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Posted: 2/20/2019 9:21:32 PM EDT
I was drinking with a buddy tonight and we happen to disagree with each other when it comes to 14.5 with pinned muzzle devices. I dont see a problem with using them as a duty gun but he says that when its pinned you can have issues with carbon build up on the threads and you cant take it off to clean it. He also says if something goes wrong with anything on the upper such as the barrel, gas tube or gas block then you are SOL. What is your opinion? Should you stick with a 16" for duty or 14.5 pinned and welded say from a company like Daniel defense or bcm.
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Tell your buddy less worrying about things that
are not a issue and more shooting. Carbon build up in muzzle? Never heard of it ever. Now issue with barrel? Sure, sooner or later it is going to blow out from erosion, I have lost two pinned barrels that way last 5 years. I personally don't try and recover pinned flash hiders, it all goes into the trash and I start over again with fresh barrel and flash hider. Good chance by the time it happens, there will be some cooler or newer Comp or flash hider you want to try anyways. I like 14.5 pinned guns, 14.5 to me perfect length, just enough muzzle velocity for 3gun Short enough for tactical work. |
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Quoted:
Tell your buddy less worrying about things that are not a issue and more shooting. Carbon build up in muzzle? Never heard of it ever. Now issue with barrel? Sure, sooner or later it is going to blow out from erosion, I have lost two pinned barrels that way last 5 years. I personally don't try and recover pinned flash hiders, it all goes into the trash and I start over again with fresh barrel and flash hider. Good chance by the time it happens, there will be some cooler or newer Comp or flash hider you want to try anyways. I like 14.5 pinned guns, 14.5 to me perfect length, just enough muzzle velocity for 3gun Short enough for tactical work. View Quote |
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One of my favorite rifles is a 14.5” pinned DD SLW rifle. Never heard of issues with carbon build up. Nor taking a device off to clean threads....
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Quoted:
I was drinking with a buddy tonight and we happen to disagree with each other when it comes to 14.5 with pinned muzzle devices. I dont see a problem with using them as a duty gun but he says that when its pinned you can have issues with carbon build up on the threads and you cant take it off to clean it. He also says if something goes wrong with anything on the upper such as the barrel, gas tube or gas block then you are SOL. What is your opinion? Should you stick with a 16" for duty or 14.5 pinned and welded say from a company like Daniel defense or bcm. View Quote |
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My 14.5" BCM is my favorite AR.
ETA: It's also the one I'd grab if things went bad. |
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Keep them coming so I can link this to him.... I agree I have never cleaned the threads of my 16" muzzle. If I did ruin a gas tube I think I could replace it while still on the rifle. If I shoot out the barrel I need a new one regardless and I lost 80 bucks on a muzzle. The only valid thing I can think off is something happening to the gas block and then be sol cause you cant get it off to replace it.
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Some people get stupid when they drink. See if he says the same thing tomorrow.
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You should tell your buddy to sign up on arf, and have his very first post be this subject, in GD.
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Ask your buddy how carbon builds up on threads that are completely covered .
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My main complaint against pinned is that I want to keep a compensator on it for range play, but if shit ever gets real I would want to switch to a flash hider. However, this can be solved by buying an extra barrel
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Quoted:
I was drinking with a buddy tonight and we happen to disagree with each other when it comes to 14.5 with pinned muzzle devices. I dont see a problem with using them as a duty gun but he says that when its pinned you can have issues with carbon build up on the threads and you cant take it off to clean it. He also says if something goes wrong with anything on the upper such as the barrel, gas tube or gas block then you are SOL. What is your opinion? Should you stick with a 16" for duty or 14.5 pinned and welded say from a company like Daniel defense or bcm. View Quote Attached File |
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My only problem with pinned uppers is rolling your own and having to send it out to have someone who isn't going bugger the whole thing up. Otherwise, I think I've removed a muzzle device maybe once and that was just to try out a compensator.
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OP,
I recommend a new drinking buddy ... or if you chose to continue with him ... treat guns the same way you treat religion and politics ... VERBOLTEN! He does NOT know what he's talking about. |
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Hell yeah you should go with a 14.5 barrel. At that point rock a mid length lightweight barrel.
The difference between a 16 inch, government profile barrel and 14.5 inch LW profile barrel is .3lbs - .4lbs. It's really doesn't sound like much until you shoot both side by side. |
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The only con I can see with a pinned muzzle divice is you will have a headache if you like switching parts around on your upper.
