What is going on everyone, Alek coming to you today from classic firearms and guys today, we are here to talk about gas systems. So direct impingement versus long-stroke versus short-stroke. You know, if you're looking to get into an AR-15 platform or anything like that, what might be best for you? You know, kind of what are you looking for? Kind of comparing and contrasting some of the differences between them and just a general overview of what they are and what some of their differences are.

Direct Impingement

So without further ado, we're going to go ahead and get it started off with this SR-15 from Knight's Armament. This rifle has a mid-length gas system on a 16-inch barrel, but there's also pistol length gas systems. Carbine length, mid-length, and then rifle length. Your pistol lengths are typically going to be anything under seven and a half inches along those lines. You're carbine length, typically over seven and a half, all the way up to 16 for some of your military spec rifles and stuff like that. Mid-length again, 16 and above. And then your rifle length is going to cover everything from 18 to 22 and 24, however long that barrel is. The gas system and kind of how it functions. So if this was loaded, which it's not for all you internet safety officers out there. Once you pull the trigger, this bad boy goes bang. The bullet is going to travel down the barrel. And then the gas pressure behind that is going to build up into this little gas block that is right here. It's kind of hard to see behind the rail, but that gas block is going to divert it, the gas and then it's going to travel down this gas tube back into the upper receiver right here. And then it's going to hit the gas key on your bolt carrier group and that is what actually cycles your operation back and forth. Some things to note about the gas system and different lengths. You need to tailor it to the specific needs of, not only what rifle pistol you're going to be creating, but some things to think about too. So with your pistol lengths, again, seven and a half and in for all your shorties. The military style rifles, like I say, like carbines or anything that's going to be used for duty purposes. I prefer a carbine length. Carbine does cycle, and I say violently with air quotes, carbine lengths do cycle a little bit more violently, but that is good in reference to a duty rifle because it's going to help kind of get through some of that grime and grit and keep that firearm cycling. Mid-lengths are going to recoil a little bit less, a little bit more flatter shooting. And then rifle lengths, obviously if you've got a long rifle, then that's what you're going to want to go with. Anyways, that is the direct impingement system and let's go ahead and move into the long-stroke.

Knights Armament SR15

Long-Stroke

All right guys so we just got them talking about direct impingement firearms. So we're going to go ahead and move on to long-stroke. Thank you, Ryan, for letting me borrow your PWS Mark 111. This is, that I'm aware of, one of the only long-stroke piston system AR-15s. When you think of a long-stroke piston, you typically think of the AK-47 platform. Kind of like this M70, that we've got up here or this RPK style back here. With the long strip piston system does, is it's a piston that runs in here and attaches to the bolt carrier group. And again, the same thing when this is fired, that gas is going to come down the barrel and then it's going to run up into this piston and that piston is what directly comes back and it cycles the same link as the bolt carrier group does.

Zastava Arms ZPAP M70

All right, so quick commercial break. I just thought this would be a lot easier to help explain it. So again, with the long-stroke piston, this is what it looks like outside of the firearms. The long-stroke, again, this is the piston that is attached to the boat care group right here. If you guys can see that. So again, when this round is fired, it goes up, the gas diverts and it hits this up rod that is right here. And that is what is the up rod is pushing the bolt carrier group back into the buffer and the buffer spring. And that's going to bounce back and then pick up the next round. long-stroke gas pistons, there are a lot simpler and they often, I would say they're easier to maintain. They are definitely a lot cleaner. They shoot a lot cleaner. I don't know when the last time Ryan has claimed this, but even just kind of looking at it. It's not dirty at all. The one thing that people typically talk about when they talk about long-stroke systems, is the recall is traditionally a little bit more felt. I wouldn't say that that's necessarily the case. So with most of your piston guns, and you can have this on a DI gun as well, but on most of your piston firearms, there's going to be an adjustable block that's up here and that'll allow you to turn the gas up or turn the gas down. So you can really, really tailor, not only how you want your recall cycle to be, but long-stroke piston guns also suppressed very, very well. And this is a surefire warden on here, but if we were to have another surefire suppressor or anything like that, and you were firing this, you can really, like I said, turn that gas up or turn that gas down to effectively make it cycle better. And you want to watch your ejection pattern as well. So again, keep tuning that gas down. With the suppressor on here, it's going to be causing more gas to come back into the system as well. So that's another thing to think about. Comparing the long-stroke to the DI, DI guns do suppress fine. There's no big deal there, but one thing to think about, unless you're running like a Radian charging handle, like Ryan has on this PWS here. If you're running that on the DI gun, it's going to help you out with kind of gas blow back to the face a little bit, but with the DI gun, once it cycles and that gas comes back, all that gas is moving with the bolt carrier group as well. And it's expelling from your objection port. And then it's also going to have some gas expelled from back here where your charging handle is.

LWRC Individual Carbine

With a long-stroke piston system. A lot of that gas is dispelled at the very front of the firearm. So if you can kind of see it right here, again, I'll flip this up, but a lot of your gas is going to be vented off up here where this block is at and then the necessary gas that you tune it to is going to help cycle it. I like long-stroke piston systems a lot. They're very, very reliable. Again, they operate really efficiently and they're also very clean to maintain. You can shoot and again, that's kind of where the AK reliability comes from or the Hebrew Hammer, the Gall rifles. They're very, very reliable. Some people don't even clean them at all and they'll just keep ticking. So that is enough on the long-stroke piston system. Let's go ahead and move on to the short-stroke.

