LWRC Piston Upper

[mmike87]

I am considering a piston upper, preferably a Leitner-Wise SOC upper. This comes with a chrome lined, 16.1" threaded barrel with a 1/7" twist.

The twist rate concerns me. Or should it? I typically shoot 62 grain green tip out of my RRA AR-15 with a 1/9" twist. I also sometimes shoot Georgia Arms remanufactured 55 grain as well. Both shoot very well in the RRA.

Will the 1/7" twist rate (it's all they offer) cause me any concerns with either of these two cartridge configurations? Is the 55 grain bullet going to disintigrate in flight?

Thanks.

 

[nbkky71]

No, 55gr ammo will not disintegrate in flight if fired from a 1x7 barrel. However, the POI will be slightly different than 62gr. It may be slightly less accurate due to the faster twist rate...it shouldn't be enough to matter though. 62gr ammo will shoot fine in the 1x7 barrel.

A good link for everything you wanted to know about .223/5.56mm ammo is the ammo oracle:
http://www.ammo-oracle.com/

There was a good writeup on that upper over on sigforum.com
http://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/630601935/m/764109036

 

[Ironballs]

why lwrc over pof or vice versa?

 

[mmike87]

nbkky71 - thanks for the link. I frequent SIGForum and had read LDD's review and that was actually what got me interested, but he did a conversion. I spoke with LW this morning and they can ship me an upper right away - a conversion could take months. I am an impatient person ...

Ironballs - I have not written off POF yet. The LW design seems a little better engineered, and is self-regulating. It also doesn't have the extra height that the POF system has. The LW system also seems to have more mainstream acceptance in military and LE circles as well, or so I read.

I still wonder if a piston system is even worth it - or is a novelty? I haven't found my RRA to be unreliable at all, even with many hundreds of rounds between cleanings.