy]

Ah. I hadn't even thought of that.

But then how do the .22 conversions for other centerfire handguns (like the conversion kits for Glocks) get around that? I've never seen such a kit so I don't know what all is included or how they are arranged. Are the barrels bored off-center or something?

Most of the conversion kits I have seen (mostly 1911), include a replacement slide that changes the pin placement.

[A.J. Holst]

Most of the conversion kits I have seen (mostly 1911), include a replacement slide that changes the pin placement.

As does the Kadet conversion for the CZ line...