AR-15 DI to piston conversion?

[WS6]

I'll ask you to stop regurgitating bad information then. I have shot both, side by each, and the HK is a much smoother shooting rifle than "most" of my DI rifles. They are especially so when compared to your standard off the shelf DI AR common in most people's fun safes without a lot of tuning having been done to springs / buffers etc.

The bolt life as the life of the HK bolt is roughly double that of a regular bolt.

The MODS need to lock this thread please, as the circus is now in town and it will go down hill from this point.

No, the MODS better leave it open, because, you know, it's our place to tell them how to do their "job".

Seriously though, most people who are issued or can draw an HK416 view guns like toilet tissue. They use it, they use it up, they get another one. One guy I know goes through an M4 every 6 weeks, roughly. If it goes "bang" and hits where it's pointed, great. So to argue about the merits of this and that as a civilian/LE when citing CAG/DEVGRU/NSW, etc. is flawed in and of itself, if we are to be honest about it. It's like the Eotech vs. AP arguments...they use that gear, abuse that gear, and kill people with it, and move on. They don't obsess over it or form attachments, typically. Either it helps them kill bad people dead, or it doesn't. They get a different tool and move on.

Whereas when you take CIV/LE, there seems to be a much more gear-centric mentality than mission-centric mentality, often times.

I'm not picking at anyone with the above, I'm just making an observation. I love a good technical debate, obviously, but it's like lay-people arguing about race-car tires like the LeMans driver gives a damn. No, either the tire works or it doesn't, and when it's used up (and they don't care when or how, they just race!), it's replaced. It's the factory, engineers, designers, and lay-people who are concerned about said tire.

[Ed L.]

Do they? Last I heard the MK18 worked just fine and end-users preferred that it didn't handle like a boat anchor.

From another thread with someone who has first hand experience with the MK18 as a military user:

I have a limited dog in this fight - I carry what they hand me and do the best I can with it.

When I first got to my current assignment, I was handed a Mk18, one of about 20 in our modest armory. Over the course of the following 12 months, I saw three deadline to the point of having to go back to Crane for replacement. My first one would not shoot any more than 150 rounds without starting to choke - could not ONCE get it to fire a basic load in a hard training morning without multiple malfunctions requiring remedial action or greater to get back on line. Had one bolt blow - never did hear back from Crane on what they think caused that failure... After a hard days training, we could always look forward to spending several hours getting them clean again - a joyous occasion.

Now we have Mk16s. About the same weight, not as svelte, but the folding stock is a MAJOR bonus for guys like me who sometimes have to be ready to fight but can't carry any obvious weapon cases. Reliability is off the charts, I once went well over 3,500 in training through mine (most of that in the course of 2,600 in two days), with zero maintenance, zero lubrication, and zero failures. Just finished shooting another 1,800 or so under the same conditions at Mid-South, and this was IMMEDIATELY (two days) after a trip to "the box" with multiple rotary wing trips, no maintenance, and no lube - and no malfunctions. Accuracy, even with the CQB barrels, is SIGNIFICANTLY improved over the Mk18 or M4. Clean up is a dream, wipe the chamber/bolt, punch the bore, and relube. When I took my gas cylinder out to clean after the first 1,000 rounds I'd fired, it took less than 5 minutes to get it back to "factory new" looking.

[sinlessorrow]

From another thread with someone who has first hand experience with the MK18 as a military user:

Link? To lazy to search.

[Iraqgunz]

There have been plenty of discussions as to the merits or lack thereof in regards to pistons.