The AR Is Not Direct Gas Impingement
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 10 months ago
I think this is fairly well established, and I’m surprised he’s getting any pushback in the comments. There is this comment though: “Come on…You know as much as I do that the “recoil impulse” you are showing has wayyy more to do with the Center Mass of the bolt being on the center line of the stock on the ar15, and OFF the centerline on all the other rifles!!!”
Not quite. It has something to do with the recoil impulse being along the axis of the muzzle and the stock, not CoG. Still, the observations by Tim Harmsen are useful and, in my opinion, correct.
On January 28, 2019 at 4:49 pm, Longbow said:
“…down into an expansion chamber, like on the AR-15…” ?
Huh?
Sorry Bub, you lost me right here.
On January 28, 2019 at 5:02 pm, Longbow said:
Disregard the above. Head firmly planted up my ass today.
Going to my closet to eat some crow.
On January 31, 2019 at 5:18 pm, Pat Hines said:
About six or seven years ago, I decided to build an AR in 6.5 Grendel. Since I was free to build it anyway I wished, while cost was something of a factor, it wasn’t controlling. I figured I could go as high as $2,000.00 if I thought it produced a better rifle.
I looked hard as ARs with piston conversions of every type. I finally came to the conclusion that the original AR gas system was lighter, simpler, and far superior to a piston system for the AR. I’ve yet to see that I came to a wrong conclusion.
I own rifles with a piston system as original design elements and I’m fine with that. These include a Garand, an M-14, and a FAL. All have their place, the first two I consider museum pieces illustrating the progression of firearms design. The only thing the FAL needed was a trigger that could be tuned like the AR trigger. Some smiths claim to be able to set up a good FAL trigger, I’ve not seen anyone reliable agree with that.
Now, we have the two finest battle rifles in existence available to us; the AR-15 and the AR-308, we’re the richer for Eugene Stoner’s design.
On February 2, 2019 at 10:30 am, Russ said:
I didn’t watch the entire thing…it was a little Monty Python-ish. A shooter does not need to know how a weapon works as long as he know how to field strip and clean it; I promise you most of my USMC buddies were clueless. But for even a minor enthusiast, if the gas rings on the bolt, or the exhaust gas which was stinging your right eye didn’t clue you in that the bolt was a piston, you are pretty dense. As to whether the gas impinging upon the carrier, the bolt, or both as in the case of the AR makes it “direct” or not, I guess we will need to call BJ Clinton in and ask what “sex with that woman” is or what “is” is. My only question is what locks the French rifle into battery?