My oldest pinned upper is almost 20 yrs old. Never an issue. |
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Quoted:
I was drinking with a buddy tonight and we happen to disagree with each other when it comes to 14.5 with pinned muzzle devices. I dont see a problem with using them as a duty gun but he says that when its pinned you can have issues with carbon build up on the threads and you cant take it off to clean it. He also says if something goes wrong with anything on the upper such as the barrel, gas tube or gas block then you are SOL. What is your opinion? Should you stick with a 16" for duty or 14.5 pinned and welded say from a company like Daniel defense or bcm. View Quote As far as my opinion on 14.5, I love it. The big reason for me is the handling of it. It just feels a little better like it is the right length to do a jack of all trade. You can navigate narrow spaces, and you can shoot precision shots as needed. A cool bonus is now you got the right length to attach a bayonet and it feels and looks pretty awesome. I'm not sure if it is all a placebo effect or what. One thing I do know is that the rifle was meant to be a 16" rifle but the military wanted the same bayonet to fit the rifles without having to change anything out. The funny thing is the rest of the world went with 16" barrels (with many going 20" or beyond) but the US military is the only one who went with a 14.5. I imagine history would have been a lot different if the military decided to toss their 20" and go with a 16" and decided to go with midlength to affix a bayonet. Instead they wanted 20" rifles to regular troops, then issue the 14.5 carbine to special personnel. You should try it. |
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I was drinking with a buddy tonight and we happen to disagree with each other when it comes to 14.5 with pinned muzzle devices. I dont see a problem with using them as a duty gun but he says that when its pinned you can have issues with carbon build up on the threads and you cant take it off to clean it. He also says if something goes wrong with anything on the upper such as the barrel, gas tube or gas block then you are SOL. What is your opinion? Should you stick with a 16" for duty or 14.5 pinned and welded say from a company like Daniel defense or bcm. View Quote |
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Not a fan of pinning but love the 14.5. Running SBA3s on all mine now. Always an option if not wanting to pin/sbr.
And your buddy is crazy. I've ran my DD upper pinned for years, just now chopped the FH off to switch up rails. |
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OP's buddy is misinformed as others have stated. Love my pinned 14.5 Colt SOCOM
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Tell your buddy to go with a pinned A2X. Now he has no argument.
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For my 14.5 build I used a 223 Wylde Ballistic Advantage Hansen Premium barrel in SS. BG is pinned from the factory already. I used a PWS 5.56 FSC pinned on the end. Forged upper with no FA, forged LR, and Centurion MLOK HG. It is my most favorite rifle to shoot. Handles and points like an extension of my hand.
I picked up a SD3G trigger to see how it goes over using the BCM PNT in it now. |
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Never heard about the carbon build up for that particular issue. Down the line, farrr down the line depending on quality of barrel, it will be time to get a new one, at the point, chuck the 14.5 w/ the muzzle device and get a brand spanking new one.
I have a 14.5 bcm upper w/ pinned warcomp and been running that rig like a champ. Tell em to have a couple more beers and not sweat it |
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Your buddy is wrong. Carbon build-up is a non-item. There's no military cleaning manual anywhere that suggests unscrewing your crush-washer torqued flash hider for servicing. As to BBL replacement and tasks; you don't need to remove the flash hider to execute that, nor will you ever do that within the life of the barrel anyway.
Biggest issue with pin and welded, is that if you ever decide to alter to a suppressor or alternative muzzle device, then you can't (easily at least). That said, barrels are cheap. |
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Quoted:
I was drinking with a buddy tonight and we happen to disagree with each other when it comes to 14.5 with pinned muzzle devices. I dont see a problem with using them as a duty gun but he says that when its pinned you can have issues with carbon build up on the threads and you cant take it off to clean it. He also says if something goes wrong with anything on the upper such as the barrel, gas tube or gas block then you are SOL. What is your opinion? Should you stick with a 16" for duty or 14.5 pinned and welded say from a company like Daniel defense or bcm. View Quote |
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Quoted:
he says that when its pinned you can have issues with carbon build up on the threads and you cant take it off to clean it. He also says if something goes wrong with anything on the upper such as the barrel, gas tube or gas block then you are SOL. What is your opinion? View Quote |
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Quoted:
My main complaint against pinned is that I want to keep a compensator on it for range play, but if shit ever gets real I would want to switch to a flash hider. However, this can be solved by buying an extra barrel View Quote |
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My only AR is a M-forgery with a Colt SOCOM 14.5"/extended A2 flashhider and FSP.I wouldn't want any other configuration.
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My my go to shtf rifle is a 14.5 midlength LW bcm with pinned Surefire socom MB. I have one I shoot the piss out of and another just like it I keep cleaned and ready to go.
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i mean you can always grind off the weld and remove the pin from the muzzle device in the worst case scenario.
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Only time I’ve ever had to take a muzzle device off was because my dumb ass hadn’t put the gas block on yet.
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If you want to use a standard A2 flash hider the barrel needs to be 14.7" long.
Threads don't get dirty, but the muzzle can. I have 16" barrels cut back to 14.7" and threaded 5/8"x24, then I use a .308 A2 fh. It allows a little more interior room to clean. A 14.5" barrel needs an extended A2 flash hider or a spacer to reach 16". Many aftermarket fh's reach 16" no problem. Depending on who's float tube you use you may or may not have trouble working on the rifle that develops a problem. I have never had to remove a flash hider, gas tube, handguard ever because something was broke. If you're rebarreling it won't matter that the flash hider had to be destroyed to salvage the gas block and barrel nut. Centurion, Daniel Defense and several other companies make float tubes that clamp to the standard GI barrel nut. These can be installed and removed w/o removing any other parts. Going from 16" to M4 14.5" is a cosmetic enhancement IMO. It makes little difference on how the firearm handles. It actually reduces velocity. It does add to the cool factor and allows your firearm to stick out from the crowd. |
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By your buddy's logic no one should ever use a suppressor because of carbon build up.
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If you shoot out a barrel don't worry about the FH or gas block. 5 seconds with a band saw on the toast barrel, cut in two and remove barrel nut. I rebarrel 14.5" weekly but they're not pinned/welded. Stubborn FH/gas blocks I just cut the barrel in half. For your buddy he needs to stop drinking.
CD |
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