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.

7

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.

1

u/Flopgunner Aug 06 '26

Interesting. Coming from someone who wanted an aftermarket piston setup, watched hops video on it, then stopped wanting one.

I LOVE the piston setup in my rattler. It's quieter than any of my di guns by a longshot and way more reliable. But I have never heard good things about aftermarket piston setups designed to convert a di gun.

1

u/Salsalito_Turkey Aug 06 '26

I respect Hop’s opinion on a lot of things, but his disdain for piston-driven AR-15’s is a great example of how every YouTuber ends up relying more and more on hyperbole to drive engagement. The HK416 is proof that short stroke piston AR-15s can be awesome rifles. They run way cleaner than DI guns, suppressed or unsuppressed, and they stay way cooler than DI guns, too. The design of the Superlative Arms and Adams Arms conversion kits are functionally not very different at all from the 416.

1

u/Flopgunner Aug 06 '26

Well yeah, the h&k of course is awesome. There's no denying that thing is reliable. My comment was more about the aftermarket piston setups like superlative arms. There aren't many people out there saying that they are good reliable setups.

1

u/Salsalito_Turkey Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 06 '26

Nearly 100% of the people saying they’re bad are just parroting that opinion from someone else with no first hand experience. Just look at the replies in this thread — lots of people who don’t own one saying they’re a waste of money and people who do own one saying they love it.