FOR about $500 you can buy a Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22. This rifle was introduced last year and in my opinion was the rifle of 2009. Why? For years shooters have been looking for a rimfire understudy to the AR15. A variety of rimfire conversion kits have come and gone. Their detractors were poor accuracy and worse reliability. The problem with some rimfire – styled like an AR – rifles, is that the some of the controls are different or are only faux – made to look like an AR. The S&W M&P15-22 solved this problem. It is an affordable, accurate and reliable rimfire carbine that effectively emulates the AR15.

The $500 price tag is important because it takes about the same money to buy 1,000 rounds of decent .223 ammunition. Any instructor worth their range cap
will tell you it takes at least 1,000 repetitions or rounds of proper practice to develop a foundation of basic marksmanship skills. They’ll also tell you, you need to fire that many more rounds annually to maintain your skill. Spend the same money on an M&P15-22 to use as a rimfire trainer and in a few years you will be saving money and shooting even more.

Smith & Wesson is wisely offering their rimfire M&P15-22 in configurations to match their centerfire M&P 15s. This makes the M&P15-22s excellent understudy guns.

I’ve never thought of myself as a smart man, but my father and grandfather raised me to use something some smart men don’t…common sense. After 45 years of interacting with humans I’ve come to believe that common sense is not all that common. The S&W M&P15-22 proves S&W has common sense. I say this because the M&P15-22 is the best rimfire clone of the AR weapon system available. And, S&W is offering it in configurations that emulate their centerfire ARs. This means you can finally use a rimfire to conduct realistic carbine training and save money at the same time. The M&P15 MOE (MOE is an acronym for Magpul Original Equipment) and the new M&P15-22 MOE are a perfect example.