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You shoot primarily suppressed -- any chance you use the Gemtech carrier?
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I got a Gemtech SBC a couple days ago and shot it today with my 11.5" Mod 2 upper, H2 buffer (standard for this upper), and QDC full size. I tried it with the following ammo:
Wolf steel case 62 grain
Remington UMC 55 grain
Freedom Munitions 5.56 55 grain M193 (new, not their remanufactured stuff)
Remington M855
I will say up front that I am very happy with with the standard carrier and the QDC with this rifle. Gas blowback is minimal even with full power 5.56 ammo, but I wanted to see if I could eliminate it completely.
With the standard carrier, all of that ammo functions 100%. With the SBC in suppressed setting, everything but Wolf worked fine. The Wolf ammo would not cycle properly about 20% of the time and on rounds where it did work it was very noticeably sluggish.
I did some comparisons between the suppressed and unsuppressed settings. On the suppressed setting, there is significantly less recoil. It is definitely reducing the carrier speed although the reduction in speed is not noticeable in terms of how fast the next round is chambered. However, there is more gas blowback on suppressed than unsuppressed. Maybe blowback isn't the right word, but there is more gas in the vicinity of your face. Presumably this is due to the gas being vented out the side of the carrier.
I haven't decided if I prefer more recoil and less gas or less recoil and more gas. I suspect that the SBC would be more beneficial on a gun that is more overgassed than the KAC. I will try it in my other rifles another time and find the best home for it.