Ingram M10 .22 conversion and Upgrades- Van Voorhees

[Collector98]

I recently picked up a .22 conversion for my M10 made by a company called Van Voorhees. There's very little info online about it, so I figured I'd document it to show progress on the new barrel and other upgrades to it. From what I can find, the kit was likely made in the late 70s with proprietary mags that appear to be made by welding together two steel U-Channels. I've had limited success with it since my upper wasn't welded together straight causing the firing pin to strike off the rim. One weird thing is that this conversion uses a floating chamber, similar to the Colt Ace .22, which sort of acts as a short stroke piston giving the extra push the system needs to operate, at least in theory. The new barrel doesn't have the floating chamber and should hopefully work once tuned right. @smdub has been the brains of the operation with making the barrel, knowing how to troubleshoot, and having a wealth of information for all aspects of this project, so a huge thanks to him! Pics will be posted below with descriptions.

 

[Collector98]

The original kit, as bought, then assembled into my .45 upper

 

[Collector98]

In order, the stripped upper, barrel blank, barrel being turned down, threaded onto the upper, then assembled on the lathe. The barrel still needs to be cut down and threaded for the suppressor, but that will be down the road once we get it working. The chamber was reamed using a bentz semi-auto match reamer, but it had feeding, firing, and extracting issues when I tested at the range. This is likely due to the tight chamber not lending itself very useful with the open bolt design. That's where I am currently, so the next step is to open up the chamber a bit then test again. I'm not concerned with accuracy too much since this is just a fun gun/conversion.

 

[rsideout]

Wow! Interesting project. You are in good hands with smdub running that lathe and helping to figure out how to make it all work.

 

[Collector98]

Yes, I definitely am! This gun just constantly "needs" more accesories and upgrades. At least, that's what I keep telling myself