[Oldjarhead]

would you make it a 'gas piston' rifle or keep it with the 'gas-impingement' design ?
Just looking for opinions and not tying to start an argument.
Thanks in advance for your opinions.....

 

[J.Stein]

I've built "a few" this last year and did entertain the idea of building a new-fangled piston uppered version.

I passed.

I've never had a problem with any of my AR's due to the gas system and therefore couldn't justify any additional cost from either a new prefab piston upper or a retro-fit kit. But.....that's just me.

 

[falm16]

yep, what jstein says....... don't fix it if it aint broke.

 

[limpetmine]

Money

All depends on how thick yor wallet is. The gas piston deal costs big bucks, the converson alone is 3 to 4 hundred, plus your upper. POF has them for big bucks, over 2K for the rifle.
Ouch. The direct impengment deal works, has had the bugs worked out of it, and the known problems have been corrected. So, along with the neat-o factor, how thick is your wallet?

 

[JIMMY C]

One other note. Recoil is "sharper" with a gas piston type operating system. It has to do with the transfer of energy. The metal piston which is blown rearwards by the gas strikes the Key of the bolt carrier. This causes a "sharper" impact and "sharper" felt recoil.

Now with that said the 5.56 has very little recoil so the increase in felt recoil is not painful just very noticeable over the regular gas impingement system of the standard AR-15/ M-16 system.

 

[Oldjarhead]

Thanks for the info guys.... My wallet isn't very thick these days "limp", it is just that my experience with the AR/M16 is quite a bit of fouling in the chamber after sustained fire, when there is no opportunity to clean it.
My experience with gas piston design (M14 M1) is that it will shoot forever.
Then again, I am always reluctant to change the original engineering of most things.....
Thanks again.

 

[julysol]

Just more parts to break, wear-out, and clean I would think.
Seems to just be a new fad, "looks cool, costs alot must be a must have to impress all the guys at the range who I don't know or will ever see again" kind'a thing that I'll never understand or get into.
A lot of money that could have gotten you a LOT of ammo.

Put your money into ammo and become a better marksman!

 

[jjk308 In Memoriam RIP]

My experience with gas piston design (M14 M1) is that it will shoot forever.

Except for those nasty little problems with op rods, pistons, springs, etc.... Having taken the advice of "experts" and used the wrong powder in .30-06 reloads that threw red-hot cases a mile and nearly bent the op-rod of my M1 Garand I know first hand the problems with gas piston designs.
The direct impingement system eliminates parts and potential problems, replacing them with another potential problem.
You're supposed to clean the rifle anyway, so that should take care of the mess from the standard AR gas system - in theory.

 

[A square 10]

i am in this process and im keeping it as designed ,

got the receiver set aside accumulateing parts to get er done

 

[tomob1]

Hi, I'm new around here, but wanted to try postinga picture.
I'm accumulating parts for an AR build.
tom

 

[falm16]

tomo, looks good so far. what kind of lower do you have?

 

[A square 10]

great start and great photos - do post the photos of your progress as you go along ,

 

[tomob1]

tomo, looks good so far. what kind of lower do you have?

the lower was part of a group purchase. they were made by double star.
the guy that organized the buy lives in alaska, so the lowers are marked AK-15.
tom

 

[LtBlue425]

Pistons on AR platforms is kind of like putting fat tires and a blower on your daily going-to-work car. There's a use for such equipment if the use dictates the need but for 99.9% of AR shooters there's no true need for it.

I've read claims of going 20,000 rds without cleaning by using a pistoned AR but what's the point? Even in a combat theatre you're not going to fire 20,000 rds because you won't have that much and you'll cleaning your weapon long before. My brother-in-law was in Vietnam (70-71, 25th ID, Iron Triangle) and his company cleaned their M16's every evening without being told. They never had a problem with their rifles and he loves the M16 enough that he bought one.

 

[Ol Duke In Memoriam]

I've built "a few" this last year and did entertain the idea of building a new-fangled piston uppered version.

I passed.

I've never had a problem with any of my AR's due to the gas system and therefore couldn't justify any additional cost from either a new prefab piston upper or a retro-fit kit. But.....that's just me.

+1.....just built 2 lowers....a Stag and a Frankford Arsenal. I had an Armalite 24" complete upper that was extra and mated it to the Frankford Arsenal lower...

I had picked up a Colt upper sans bolt assist made about 1970 and bought a complete Colt barrel off of GunBroker that appears to be a 1971 barrel with the intent of making a Retro rifle like I had in 1971. I just didn't want to go to the trouble of buying a retro lower from NoDak...although they sure look nice. Well, I commenced to finding triangle handguards, a decent old stock w/o the buttstock storage, old style pistol grip, etc.
I mated it to the Stag lower and put 'em all together. Looks pretty nice, but will look nicer after the paint job back to the dark gray....

 

[LtBlue425]

Unless there's conditions that will dictate a piston drive (whatever those may be), stick with the original design. The piston offers no practical advantage over DI.

 

[FinnM-39]

This is my latest build. Started with a stripped RRA lower, added a DPMS small parts kit, MAGPUL stock, grip, trigger gaurd, Larue Stealth 18 inch upper, Smith Ent. Vortex flash eliminator, VLTOR bipod, Troy Ind. front and rear BUIS, and a Leupold 2.5-8X36 MR/T in a Larue mount.

 

[GLShooter]

I'd go with the original system only because it runs fine without lots of extra $$'s thrown at it.

Greg L.

 

[jjk308 In Memoriam RIP]

One more comment. American Rifleman commented favorably on a gas piston AR saying its receiver stayed a lot cooler.
IMHO this is only really important for military burst and full auto shooting. Most of us do not have big bucks for the ammo for max rpm shooting tests.

 

[ZBiker]

cooler a big plus

I am thinking of a piston build....I viewed a video of a shooter putting 10 30 rd mags down the pipe....then pulling the bcg and holding it..it was very cool to the touch. Heat wears everything with time..so I see keeping excessive heat away from the upper AND less carbon build up as the advantages..with the current pricing as the down side....although RGUNS and other vendors have complete piston built ar's for under a G. Z