Fireside, It attaches with Allen bolts 2 on each side. It is not a quick detach, unless you consider 4 bolts quick. It does come off fairly easy though.
I always found problems using cheap steel cased ammo with my AR but not my AK.
The AR has a bolt carrier. bolt and gas piston. Just on a AR the gas piston is formed by the bolt and bolt carrier. On a AK the gas piston is riveted to the bolt carrier, effectively making them one piece.
I'll give you that the AR is more modular. AKs do require hand fitting of parts.
BSW
A standard DI AR15 does not have a gas piston, that's why its called Direct Impingement (unless you are specifically referring to piston variants like the HK416, Sig556, etc).
This gas operating system works by passing high pressure propellant gasses tapped from the barrel down a tube and into the carrier group within the upper receiver, and is commonly but incorrectly referred to as a “direct impingement” system.
The gas expands within a donut shaped gas cylinder within the carrier. Because the bolt is prevented from moving forward by the barrel, the carrier is driven to the rear by the expanding gasses and thus converts the energy of the gas to movement of the rifle’s parts. The bolt bears a piston head and the cavity in the bolt carrier is the piston sleeve. It is more correct to call it an “internal piston” system.
What I like most about AK's is that they will eat steel-cased ammo all day long and require minimal maintenance. I have always been an AR guy but recently have taken a liking to AK's and SKS's for their reliability and simplicity.
On the other hand, I do have about a dozen 10/22s, which I'm sure wouldn't fare well in desert combat...
The ergonomics never felt comfortable to me, it was never as accurate as I would like, and I just didn't enjoy shooting it.
Fireside, I chose this rail on the fact that I have there Titan rail on my saiga 12 and I like it a lot. Plus they are making a section that goes from the front sight to the rear of the dust cover and it can pivot, and not loose zero. As far as the MI rail I don't have it and if you do then I would stick with that but I really liked the Chaos styling better, personal preference I guess.
I have a Saiga 7.62x39 and have converted it to meet 922r regs.
That's pretty funny. A month or so ago I found myself saying, "Gee, I wish my -74 had a Saiga front handguard," while doing some pretty interesting out-of-position stuff in a carbine class.I know guys spend extra dough converting that front end to use standard handguards. I don't see the point when you get the extra real estate up there just leaving it alone. Seems smart to leave it with all these straight out support arm shooting techniques going on nowadays.
That's pretty funny. A month or so ago I found myself saying, "Gee, I wish my -74 had a Saiga front handguard," while doing some pretty interesting out-of-position stuff in a carbine class.
Nope. There is a gas piston formed by the bolt and the bolt carrier. Stoner's brilliant idea was seeing that you could pipe gas from the FSB to the receiver and that the gas piston could be made from the bolt and bolt carrier and in the process eliminate the weight and bulk of the op rod.
See the Armalite Tech note #54 here: http://www.armalite.com/images/Tech%..., 020815.pdf
Its pretty stupid really because why then do we DI vs Piston debates, when they're all considered Piston to begin with?