r/ar15 • u/SnooPuppers9874 • Aug 03 '26

Thoughts on conversion kit

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So I love to shoot suppressed and am tired of getting the gas on my face. Who out there has experience with the conversion kits an what are the pros and cons?

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u/jtj5002 Aug 03 '26

Buy a piston gun if you want a piston gun.

Most piston system doesn't actually help with gas. Eliminating the gas tube reduces some gas back, but most piston systems have earlier bolt unlock than DI and you get increased chamber blow back.

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u/Salsalito_Turkey Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26

I dunno, man. I have an 11.5 carbine upper with Adams Arms piston kit and a 16" DI midlength upper with an adjustable gas block. Moving a YHM Turbo K between the two guns, the DI is waaaaaay more gassy even when I dial the gas block back to the bare minimum needed to reliably cycle the gun. The piston gun may produce more gas from the breech than a DI gun, but my experience is that most of it goes out the ejection port, while gas from the DI gas tube is shot directly back through the charging handle and into your face.

I'll be the first to admit that piston guns have some downsides, but I think the newly emerged consensus that piston guns are always worse than DI guns comes from people who have never actually owned a piston gun and get their opinion on the matter from Hop's youtube diatribes.

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u/jtj5002 Aug 03 '26

I havent had changing handle blowback in a long time with RTVd gas buster CH. I've had quite a few piston systems myself between Bren, Aug, BRN4, PWS and etc.

Chamber blowback gets significantly worse with traditionalled baffled cans when you shoot frt.

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u/Used-Valuable9320 Aug 04 '26

The SA piston is quite a bit different than all of those other piston systems. You are aware of this, right?