Never thought I would purchase a piston AR...I took my wife to the casino today, stopped at my favorite gun shop, looking at the LMTs and they had a MARS MRP CQB piston and I said what the hell, took it home.

Background: I am a huge LMT fan, most of my collection is LMT, never owned, shot a piston rifle before, this is my first one.  The MRP design is rock solid, huge fan here.

I now have the entire collection, MRP slick side. MRP MARS, standard MRP CQB now the MARS MRP piston and a few others

Any special lubrication steps needed?  I took it apart and applied lubrication in the normal manner, have to get used to the bolt loose in the carrier, took it apart, lubbed the inside, the cam and then the piston assembly.

Installed a Larue MBT trigger.  This is where LMT falls short, spend this amount of money and get a rough trigger.

Any advise since this is my first piston, would be greatly appreciated.  I have a Silencerco Omega in jail, possibility of parrole in a few months.  Should work great with this rifle.

Thanks,

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In my experience piston guns require less maintenance.  The bolt carrier doesn't get all that carbon build up on it because it doesn't function as the gas system.  Lube anywhere you'd lube a normal AR.  Same metal on metal.  Not a ton of difference.

buy lots of ammo and forget about cleaning shit out of the upper and BCG for about 2000 rounds, just lube it and love it.

i'm an LWRC piston owner but whatever piston a guy runs, they are all the same for staying clean.

dont be afraid to change the buffer system out to a vltor a5 and a heavier buffer if it recoils harder than what your use to in a DI. i've owner adams and lw, both needed more buffer than carbine stuff offered, for my liking. although i use a5 stuff with DI uppers too because i'm OCD about proper ejection and over gassed rifles.

I have a stag model 8, it's heavy but awesome with a can. Supress it now, thank me later

Not too cosmic, shoot it and enjoy.

It's a POS, and you should get rid of it. Also, seeing as I'm in a  generous mood, I'll take it off your hands for free. You're welcome.

Yak


P.S.  Nice score

Yak,

I just may do that...??

I wanted to go to the range tomorrow, just got a call from work (refinery) may have to go in tonight, so range time tomorrow may not happen.  Will update later.

77

Looking forward to it.

Light oiling is all that is really needed for a few thousand rounds.

If you care to get your piston spotlessly clean, I use Motorcraft carburetor cleaner, the liquid, not aresol. A soak overnight dissolves all traces of carbon. Rinse with rubbing alcohol, dry, oil and wipe off. I find that

Just got back from the range, the rifle functioned perfectally,  no issues.  Ran some Federal Green Tips, Hornady Match, Blackhills and Remington.

The impulse is different, the 556 is a soft shooting round to start with, but the piston has more recoil.  Totally different feel.  I really like it.  Need to decide on an optic for the rifle, leaning towards a LED ACOG. TA11 series LED

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Any pix?

ACOG for the win

Great to hear your maiden piston voyage was pleasant.

Love the ACOGs

Bought an LWRC spr back in 2011. Later purchased a PWS. Don't clean my ARs anymore and don't care to own any more DI. Still have 1 DI upper due to sentimental value.

Buy lots of ammo and don't worry about cleaning anymore

I've had a bunch of different rifles, no LMT's though. Friend of mine has a couple and loves them. I notice a different kind of recoil pulse with a short stroke piston system, but not really harder? Maybe it's just me?

Oil it, run it, enjoy the cleaner BCG.

Went shooting again this past weekend and this is a totally different rifle.  Like I noted in one of my replies above, the recoil is totally different.  The 5.56 is a light round, but if I had to compare the recoil of the piston LMT vs. a DI, I would have to say the recoil is double.  Does that make sense?

When I got home, pulled out the BCG and it was nice and clean, oil rag wipe down and back in the rifle.  Very easy

77

I like acogs but I did not care for the led version so I sold mine.

What did you not like about the LED version?

Decided on a scope for this rifle, ELCAN OS4X....

Shot it this morning, it is great.  A good combo, as soon as my Silencerco Omega is out of jail, with the adjustable piston gas block, will be right at home on this rifle.

77

Any chance of photographic evidence?

Not the best pictures, from my iPad....

