Now there is a useful post.
I have had experience with one. And it got am excess of carbon built up and choked itself out. Wasn't allowing enough gas through anymore and couldn't adjust it. Had to be disassembled and soaked to get it to free up.
Thanks. Theres a handful of people who got triggered over my posts. It happens. There's lots of people on here who don't have a good spread of experience. I wasted a lot of money on junk and gimmicky parts starting off building ARs... it took a few years for me to learn, so figured I'd try and share my experiences best I can in hopes people don't waste their money.
No ruffled feathers, laughter but no ruffled anything.
I never said Colt of FN were bad manufacturers. Matter of fact they make very acceptable guns. Are they my preference? No, but they make guns that work.
Oh, I don’t mean individual guns of the same make, gas port, parts, etc should be tuned. I’m talking about an assembled AR. For instance, my main squeeze is a LMT mars, 11.5” criterion core barrel converted for LMT, FCD A5 stock, Sprinco green, Sionics NP3 BCG with LMT e-bolt. Played with A5H2 through A5H4 buffers until my ejection pattern was where I wanted it with surplus, and hot 75gr, suppressed, or unsuppressed. I’ve had a 10.3” (which I don’t recommend), that I ended up with a carbine buffer tube on with an H buffer and fine tuned with different Sprinco power springs.
Thanks for the info. Never experienced that or seen it, but guess it's possible. My point was that there are some cases where an adjustable gas block might be a good approach. 6.5 Grendels are known to be hard on bolts, especially extractors. Using the adjustable gas block helps that some vs tuning the buffer IMO. I bought a 223 wylde upper that was over gassed. I changed to a heavier buffer and was good. In that case, wouldn't switch to an adjustable. No feathers ruffled here, just different opinions which can be good to discuss.
If something is over gassed or undergassed, the issue should be addressed to find out what's causing it to be that way. Oversized gas port, is there a leak and something is too small or big? How are the gas rings in the bcg, and is the bcg in spec, how about the gas key? Or is it a combination of multiple things.
In my opinion, it is not required. Pick a focus on what role you want your gun to play. The purpose that it serves, then buy the parts accordingly to make sure it's gassed correctly for the intended use. The adjustable is a bandaid to fix an issue elsewhere in the gun.
Just a final point of clarification. An adjustable gas block does nothing for undergassed problems. By that I mean if your gun is undergassed, an adjutable gas block does nothing for you, it won't increase gas. They only address being overgassed or decreasing gas. Most of what you described would be undergassed issues. Overgassed issues are not going to be a stacking problem either. Usually overgassed is related to a larger gas port on the barrel. So unless you want to replace the barrel, an adjustable gas block is one way to adress it and I wouldn't say it's a temporary fix. Buffer tuning is another approach which I explained earlier my preferences (grendle adjustable gas block, 223/5.56 buffer). Agree, finding good parts that work together make a nice gun and no stacking issues. Easier to do it right the first time as well.
Overgassed yes primary issue would be the gas port. If identified, the manufacturer should be contacted and see if it can be swapped. This is why a cheap set of pin gauges is a good investment if you want to assemble ARs. The gas port should be checked prior to install.
So is there an absolute known standard for a gas port size that should be checked for? Wouldn’t that port size be dependent on BCG, buffer weight and general build, all end user spec’d, not to mention carbine vs mid vs rifle length.
There is some pretty set standard size ranges for different length barrels. A gun should be built around a barrel. choose which barrel length you want and what purpose you want the gun for. So, your BCG buffer weight doesnt determine what your port size should be, the port size and your barrel determines what the other parts should be.
