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This is one of those topics that tends to get both sides of the argument's panties in a bunch. As I said earlier Armalite sums up my feelings on the subject. Obviously others view things differently and thats alright too. Read the Armalite page on the subject here

There are companies working on piston kits for the 308. Dont know when youll see them see them on store shelves. Heck POF offers rifles and uppers with pistons that still seem to be an evolving design.

I have an Adams Arms midlength piston 5.56 

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Let me start with a disclaimer that this is my $.02 and I'll gladly concede it to proven facts:

It's just like anything else that can get a cult following on a perceived superiority basis. If you find yourself in a tactical situation where you need to perform back-to-back magdumps to the tune of about 10,000 rounds, there is a possibility that you could suffer a gas tube failure, which would be devastating because then you would have to switch a backup weapon AND possibly utilize aimed fire... ( God forbid ) Thus, a piston system is superior because then your only extravagant requirement would be a good thick set of thermal protection gloves so that you can continue holding your red-hot failproof weapon and maintaining ineffective fire long after  inferior weapons have burst into flames.

<dontknow>

;D

Ok, now it's time to be serious...

I personally don't find the need to utilize piston systems because I do not operate my weapons under conditions extreme enough to merit their use, but if having a piston system makes you feel better about your weapon's performance and reliability, more power to ya and I wish you the best of luck!  <thumbsup> My personal preference is to place the money it takes to buy a piston kit and put it into the factors that affect accuracy.

Having said all that, if I found one at the right price I would gladly own a POF built .308 with the piston system, they have an excellent reputation with the shooting community.

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matt i understand what you're talking about with not operating any of them to a degree where they would make a difference.  this one gets shot about 5-7 times and then cleaned as of now.  but it is also the weapon i have for when all hell breaks loose.  i already have a custom barrel on it and am now looking to make it reliable as possible because i want it to work when i need it most.

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...but it is also the weapon i have for when all hell breaks loose. 

All hell broke loose on 3 October, 1993 in Somalia, too, and the DI guns got the job done.  Plenty of times since then, too.  I'm just sayin'...  <dontknow>

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why do the Ar-15 crowd like them then?

seriously though i know several people (military not mall ninjas) who tell me they're a big improvement on AR-15.  are the .308's just that much better?

Only military people I know that have a piston 5.56 are people that work somewhere under USASOC USSOCOM.  And it's the HK 416.  That would be a damn good gun if it were DI, and not even piston.  Again, I'm just sayin', here. 

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Well , I got news for anyone who thinks a piston gun is more reliable , them pistons foul up too. Then try to get that seized up piston out of there when it cools off . What fun !

You put enough rds out of any system , with out a cleaning & they all fail  . Been there done that .

Personally I like less moving parts, period.

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  • 3 years later...

I've got an Adam's Arms piston on my 6.8 SPC2.  Works pretty nice, and again, I think it is just a matter of preference of where the gas and cleaning is, or has to be done to more attention.  I have wondered about why Adam's Arms has not done one for the .308 myself.  The M14 has a piston, the AK-47 has a piston, and I had a Saiga in .308 that I converted into (back) it's original pistol grip configuration, and it had a piston and worked (AND SHOT) great.  Might I suggest something... The carrier/bolt is in fact the piston on the rifle and the gas is just diverted to it.  In a gun rag I was reading about the new book "The NEW AR-15 Complete Owners Guide" by Dr. Walt Kulek.  One of the things said int he "fact check" was that "the term Direct Impingement" is incorrect.  The correct term is "balance-pressure internal piston".  This is because the gas is dumped through the gas key into the interior of the bolt-carrier assembly, where the gas expands to push the bolt forward as the carrier begins it's rearward motion.  "   That is a quote from the magazine and it took me reading it a few times for that concept to sink in.  Apparently, if I am understanding it correctly, the gas enters into the bolt area and those gas rings seal up the gas and at one instant they push the bolt forward toward the shell, thereby relieving some pressure so that the carrier can cam the bolt open and send everything to the rear of the rifle.  Is this correct in what I conceive it to be?  If so, pretty ingenious to complete 2 separate tasks with the same amount of given gas.

 

So really, is the bolt and carrier acting like a piston in this regard?

Edited by Gibbs
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  • 3 months later...

[/quote

Pist-on, the opposite of pist-off.

This is a delaying action to let the chamber pressure bleed off before the bolt unlocks from the chamber?....Okay, that sounds like what the 5/16" gap on the operating rod to bolt connection on the gas operating system on the US Rifle cal 30 M1 (Garand) does. Just another way to do a required operation. Bully,Bully !!

Edited by mrmackc
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