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POF shoots crappy with gas off?

RyeDaddy

Dickhole
Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 19, 2009
996
13
Hellbound in Fort Worth, TX
Anybody else with a POF rifle experiment with the gas system turned off and notice that the accuracy goes downhill?

My P-308 shoots very well, it's always MOA or better. Today I decided to do the seating depth portion of OCW. Decided to turn the gas system off for the firing. Accuracy that was 1.0" at 200 yards went to 5" plus. WTF? This is the first semi auto I've owned with an adjustable gas system, just wondering if that's normal? Most of the stringing is vertical. I'm still firing the same way I ever did, full mag not single loading straight to the chamber..

Just to make sure it's not me having an off day today I turned the gas plug back to "normal" and the accuracy came right back to what it was, luckily I had loaded enough rounds to figure out optimal seating depth. I had never heard of that before, I would have thought removing the gas system and ejection from the firing cycle would prove the most accurate way of firing this rifle.

Edited to add: Tried gas off 2 ways if it's relevant.

1st: Gas plug off, piston and op rod in place. In this mode there was obviously still some gas getting through despite the plug setting because sometimes, about 50% of shots the bolt would unlock on firing. Not cycle, just push back 1/4" or so, enough to unlock the lugs. Accuracy was terrible.

2nd: Left gas plug set to off but removed the piston and op rod. Firing this way the bolt unlocking went away, but the accuracy was still just as bad as with them in place.
 
Re: POF shoots crappy with gas off?

The gas selector should only be turned to suppressed while shooting with a suppressor. This allows for proper cycling of the carrier group compensating for the slowed gases from the suppressor. Changing this switch without a suppressor changes the flow of gas which will have an impact of accuracy.
 
Re: POF shoots crappy with gas off?

I get the point of suppressed mode. Mine has a 3 position plug. Normal, Supressed and Off. I had it set to "Off" as in bolt action mode. Obviously it's affecting the rifle I just would never have thought that taking out the gas system would affect it THIS much.

Lesson learned, only cost $20 worth of components.
 
Re: POF shoots crappy with gas off?

Rye,

I have not had this experience with other rifles, but have not tried it with the POF. I'll bring my POF to the range this weekend if i get a chance and give it a go...
 
Re: POF shoots crappy with gas off?

All the gas plugs on POF have an off position. It's not the dis assemble position it is the one opposite of that. With full power loads I found that it does do the aforementioned problem of still cycling somewhat. I haven't done accuracy testing with mine. But what I have done is some sub sonic testing. some 210 VLDs over some trailboss. It does not cycle with the subs.