Want new Piston AR

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I Like POF ( Patriot Ordinance Factory) they have done a lot of homework on the Piston platform....http://www.pof-usa.com/

I have been looking at P416 Tactical for a long time....got close to pulling trigger and bought a Colt LE6920.....but visions still haunt me of the 416.....:D

I am just not there yet with the pistons....looking but still on the fence....:rolleyes:

POF claims they were first to market this style AR?? and I know now Colt makes a 6940P and all others are making the jump on the band wagon....It appears that $2K is a entry level piston rifle among the top names, with Ruger being around $1500. I would probably run a poll here on THR of TOP Piston AR's before I dropped that much coin....but that is me??

And you will get plenty of opinions here, but you will also get informed sound advice as well!
 
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+1 to the SIG 556, it doesn't take any AR parts except for the magazine, but its the most refined .223 piston semi out there, and the prices have gotten much more reasonable on them recently.

I've so far been very happy with my Ruger SR556 and CMMG piston upper.
 
yeah, search is the friend but that went back about 5 years.
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And that was precisely the point.......The Then and now!

A lot of time has elapsed to bring a frontrunner to the proverbial front... :)
 
Barrett REC7. Designed as a piston AR not a conversion. If you look around, you can find them for about $1770 + shipping.
 
Most of them are, IMHO, overpriced and underperform. If you want an AR15, I would get a quality DI gun (Colt, LMT, BCM, DD, Noveske); if you want a piston, I would get a SCAR-L.

But, if it has to be an AR15 with a forward piston, I would look most closely at the LMT, PWS, and Adams Arms options, all of which seem to be actually engineered and run well. (The Colt should be good too based on brand reputation, but I know nothing about it.) I have a factory Adams Arms midlength piston upper and it works well and seems to be a quality item. I got it more as a range toy, but I would put it up against standard AR15s from non-military-contractors. If you wanted to go that route, you could get the AA midlength upper for about $600, put it on your choice of AR lower ($300-600+ depending what you want), and have a nice setup for less than most other options.

The Ruger SR556E looks good in some ways but is handicapped by the nothing special, non-chrome-lined barrel (one of several cost saving measures).

A friend has two POFs, one each 5.56 and .308 flavors. They are heavy, unbalanced, and have been less reliable than any of my DI AR15s, and of course they cost more than twice as much. I can't see any reason to go that route.
 
SCAR 16s, if you've got the cash. If not, the SIG556 and all of its various flavors would do you just fine.
 
Z-Michigan said:
Most of them are, IMHO, overpriced and underperform. If you want an AR15, I would get a quality DI gun (Colt, LMT, BCM, DD, Noveske); if you want a piston, I would get a SCAR-L.

But, if it has to be an AR15 with a forward piston, I would look most closely at the LMT, PWS, and Adams Arms options, all of which seem to be actually engineered and run well. (The Colt should be good too based on brand reputation, but I know nothing about it.) I have a factory Adams Arms midlength piston upper and it works well and seems to be a quality item. I got it more as a range toy, but I would put it up against standard AR15s from non-military-contractors. If you wanted to go that route, you could get the AA midlength upper for about $600, put it on your choice of AR lower ($300-600+ depending what you want), and have a nice setup for less than most other options.

The Ruger SR556E looks good in some ways but is handicapped by the nothing special, non-chrome-lined barrel (one of several cost saving measures).

A friend has two POFs, one each 5.56 and .308 flavors. They are heavy, unbalanced, and have been less reliable than any of my DI AR15s, and of course they cost more than twice as much. I can't see any reason to go that route.
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+1 this, you might want to check to see if you really want a piston gun.....I have 6 and all of them are DI for a reason.
 
Look at the Barrett REC7. The piston system weighs 3.5 oz. If you didn't know it was a piston rifle - you couldn't tell by either the balance or weight. The Barrett bolt and bolt carrier are designed and purpose-built for use with the piston system that is a proprietary Barrett design.

The entire piston system + bolt and carrier are designed to eliminate carrier tilt. Cleaning the piston system is simple as the gas plug removes by rotating a small lever at the front of the rifle - then you simply tilt the rifle downward and it slides out.


The IMHO, flavor-of-the-week answers POF, Adams Arms, SIG 556 etc. are the usual predictable Internet echo chamber repetitions. I looked carefully at piston AR's and shot the POF, SIG556, and an Adams Arms conversion - the REC7 easily outperforms them in handling and is the equal of a SIG or HK in build quality. Ronnie Barrett knows how to build quality rifles that work - you would not be disappointed with a REC7.
 
I've had an LWRC M6A2 for a couple years now that I've been very happy with. Haven't had any issues at all with it. May swap triggers at some point but other than that it's still stock.
 
I can make numerous arguments for sticking with DI when buying an AR, particularly if this is your first one. If you must have a piston, Primary Weapon Systems (PWS) has a great reputation. They are expensive but have really done their homework. Also look at LWRC, Barrett, and LMT. POF makes some nice-looking guns but I've heard too many ancedotes from too many shooters about their reliability issues.

I would avoid most of the less-expensive piston guns....changing the AR's operating system to a gas piston is simple in concept but in reality affects almost every key operating component in some way. Buy piston guns that have a solid, proven reputation among users; these guns will come from manufacturers who put their money where their mouth is in desigining the system.

If you prefer gas-piston operating systems, look at a rifle designed from the ground up as a gas-piston system. Good options include the FN SCAR, SIG 551 and 556, Bushmaster ACR (*zips up flame suit*), and higher-end AKs.
 
Our last local rifle match we had one guy shooting a ACR.

I've never seen a rifle puke its gas regulator and piston out the front of the gun from firing before.

Threw it pretty far too. It wasn't recovered until after the match.

BSW
 
I was an early adopter of piston driven AR's, been using mine for nearly a decade. All of my +16" guns are DI, but for the short barrels, nothing beats the realiablity of LWRC. I own a 'few'. :evil:


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I was looking at piston guns too. Almost bought an ACR but the deal fell thru so I bought 3 DI guns. I agree with Sweden, you can't beat a piston for the short barrels and LWRC is one of the best. Anything 14.5 and over DI works great.
 
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