Ammo isn't pricey when you compared apples to apples. 6.8 is NOT military surplus, so, compared to other commercial hunting rounds, it's the same. I recently bought 6.8SPC Remington 115g OTM at Academy, $17.99 a box. .30-30 Leverevolution I got two years ago was $24.99. No, 6.8 is not pricey. Milsurp and import is cheap, is all. Some folks don't have a good perspective on it; none of the other alternate calibers like 6.5G, .458 SOCOM are cheap, either. And they aren't surplus, either.
Pricey is simply BS.
Piston conversions only run about 40 degress cooler in the bolt carrier, and even DI guns can shoot a mag of ammo, shotgun, and handle the BCG barehanded. It's done all the time in the military. "Cooler" is very relative, shoot a mag of ammo and grab the piston cylinder on a conversion, or rather, measure it, about 500* soaking hot.
Basically a piston conversion disables the one in the bolt carrier and add another on the barrel, which is gerrymandering the design for no known benefit. It simply moves the heat and collects it under your support hand, adds dead weight, and still has to be cleaned as much as a DI gun - which is NOT AT ALL.
Really, just keep it lubed and wipe it down after shooting. Scraping the parkerizing off the parts isn't necessary. Having been in the military 22 years, the "clean room" standard is a deliberate time waster perpetuated by the older carbon steel framed and wood stocked guns that rusted sitting in the armory because corrosive primers were used. If anything, the Army is about tradition. We only change things because troops get killed otherwise.
ARP makes the industry leading 6.8SPC uppers and barrels. Others offer similar products, and the 6.8forums can answer most questions about them before you even know to ask.
