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So, since I implicitly believe absolutely everything you say I went to the Osprey web site. I was floored!

How long has this simple fix for that ornery system been around? Is it allowed for field installation by military personnel? My nephew in Iraq and my niece in Afghanistan tell me that although the M4 is a very good weapon, it still does jam occasionally and must be kept absolutely clean to be reliable

I have long inquired about the drawbacks of the direct impingement system and have been told that it "it's the best in cold climates," etc., etc. I personally know that M16s fouled very quickly.

One more thing, that damned comic book was written in what engineers must have considered to be "hep" cool talk. Much of it was gibberish then and today's dumbed-down kids wouldn't understand a word!

Suffice it to say that the Osprey kit would have saved many young lives in VietNam.

piston-rod systems have their own failure modes. The rod can buckle or kink, the piston can also foul or jam. The Stoner bolt put the piston inside the bolt, in line with the barrel, which makes sense in some cases- More accurate, and fewer parts.

I myself like the delayed blowback. That way there is no separate gas system at all. When the timing is done correctly, most of the gas blows out the front, and the round will still extract even if the extractor is removed. As for lethality, the M-4 suffers from its short barrel. The longer barrel has higher velocity, and fragments further out.

A review of Teddy Roosevelt’s account of operations in Cuba reveals that he was unimpressed by the 7mm Mauser- If a soldier was shot in brain, heart or spine he died, if shot and the brain, heart and spine were missed, the soldiers recovered quickly.

The last AR I built I put the Osprey on fromt he start, choosing a nice rail gas block into which to insert the piton cup. I've butned through a couple thousand rounds with it so far and had exactly one failure to fire ... it was a Tula steel case round and apparently I loaded it int he mag without realizing it had no primer! Of course if it ever had powder in it that drained out when the bullet was seated, probably. I sent the round off to an ammo supplier I know for his amusement.

I've got an AR with the CMMG piston kit and one with the Adams Arms kit. Both work just fine, but for the mount it and forget it factor, I would go with the Osprey Defense system in a heartbeat. I've shot 75 grain all the way down to 52 grain ammo through the rifle and not a hiccup. I even loaded different weights in the same mag and had zero issues firing the entire mag. One caution: I put the Osprey on a 14.5 inch barrel gun and had to remove half a loop from the recoil buffer spring to function perfectly. I'm running a Lavange flash suppressor, welded on, and am tickled pink with it. Gun doesn't weigh much more than a loaded 1911 with a thirty round mag 5.56 in the AR.

Short of buying a SCAR 17, this is the best solution to the AR/M4 dirty dump in the bolt problem I can imagine. I've seen no evidence of carrier tilt/drag, so far.