Piston vs Impingement?

This is how i thought about it before buying my AR.
DI is like a 1911. Design works, thats why it hasnt changed much = gets dirty quicker but easier to clean (less parts to tear apart).
Piston = keeps gases away from the chamber = cleaner chamber for same round count, but more parts to clean and tear down.
If your running full auto (where did you get that privilege) then hot gases not being pumped back into the chamber could be beneficial... chances are you will never put enough rounds through the pipe to worry about those temperatures.

I clean my guns every range use, so for me, i wanted proven reliability and less parts to mingle with. DI won.
Are DI as good as Piston, yes. Are Piston as good as DI. yes. Will they both go bang, yes.
You need to look beyond the "what is better" debate, and look at what you will be doing with it, and how.

Everyone wants a torture test with 10K rounds non-stop to decide which is better. Thats such an unrealistic and irrelevant test for a fire arm in civilian hands IMO. Im glad to watch it, but it carries little weight in decision making. Choose a reputable company (I went with Daniel Defense) and you will be please. Like most firearms, they will outshoot your capabilities for years.
Have fun choosing! You'll be stoked with whichever you end up with.
 
As this thread shows. Every time you ask the question you will get varying responses. 90% of the time, people will recommend what they own. with DI being more abundant, you're bound to see far more recommendations for a DI setup.

Both function well. If buying a piston, get the piston designed rifle and not something converted from DI to piston. DI is nice as far more components are interchangeable. If you're not looking to tinker, then this point isn't as relevant.

I have a piston ar (POF) and am very pleased with it after breaking in. The plus for me on the piston is ease of cleaning. Just the bore and piston and I'm good to go. After cleaning a C7, the POF is a dream.

Mine is also incredibly accurate, but that is more a factor of build and component quality and not due to the piston system.
 
Trazor said:
This is how i thought about it before buying my AR.
DI is like a 1911. Design works, thats why it hasnt changed much = gets dirty quicker but easier to clean (less parts to tear apart).
Piston = keeps gases away from the chamber = cleaner chamber for same round count, but more parts to clean and tear down.
If your running full auto (where did you get that privilege) then hot gases not being pumped back into the chamber could be beneficial... chances are you will never put enough rounds through the pipe to worry about those temperatures.

I clean my guns every range use, so for me, i wanted proven reliability and less parts to mingle with. DI won.
Are DI as good as Piston, yes. Are Piston as good as DI. yes. Will they both go bang, yes.
You need to look beyond the "what is better" debate, and look at what you will be doing with it, and how.

Everyone wants a torture test with 10K rounds non-stop to decide which is better. Thats such an unrealistic and irrelevant test for a fire arm in civilian hands IMO. Im glad to watch it, but it carries little weight in decision making. Choose a reputable company (I went with Daniel Defense) and you will be please. Like most firearms, they will outshoot your capabilities for years.
Have fun choosing! You'll be stoked with whichever you end up with.
Click to expand...

I agree with you except for the parts to clean argument against piston. All I need to clean is bore, chamber, and piston rod. Piston rod is easily taken out without any tools and wipes down with a dry rag. I've never had to clean my bolt or bolt carrier on my piston ar. DI ar is a completely different story when it comes to the bolt.
 
Trazor said:
Piston = keeps gases away from the chamber = cleaner chamber for same round count, but more parts to clean and tear down.
If your running full auto (where did you get that privilege) then hot gases not being pumped back into the chamber could be beneficial... chances are you will never put enough rounds through the pipe to worry about those temperatures.
Click to expand...
Not to put too fine point on it but with DI rifles the gases don't enter the chamber, they're diverted into the bolt carrier.
 
mikethebike said:
Just like absolutely everything in life, you get what you pay for.
Click to expand...

For sure I understand that, but are they riddled with problems that we know? More than just, "not as smooth operating or finished as a $3000 machine"? At one point, you get diminishing returns for more $ you spend, and I was wondering where it was in the curve, Would I be getting a functional, weekend warrior reliable AR-15, with average looks? Or a complete piece of garbage, of which I was better off buying two Norc CQA for the price?
 
Master-G said:
Not to put too fine point on it but with DI rifles the gases don't enter the chamber, they're diverted into the bolt carrier.
Click to expand...

I think he means inside the receiver. The gas tube does bleed into the receiver in the typical gas tube guns.

DI guns need regular lubing because the BGC is sitting on a smooth inner surface of the receiver, and carbon reduces the performance of the lubricant. Push rod guns don't do that so the lubricant can last longer.

You don't have to clean a DI gun, but you have to keep lubing it so the carbon will be kept suspended in the lube. It is really running on a sludge of lube and carbon if you want to keep it dirty and run. The downside of this practice is that you are basically running an engine without oil changes. It wears down the internal part faster.

Push rod guns with piston cup need to be cleaned too. You don't have to clean it every trip but eventually it needs to be taken apart when there is so much carbon it starts cutting off gas flow. For a rifle it is probably going to be a long time before it happens.
 
One factor I haven't seen mentioned here (although it may have been) is the piston systems usually have a adjustable gas system which allows for more gas when running dirty or to limit the gas when using a suppressor (not that that's an issue here).
There are lots of youtube videos talking pro/con of these two systems. As well as multi-threads here in the B&G forum.
 
deagle2008 said:
Greentips this thread is going nowhere. Its like 1911 vs glock. AR vs AK
Click to expand...

Easy comparisons, Glock beats 1911(in fact almost anything beats 1911), AR is more capable than an AK but an AK is still a workable viable option(in a free country).

Ohno said:
One factor I haven't seen mentioned here (although it may have been) is the piston systems usually have a adjustable gas system which allows for more gas when running dirty or to limit the gas when using a suppressor (not that that's an issue here).
There are lots of youtube videos talking pro/con of these two systems. As well as multi-threads here in the B&G forum.
Click to expand...

Dirty DI guns still run just fine, this has been covered so the merits of adjustable gas are lost on the DI crowd. Suppressors bring their own level of complexity to the situation and are not as easy as plug and play. Many use suppressors exclusively and set the gun up accordingly. Suputin can give you far more details about this than likely anyone on the forum. ;)

TDC
 
I am pretty sick of having to help people tune their wonder adjustable gas systems that were working last time.

Great feature.

Then again I think the FN is a POS.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom