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Suppressors Suppressed piston AR optimization

Near miss

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Minuteman
  • Apr 8, 2019
    1,321
    679
    Finland
    Hi,

    Bought MR223 and the plan was from the beginning to make it suppressed and I recently added Ase Utra SL5 to it.

    I chose the legacy version because it has better specs and I believe I can get the SL5 working.

    Turned out it is not so easy, with the gas block set to suppressed it is quite nice and very quiet to shoot but I noticed some gas coming out of charging handle hole.

    Previously I have only suppressed bolt and blowback-operated guns so this was much more complicated.

    I have studied this problem and so far I have gathered some basics of how gas operated AR rifles actually work.

    What are the best practices to solve this issue?

    I started to think about modifying the lower.
    I read HK uses an 8 lb spring and a 5 oz buffer and I have been thinking whether upgrading either one of them would keep the bolt closed for a bit longer.

    Is this the right way to do it?

    I also thought of modding the forward assist so that there is some space in it to let gas out. It should help with normal suppressed shooting and even more if I am shooting hotter loads.
    Preferably some 0.17 surface cut along the length of the assist that touches the upper surface.
     

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    Easiest mod I’ve found that works fantastic on my M18 is the Griffin SOB buffer. It tweaks the timing just enough that I don’t get gassed. And I can always easily swap back to factory if I ever want to with no permanent mods.
     
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