Originally Posted by
Failure2Stop
Noveske all the way.
The LWRC will exhibit no more guarantee of accuracy over a Colt, and any honest employee of any reputable manufacturer or end-user will agree.
The advertised benefits of a piston AR are much different than the actual performance gain by a gun in the league of a Noveske.
Noveske delivers superior accuracy with their stainless barrels (from my experience their chrome-line barrels are on par with standard AR barrels as far as precision) while maintaining reliability. They are expensive (compared to most AR uppers/barrels) for a good reason- they are awesome. Their chamber is one of the things that sets them apart- they are made to deliver superb precision and reliability with Mk262 in high heat with high volume of fire- and that is a really good bench-mark.
Piston uppers come in all kinds of flavors, and one must bear in mind that all piston ARs are the result of forcing an operating system into a platform that was designed from the ground up to work with a different operating system. They all have problems. The one with the best track record is the HK 416, and despite the fact that anything made in Germany is better then anything Americans can hope to build (sarcasm), they have problems as well, and their average precision potential is less then awe-inspiring. There ain't no free lunch.
You voice a fear about an upcoming AWB. Without getting into that whole can of worms, think about this-
AWB is enacted and the only people that can sell current configuration guns are the ones selling them to the gov, and only to the gov. What company is going to be around in a few years to service your carbine, or how easy will it be to get critical/proprietary parts for the gun? One that builds the gun with common parts that are easily found from several sources to support the huge number of rifles in civilian hands, or the one that is built with proprietary parts with few or no gov contracts?
I can't say that either company would survivr such a ban, or if one would fold before the other, but I know where I would put my eggs if I was concerned about such a thing.
While I really like Noveske, they aren't the only game in town as far as high-quality DI ARs are concerned. And to be frank, if I was pushing a lot of lead through a suppressor at a high rate, I might consider a piston gun, but a properly setup AR will work just fine with a suppressor, and simply having a piston gun won't automatically mean that your gun will be trouble-free with a can. Plenty of crud gets back into the guts even if using a piston. I have probably shot more rounds through a DI gun with no cleaning than most piston owners will shoot ever. My point is that a quality AR will do a lot more than piston manufacturers will have you believe. Ask any trainer that sees a wide variety of guns come through their courses, and they will pretty much all tell a prospective buyer to "get a 6920 and don't mess with it" (bear in mind that this is in reference to base system, not ancilliary gear that helps you use the gun efficiently). They don't recommend HK 416s, or POFs, or LWRCs. They recommend the standard for a reason- they are a known (acceptable) quality item.
This is not to say that a piston gun can't be accurate, or that every DI gun will be just as reliable as a piston gun (hell, most DI guns have trouble being as reliable as the upper eschelon DI guns anyway), just that you should decide what you want and why, and then base your purchase on that.
Remember that marketing is designed to get you to buy their product, to transfer $$ from your pocket to theirs, even if it isn't the most applicable for your individual use. This applies to EVERY MANUFACTURER. I make $0 off of my recommendations, with my word and reputation on the line with every letter I type.
Should new facts emerge, my position may change, but as of right now I believe that your money will get you more relevant gains in performance (precision, ease of repair, recoil impulse) by going with a high-end DI gun. I would also say that a good quality AR fully equipped with your $2500 would be a better option than a $2500 gun with nothing else on it.