The real reason I’m considering this is cleanliness around the bolt area. I’m thinking that in the long run, being cleaner will result in less wear.
Cleanliness? How many rounds do you plan on firing between cleanings? I heard that the zombies won’t arrive for another year or two at the earliest.
My opinion is that you’d be better off spending that money on ammunition and range time.
Keep that AR clean, invest in some spare parts, and then practice, practice, practice. Turn that cash into ammo, and that ammo into skill.
Just my two cents. YMMV.
Understood, but anything you convert to will be a retrofit so inherently less dependable.
If you want a dedicated piston gun, there are plenty out there; granted, none of them have the AR ergonomics, but you can't have everything.
Wear? Your gonna have to shoot more than 20,000 rounds to get appreciable wear.
By then you’d wanna swap out the barrel $300 and maybe look at some smaller parts to replace but, you should be purchasing extra things like a trigger group, pins, rollers...
As for cleanliness...really?
I put 10,000 rounds through my Springfield M1A over the last 4 years. I only recently took it completely apart.
Don’t ask me why I did it. The reason was stupid and as I found out completely unecessary.
The bedding looked completely clean. Ran a rag through it and Nada.
trigger group didn’t even have lint on it.
The oil on my spring was clear and viscuous. Oh well, I was there any way. Brake Free and oiled.
I’m not taking it apart ever again.
For your gun just follow the standard cleaning instructions. Easy Peasy and done in 10 minutes or less...
I’ve ran over 1500 rounds through my M16A1 in an afternoon.No fouling or jamming and the gun was running fine at the end of the session.The carbon residue around the bolt area doesn’t seem to be abrasive either.I wouldn’t buy another upper because of wear worries.
maybe you need a roller cam kit from POF.com
The cam is what causes most friction in ARs. In fact you do not get much advantage with a piston system without this cam.
The piston reduces temperature and dirt in the chamber but it can be more complicated to tune to cycle properly and pushing the bolt backwards is done just as well if not more reliably with DI. It is on the way forward that the bolt has much friction, and there the piston does not help and might make it worse in terms of friction (indirectly, however, that lesser fouling in the chamber allows better seating of the bolt on the primer in the long run, but the piston itself is an additional friction area).
During matches the M1As have actually more alibi events than ARs.
Gas pistons are “maintenance free” but if needed are difficult to maintain and not as modular as DI imo.
PWS has the rod welded to the AR style bolt key. If this flimsy piece bends or break, you are out of luck.
The Ruger’s upper is impossible to take appart. it is way too heavy. No recoil, cannot bump fire.
The SIG 516 is pretty good, probably the lightest and easiest to clean and get after market mods and spares from.
Other systems without buffer tube and folding stock such as RRA PDS are really interesting
other than that you are looking at super expensive stuff.
I am looking at only buying a 6.8 spc piston upper from Lwrci but that is still expensive. Thus I can keep my 556 di versality and have a reliable 6.8 spc
Just buy an xcr robinson arms, you can get them in 5.56, 6.8, 7.62x39, and 7.62x51. I have the latter one and it’s fantastic.