Sorry for the delay in posting pictures, I have been real busy with work problems...

Enjoy,

77
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How do you like the Elcan.......have not gotten a change to play with those yet

It is excellent, same quality as an ACOG....The scope and picture seems bigger than say a TA11, the scope it should be compared to...has an excellent eye relief, 2.7"

The glass is crystal clear, I believe it is a 32mm objective/4X give you an 8 ratio, which should be great in low light.  I got the cross hair model.

The only downside and it is me, my eyes are getting old and not having an diopter adjustment is getting harder and harder to deal with.

As far as durability, I have not given it a torture test, never will, but in your hands you can feel the durability, especially with the axis sighting in system, no reticle to adjust, you move the sight in the base.  Front moves left to right with an excellent adjustment screw with outstanding defined clicks.  The rear is adjusted up and down with an adjustment wheel that locks in place after adjusting.

If you can imagine a tall equilateral triangle, the base is the front and the point is the rear.  You move the front adjustment side to side and the rear pivots.  This give you a much greater range of motion for sighting in.  

The other downside, and can be dealt with, are the ARMS levers on the scope.  They are not adjustable like on a Larue and this scope is ever, ever so slightly loose on all of my rifles.  So I called ARMS and for $15 you can get upgraded levers for the scope.  The instructions on the ARMS website is easy to follow, it took me all of 10 minutes to take the old levers off and I am waiting for the new ones to arrive this week.  A lot of very small parts, do not be in a hurry and watch what you are doing.

I am planning to take some pictures when I am installing the upgraded levers and posting.  

Hope this helps.

77

Sold looking rifle--thank you.

Thanks....as stated above, a SOLID choice!

Congrats

Thanks guys, when I put something together I try to make sure the sum of the components is a good combination.  I have two more new LMTs that need optics. I have a non piston MARS that may be getting an ACOG and I have a MRP CQB LM8 that did have an Aimpoint but I may dress it out as a DMR and go with a 1 to something variable, not sure yet.  Maybe the new 1-8 Accupower.  

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My experience with LPV optics has been mostly disappointing (except for an inexpensive Weaver V3), so I applaud your selection of an ELCAN. Hopefully you'll document the ARMS lever swap and post about it (and your observation and experience with the scope itself) in the optics forum at some point.

Double the recoil? Not my experience at all. A different recoil pulse for sure, and that's with the many different systems I've tried.

Dogpile, your are correct....most of my rifles have a Larue-Harris bipod mounted.  I do not have one on the piston rifle..i have been shooting it off of one of the triangular shooting rest....

I know this may sound crazy, but this past weekend I did install a L-H bipod and the rifle feels more like my others, as I always load the bipod.  You are right, a different feel, slightly more impulse.  

Actually the rifle shoots real good, I really like it

I said I would post some pictures of installing the ARMS upgraded levers, well I forgot to take pictures.   The levers came in today, installed them in about 10 minutes, extremely straight forward.

First of all, the levers flop around in the base, adjusting the small threaded/knurled nuts was not as easy as it looked.  I had to adjust the tension with a 1/16" punch, placing it on the holes on top of the nuts and pushing with my thumb.

After being used to Larue mounts, the ARMS take some getting used to, Larue has spoiled me and us...face it.

After you adjust the tension, make sure you tighten the locking screw at the end of the levers, this locks the lever with the knurled nut on top of the lever, if not, when you close the lever and nut will move relative to each other and you lose the tension.  Any way, here are some pictures of the final assembly...

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Nice. Thanks for the follow up.

Looks complex, why change to those mounts?

Have never cared much for ARMS mounts. Those replacement levers may be a step up

Love to try an Elcan one day........

Not going to blow that much cash til I see if I like them or not.

I was in your spot, never handled one before.  Found a local dealer that had one in stock, a DR1/4, went and looked at it, handled and determined at that time the optic was excellent, hefty and well made....

Ordered the OS4X without holding that exact model...

At first at the range, I had a little let down, not sure why, but after a few range trips, getting used to the optic, I am a 180, really come to appreciate the clarity, eye relief and even though I have no other data to support this, I do like the sighting in system, all external, no internal reticle adjustments.

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