After finally coming around to the piston system camp, I recently finished building my first piston build, a 14.5" pinned middy upper equipped with the Superlative Arms Adjustable Piston System (SKU # SABO-PS-M625CM). I have yet to take it out to shoot it and adjust the bleed off.

Being a piston virgin, I literally have no idea what to expect in regards to heat and bleed-off 'blast' coming from the port of the adjustable gas block (if there is any blast at all). I understand that piston gas blocks can heat up quite a bit, especially after rapid or long strings of fire.

Until I can test this piston upper, I am a bit concerned at where I chose to place my taclight's tape switch cable, which is rather close to the exhaust port.

What I would like to know from the piston crowd is if I am concerned over a nothing burger?...or if heat (and blast) affecting the tape switch cable is a legitimate concern? Am I over-thinking this?...or did repositioning my cable just save my tape switch from possible heat damage?

This first image shows where I had originally secured the tape switch cable:


But after thinking about it, I moved the cable back to keep it away from the hot gas block:

If  the piston deal so great  why doesn't the military use It.

I trusted my life to a M16A2    gas job....

so  school  me on why this is better

School us all on how that answered his concerns.

I have an SA piston on one of my suppressed guns.
I don't think the cable in its original position would have been any issue, but now you don't have to think about it at all.

@Creature

Jay

I also don’t think that the cable would have been affected however since you’ve moved it there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

Also, for the guy above you asked someone to school him, at one point we used bolt action rifles. At one point we used .308 as our small arms. At one point putting anything other than irons on your system was dumb. Things evolve.

Ever heard of HK?

Educate yourself, you might look a bit wiser.

OP,

You will be fine, especially since you re-routed the cable

They do, marines are adopting a lot of them with the m27

Agreed, haven’t experienced any tape switch or cable damage using my rearward venting LWRC.

Take off the light and switch, wrap the area with toilet paper, shoot, observe results, replace light and switch.

Actually, I was going to bring a toilet paper core.

Welcome to the piston club; any chance for a more comprehensive photo of your rifle?

A friend of mine worked for the State Dept and ran piston guns like LWRC 1000s and 1000s of rounds with no PROBLEM.

I remember you now

The SA piston is made where you can bleed off the gas or you can just reduce the gas flow to the piston.  If you use it in the reduce gas flow mode, then you will not have any bleed off or additional heat, so you will be fine.

That being said, I have used mine in both configurations and heat has never been an issue.  You might get some carbon build up under your handguard, but that is about the worse of it.  It is a great system and I haven't had any problems through thousands of rounds and multiple rifles.  I shoot both suppressor and non-suppressed and the systems just runs.

Chad

Shooting low light shows a lot.  My piston gun, even with a bit of flash from that area gets no hotter than my gas gun.

What handguards are everybody using here?

I'm using the MI 2 piece free float quad rail with my Superlative Arms piston systems.
I'm not anticipating having any issues with the system, but it makes it a lot easier to take the hand guard off to get under the hand guard just in case.
Not as light as some of the M-Lok hand guards out there, but it is what I prefer.

I initially wanted to use the LaRue 10" goose neck hand guard that came on my Noveske, but it won't fit over the SA piston gas block.

@hoody2shoez

Jay

Would this work with a .300 Blackout Upper from BCM? I'm looking at getting a 12.5 MCMR BCM .300 Blackout Upper for a future SBR project.

Thanks I appreciate the quick response brother!