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Posted: 12/17/2011 7:59:41 PM EDT
| New to piston conversions not sure where to go and where to stay away from. Reading about tilt etc. anybody provide insights for my carbine length? |
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I will give you the cliff notes version; look through some of the older posts for more detail if you like.
Carrier tilt was a minor issue, long since overcome by most piston conversion kits by changing the profile of the bolt carrier, which is usually a part of the kit when you buy it. If you want a railed gas block, get an Adams Arms piston kit. If you want to keep your standard front sight post, get an Ospery piston kit. There are a few others, but those two are the big honchos in the piston kit group. Be sure to find out if you handguards or rail are compatable with your piston kit. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Quoted:
New to piston conversions not sure where to go and where to stay away from. Reading about tilt etc. anybody provide insights for my carbine length? im running an osprey kit under my spikes 12" BAR rail.. looks slick.. love it so far.. the adams kits are nice and a good price, but with the osprey kit, if for some reason it failed, i have all the parts to easily convert back to DI |
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I have two of the Ares Kits. I bought the ares kits over the more Popular Osprey kits because I got them cheap when Ares was blowing them out for under $200.00, and I also got a deal on the Daniel Defense Omega Piston Kits that free float the barrel for my carbine. I primarly shoot XM-193 and I still get the same accuracy, and reliability out my my Noveke N4 with the piston kit as I did when it was DI but with alot less cleaning required.
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I got the AA LITE kit for a .625 inch barrel and love it. So many options. Basically any rail system you could put on your AR when it was DI.
I had an issue where my Amorer damaged the kit doing a simple flash hider change. Dont ask. In spite of this AA came to the rescue with advice and replacement parts. Above and beyond I would have to say. So, yeah, I am pleased. Plus the gun is rocking now with my new AA Lite piston kit. Flawless. Some Advice: Make sure NOTHING is binding, not even a little. Make sure you measure their described clearances and the AA gas block is directly over the gas hole in your barrel. its ALL about alignment. You can do this by eye. Just take your time. You will feel much better if you source a couple spare set screws and keep them in a plastic bag some where. Once you fire the gun and are happy with the final position of the gas block, you might want to barely DIMPLE your barrel with a drill bit to index the set screws and give them a palce to bite into. One at a time so you dont disturb the alignment you worked so hard to get. Use blue or red loctite and use a POWERFUL heat gun when ever you need to remove them. Failure to use a heat gun and you will likely strip the set screw small allen sockets. Use of a free floating quad rail is preferable. You can also use a non floating rail system such as MIDWEST with any of their kits. Lots of options. You can use anything you could when your gun was DI basically. And now their is an AA kit to fit almost anything. I was able to fit a kit on a non milspec Carbon 15 upper by Bushmaster with a pencil barrel with only minor tweaking to the upper receiver. My machinist trimmed my hand guard retaining plate to clear the piston rod and I used a drop in 2 piece Midwest quad rail in FDE. Easy. The hardest part can be removing the TAPER pins from your OEM gas block. Definitely buy a jig that holds triangular sights so you can wail away on the pins to remove them. Be prepared to bring your upper to a machine shop if you have a DI gas block from Bushmaster. We HAD to drill ours out on a milling machine. That was the hardest part. The AA kit installation is easy. They dont make the trimmed plates for .625 barrels. AA does make them for .750 barrels. I suggest not even using the plate and free floating your rail. If you have a weird barrel nut and must use the standard Delta ring drop in rail or want to retain your plastic hand guards or use Magpul MOE plastic hand guards(they will work!) on a .750 barrel ask AA if they will sell you a separate pre trimmed front hand guard retainer. You would only need one if you buy the LITE kit for the .750 barrel. AA includes a pre trimmed hand guard retaining plate in their full kit. I learned a LOT about these kits just recently(I ordered the wrong kit, one for a .750 barrel and saw what was included vs the LITE kit I got later). PM me if you have any questions. Or call and talk to AA. Good guys. |
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Watch the Osprey video. Conversion really is that easy. And no permanent modifications to the rifle, it's reversible just as fast.
Removing the front sight or gas block is fraught with problems, it's a non user removable part. Osprey doesn't require this. –– Chuck |
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