Short-Stroke

All right guys. So we've covered DI guns. We've covered long-stroke piston guns. Now we are going to be moving on to short-stroke, which is this bad boy right here. The LWRC M6 or ICA5 or whatever you want to call it. I call it the M6, but this thing is fricking sweet. So with a short-stroke piston system, versus the long-stroke, where a long-stroke actually travels the entire length with the bulkier group, the short-stroke actually has the gas impact the front of the piston and then that piston impacts the bolt carrier group and then sends it rearward. So it actually doesn't move with the bolt carrier group. So we're going to take a quick commercial break. I'm going to take this down because YouTube laws and we will be right back. Boom and we're back. So with the short-stroke system, right, so remember when I had out the long-stroke bolt carrier, when I pulled that system out, it had the bolt carrier group and the piston and the charging handle and everything kind of attached to it. So you can that this guy here, there is no gas key, but in fact, there's a place for that short-stroke piston to actually impact the bolt carrier group, like I mentioned, and then send it rearward. So again, these are a little bit easier to kind of take out and you don't have to remove the piston or you can remove the piston from the front end, but these are kind of just for your field maintenance. They're a little bit easier. So with this, I'm not going to take the piston out of this guy, but you can see the piston underneath the rail right here. So again, once that bullet is fired, it's traveling down, that gas is going to come up in here. It's going to be reverted back. But instead again, instead of that entire piston moving the length of the firearm, that piston actually just impacts the bolt carrier group right here and that's what sends it rearward. short-stroke piston guns have not been around as long as the long-stroke piston guns have. Some of the famous, I guess, short-stroke piston guns, or like the scars or the Taiwanese T91s or the Wolf A1s, whatever you want to call them. short-stroke piston system they, again, operate very clean. Most piston systems do. They're very reliable and again, if you're wanting to suppress this, the piston, in my opinion, piston systems do suppress much better than DI. Again, you have that adjustable block up here that you can see. You can tune it up, tune it down. And another thing I forgot to mention with the piston that makes it kind of cool. If you are going to suppress this guy, you can completely turn that gas all the way down, which is going to inhibit the firearm from actually cycling, but it is going to make it that much quieter. So if you are looking to be, I don't know, maximum quiet, whatever that means, but you can turn this gas off all the way. That round's going to go off, again you're not going to have any cycling back here, but it's going to compress all that gas and essentially move it forward. And it's going to be very, very quiet. With a DI gun, like I said, unless you have an adjustable gas block, you can't do that. And even then I don't think it does it as well as the short-stroke system does. So I think LWRC really did these right. They're phenomenal and they look great. Maybe we might be giving one of these away in the future. I don't know. Let me know down in the comment section below, if you guys would like to see this in a video for a giveaway. But we're going to put them all back together and up on a table and we're just going to do a quick discussion on which one might be best for you.

LWRCI ICA5

Recap

All right, ladies, gentlemen, boys, and girls, we're going to do a quick recap real quick and then figure out which system might be best for you. So going back to the top, talking about the SR-15. If you're looking to get into the AR-15 game, I guess a DI gun is typically going to be the way that you're going to want to go. They're traditionally less expensive than some of your piston guns are. They work great. They're very reliable and you can suppress them no doubt. If you are going to suppress them, I would recommend putting that adjustable gas block. Then again, if you were going to buy any AR 15, I would recommend putting an adjustable gas block on it. But again, these are very, very rock solid way to go and a lot of people love them. However, if you are looking to suppress, I would personally recommend going with one of the piston systems. So, with the Mark 111 and the long-stroke piston system, these suppress very, very well. Like I said, you can tune that gas up and down, however you want to and these also run a lot cleaner than your DI guns do. So they're going to be more reliable for you. They're going to kind of get through that grime and grit. And then also, like I said, suppressing them is very, very simple. To compare and contrast however, long-stroke guns are a little bit heavier than DI guns. I don't think it's that big of a deal. And sometimes they can have a little bit different of a recoil pattern. So that's just something to think about if you're going to purchase one of these guys. With the short-stroke, short-stroke is great as well. In my opinion, I think it kind of combines the best of both worlds. So again, you get the reliability of the AR-15 platform and the modularity, but that long-stroke piston is not going to be in here. So one, it's not going to be as heavy and then two, that recall pattern, for me at least, is going to be a little bit better. So if you don't have a budget, if you're looking to get into a really nice rifle, again, personally, I would recommend a long-stroke or short-stroke just depending on what you're looking for. And again, suppressing these are awesome. I would highly, highly recommend it. So overall, which one's the winner? I think they're all great. It really just depends on what you're looking for and I hope this helps you in your search, but before we conclude the video, we want to go ahead and talk about our DI giveaway. The Genovese Recon rifle with the Vortex Huey and the Q Cherry Bomb. The Magpul hand stop, the Sylvan Arms folding adapter with the sling, with the Guard Dog Body Armor with save your bag and all of that awesome stuff. It is the ultimate truck, car, gun package. So you're going to want to make sure you get your entries in. Code word for that guy again is going to be recon. Also make sure you get to our website, check out all of these firearms that we have to offer. Make sure you guys are subscribed to text and email alerts, and we will see you next time at classicfirearms.com. Shop All AR-15 Style Rifles
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