Adding a piston kit to a Savage msr 15?

[i556]

I was thinking of adding an Adams arms piston kit to my msr 15. Does it keep the chamber and bolt that much cleaner over a di setup. Also would it affect accuracy. Right now Its my favorite rifle and I kind of wanted to increase reliability and make it my shtf rifle, any input, is it worth it. Thanks

 

[Wulf]

You might have issues (unless they make a savage specific kit.) I didn’t take measurements but the savage gas block is proprietary if it’s the same adjustable one that was on my rifle. It has a notch cut into the barrel to accommodate the gas block. I would recommend measuring to make sure it will all line up.

Piston vs di is debated all the time. There are people who are die hard in both camps. I have both piston and di rifles and can’t say I would choose one over the other. Except with suppressor use.
DI tends to be lighter
Piston tends to be heavier especially in the fore end.
Piston suppress cleaner in terms of blow back.
Contrary to certain beliefs you do need to clean the piston system so it will function.
Di just change the tube if it fowls out or bursts
Pistons have more moving parts but also usually have multi position gas blocks.
Piston also usually have a lighter recoil impulse vs di
When suppressed you also don’t get fowling in the magazine like a di gun does.

Most of it boils down to personal preference. They both have trade offs to each other. I would say shoot a piston gun and a di gun side by side and then make a choice. Hope you are happy with your rifle either way.

 

[i556]

Wow, thank you for the comprehensive feedback. No suppressors for me as I'm in ny but it was more about reliability. I was under the impression that the bolt and carrier remain clean even after 100s of rounds and that was the primary motivation. I will check the gas block and measurements for any proprietary features, def wouldn't surprise me with Savage. It doesn't seem like it's worth it TBH. I just figured I wouldn't have to clean the rifle as often.

 

[Fig]

I don't think it matters much on the lower end (less than $1k range) with a pencil barrel. You may not even notice any difference accuracy wise. It's cleaner, but not "clean". In my experience the only way you get a sub MOA AR off the rack it to get extremely lucky. Even then it's not going to stay that way after several thousand rounds go down it (especially if you don't ONLY slow fire).

Once you get to about the $3k range, precision AR rifles with heavy barrels, my experience is that DI clearly holds tighter groups... without question. My high end rifles are shot even slower than my comp guns. Heat kills.

Like Wulf said there are myriad opinions, but there's mine!

 

[Wulf]

The chamber can stay cleaner but there is still upkeep just in different places. If you are only shooting a few hundred rounds you shouldn’t have any chamber issues. I’ve had some noveske (pre johns death) barrels that I never cleaned and they never failed me.

 

[i556]

I don't think it matters much on the lower end (less than $1k range) with a pencil barrel. You may not even notice any difference accuracy wise. It's cleaner, but not "clean". In my experience the only way you get a sub MOA AR off the rack it to get extremely lucky. Even then it's not going to stay that way after several thousand rounds go down it (especially if you don't ONLY slow fire).

Once you get to about the $3k range, precision AR rifles with heavy barrels, my experience is that DI clearly holds tighter groups... without question. My high end rifles are shot even slower than my comp guns. Heat kills.

Like Wulf said there are myriad opinions, but there's mine!

The rifle is pretty accurate, I do slow fire as nothing else is allowed at my local ranges. Everyone seems to say di holds tighter groups.
The groups are at 6:45 in the video. My rifle is pretty close with hand loads and not too far off with factory ammo. Atm, after I fire 150 rounds the bcg and bolt are filthy, I figured the piston would eliminate that. I really appreciate the input guys. I'm gonna give it some thought. I dont think its worth it, or maybe Ill purchase a sig piston upper or other brand.