AR Preferences- Gas Systems

@melbo - for your philosophy of use (as described above) a piston system would not be a good fit. There is absolutely nothing wrong with DI as your experience with them shows. I can also say that while a piston system does resolve some weaknesses with a DI system, it introduces others that a DI system does not have. In my opinion it is simply up to each individual to decide what they like the best.

Where a piston system will make the BCG run cleaner and cooler so it will last longer, it adds weight to the barrel. Not significant in carry weight, but the swing weight increases. I went with a carbine system to minimize this, but it's still there.

Cleaning is still cleaning, so that's a wash. Both systems create the exact same amount of heat and crud, they just collect in different areas.

 

just kidding. I have a bore snake that I run down the barrel twice at the end of a run at the range which gets probably 90%+ of the gook. Handguns i clean every second or third time. Gotta say, that bore snake is nice and handy.

 

There is a lot more perception than reality when it comes to some widely held views on guns. I don't know that any of them are worth arguing over due to how stubborn gun folks are. I have been down that road many times.

 

It's pretty much sixes and either can be field stripped for cleaning without tools. The only reason I went piston is that most of the people I would need to rely on (spouse, siblings and a neighbor) aren't gun people. Pistons can also go longer before cleaning is required, though there are some long run tests where uncleaned DI rifles kept wet have shot thousands and thousands of rounds without failure. It is easier and quicker to clean a piston than to clean the BCG and you don't have to worry as much about keeping the BCG wet. Both systems are reliable and get the job done. If the price difference had been more than $50/rifle I probably would have gone DI and spent the rest on ammo.

 

I'm not sure if this is a rhetorical question or not, but it doesn't solve anything really.

When pistons came out big, namely the H&K416, the market went nuts over them since all the cool daddy SOF guys were using them. And hence if they used them, it HAD to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. And all the sudden the GP system was a fix for a non-existent problem. "It's cleaner and cooler and slices, dices and shreds it's way through bad guys!" It's not cleaner, as another poster pointed out it dumps the carbon in another location. It's not cooler since the heat build up is right next to the front of the handguard where many put their hands. And it's really no more accurate than a DI design.

And yes, I own one so I can speak from some experience.

They tend to be heavier as the op-rod adds weight. The carrier tilt isn't as huge an issue as many if not most folks will never send enough rounds downrange to have it to be a problem. And the proprietary parts makes repairs not too easy if it does break. Whereas a DI AR you can get parts from just about anywhere.

I've got one, plan on selling it, and never looking back from my mid length BCM AR. Honestly, if you want an improvement, that's really the one to go for.

 

Actually the do system is designed to be self cleaning. With the designed ammo what little debris from combustion tend to follow the bullet, any solids momentum would keep it going straight out the barrel. Very small amounts would go into to gas port. When the gas pushes the piston on the bolt carrier back, the force of gas blows through the chamber removing any sand, dirt and other debris from the action. They may be some carbon or gunk built up depending on ammo. AR's have run thousands off rounds without cleaning. It is not adding a piston since the AR already has one on the bolt carrier. It is adding a second piston plus an operating rod. Rod's can get bent and jam. Also they change timing and the additional moving mass isn't helpful. You can probably tell I do not like them. I think Stoner was a genius in ways most don't get.

 

I haven't cleaned one of my DI gun in several thousand rounds, and I live "out west"; however I do lube the hell out of it. Honestly, I think everything I learned in the Big Green Machine about the AR15/M16/M4 was wronger than two boys caught naked in the woods with the chaplain's assistant.

Just search for "filthy 14" and see just how long an AR can go with no cleaning, just lube... In very high round count classes. There's a lot of common knowledge that's not entirely accurate.

Piston guns are louder suppressed if that matters to you.

 

Here's a torture test, 830 fully auto rounds before failure, using 30rd magpuls and a few 50 round drums. The barrel actually fails before the gas tube. You can see the gas tube glow after a few of the drums. I remember seeing that myself, and I was shooting semi (but with a pair of norinco 120rd drums). The barrel profile looks like it was a lightweight barrel, it makes me wonder how many more rounds he could have shot off if he had a heavy barrel instead.

 

Seems to be an apple and oranges argument to me. An ar15 di with good mags and cleaning has never let me down and is more accurate than my Ruger mini piston rifle. On the other hand a M1, M14, AK weapons are things of beauty and seem to just keep on ticking. My solution is to own both and I plan on dying before I come to positive conclusion as to which system is the best. Heck I even like muzzle loaders.