Direct (gas) Impingement vs. Piston

A whole lotta ink has been spilled in this debate.

I've read lots about it, but I'd like some first-hand experience from the 'Team Piston' group.

 

well, as you alluded to this is quite a debate... i dunno, from what i've heard DI should be plenty reliable for most uses, ...i've heard the piston systems can have problems of their own..

 

A high quality piston gun it great and worth the money. I have an LWRCi and i love it.

http://youtu.be/6auXTiqNtEo

 

^^^ +1.

I got 2 DI AR's and 2 piston AR's.....I'll take the piston gun over the DI anyday. Less lube, less potential for failure, and most importantly (practical reasons) less cleaning.

 

I love Piston over DI, however there is a larger debate raging with Long stroke piston vs short stroke.

Short stroke is more accurate, given the energy is applied as a single momentary impulse. Long stroke is more reliable, given that all components are connected and the only form of blockage would be a destroyed gas tube...

 

The piston ar's have seen key fractures, but the HK MR 556 A1 is too legit to quit! Leave it up to the Germans to over engineer .

 

I sold a DI gun for a piston gun for two reasons. The first is the amount of time it took to clean. Every time I shot it I would have to dedicate an hour or more to cleaning it out.
The second reason was reliability. I am sure a major reason I had issues with my gun was because it wasnt the best AR brand out there. I had a Bushmaster Predator that was an amazingly accurate gun. But I had failure to feed issues from day one. Probably one out of every 30-40 shots wouldnt cycle. I tried different ammo, different amount of oils in the gun, and still had problems. There is nothing worse in my opinion than a gun that isnt reliable. So I sold it and bought a Ruger SR556. I have put 1000+ rounds through it with not a single problem. And its is so so easy to clean!