thanks, ken! the miss rsa shirt is very, very nice! i'll try to keep the grease and grime off it!

ken sent me a gas piston for torture testing. i'm going to install it in one of the fast ak's to see if i can ruin it.

the piston is a 4-groove design that is made out of stainless steel. as usuall, this is not just a simple reverse engineering job. ron, randall and ken have added a couple of improvements to the equation..including a unique installation/removal drive hole.

so far it's only got a couple hundred rounds on it.

other than getting a blackened head, which is usual and to be expected, everything is normal. no change in the function or feel of the rifle.

the installation was a snap, since i had previously installed another gas piston in this carrier. just finding the old cross pin is the toughest part of swapping out a piston, imo.

i don't anticipate any issues with the rsa piston though.

it will get abused all winter, i don't intend to clean it untill bulletfest.