Mixing old school with new school!




A little while back a good friend of mine was gracious enough to give me a Rhino Gas Piston assembly that he had lying around.

Being the kind of tinkerer I am I tipped out my spare parts bin and threw together a pistol build. I'm not much of a gun smith and between myself and my local guy I usually take things (problems) to we weren't having much luck.

Basically the thing seemed to be under gassed no matter what we had the gas system set to.

Fast forward about 3 months of tinkering and swearing...


(The original gas piston system, an old gen 1 model which had it's fair share of problems, mainly down to the set screw design)

I posted my problems here and got talking to John Thomas with Retro Arms Works, who agreed to take a look for me.

I packaged things up and sent them his way. He contacted me about 4 days after receiving the package to say he had identified some issues, mainly relating to the original design of the piston and how they had upgraded them back in the day.

He then proceeded to machine and manufacture the upgrade. Not sure if it was from scratch or if he found the plans somewhere but I was pretty damn impressed seeing as these systems are probably around my age (maybe a little younger ).

All told I had the upper back within two weeks and had it out on the test range today. It ran flawlessly. After months of my ham fisted tinkering I am very happy to have a nice pistol to add to my collection.



I am in no way affiliated with retro arms works but I do believe in giving credit where it's due and overall I was blown away by the prompt service and the quality of workmanship he offered.

She may not be the prettiest AR around but at least she works now!

I did upload a quick vid to youtube but i think i'll just stick with pics for now. P.s. that silencer co comp really puts off some flash!

Rhino Gas Piston assembly!

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Great looking pistol! I agree - John Thomas is a real miracle worker, with old or new weapons.

Edit, never mind.  Interesting build.