Today Konnor and I went to the range to do some shooting with a couple of my AR15s. We took the Aero Precision and the LWRC. I had purposely not cleaned the action of either rifle for the last five or six outings. At this point, both of them had about 250 rounds of ammo through them since getting any lube or attention. To be honest, the LWRC got a fair number more rounds than the Aero because it's new and I'm getting used to how it shoots/feels. For that stretch, I've been shooting PMC Bronze 55 grain bullets since they are the cheapest ammo that I can usually find that isn't steel cased.
After watching a video Travis Haley has on Youtube shooting drill called the 22422 drill, I decided I ought to give that a go. In that drill you set up 3 targets in front of you. The further the targets are spread out from each other, the harder this drill is, because you are only 7-10 yards away from them. You then shoot 2 rounds in the first one, 2 rounds in the second one, 4 shots in the third, then swing back to the 2nd target and put 2 more in that one, finishing with the 1st target with 2 final shots. In total, you'll shoot 12 shots with each target getting a total of 4 in them. You are supposed to do this in as short of a time as possible. Travis Haley can do this in under 2 seconds without missing most of the time.
Well... it's harder than it looks and I was more like 5-6 seconds, but I didn't have timer so I don't really know. What I can tell you is that the LWRC ran the drill just fine. I've got the Griffin Armament Compensator on that rifle currently and it seems to help to control muzzle jump a bit, although it makes it louder (for the shooter anyway) than a standard A2 flash hider. When I switched over to the Aero Precision rifle to try the same drill, I had a failure to feed on about the 4th round. I tore the magazine out of the mag well, cleared the malfunction, and sent the bolt back into battery again. The rifle went bang once and then wouldn't feed another round in the chamber. Over and over again with all 3 mags I had there, it would not chamber a round. I had reached the failure point of this action after approximately 250 rounds of PMC ammo with it's current lubrication level.
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| This was after I cleaned the Aero Precision Direct Impingement (DI) gun running a Burris 1-4 scope that I painted |
I'm not sure if other rounds really would be cleaner in the gun like I've read from some folks online. IF this PMC ammo really is a "dirty" round, then perhaps you could get more than about 250 rounds between cleanings by shooting different ammunition. I'm guessing you can. Maybe I'd just have to run MORE lube in there from the beginning. I've heard many guys say they'll go over 500 rounds between cleanings. For the record, the last time I cleaned the rifle, I used Frog Lube on it. I didn't leave a whole lot of the Frog Lube in there to run it "wet". I'd say it was more "dry" than "wet" from a lubrication standpoint when I started that test run about 250 rounds ago.
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| The Aero Precision in all it's glory. I've recently gotten rid of vertical grips and opted for a smooth hand guard. |
In any case, the Direct Impingement gas rifle wouldn't cycle. The LWRC piston gun, on the other hand, kept rocking with no issues at all. It was running smooth. I don't have a ton of experience with these AR15s, although I've been doing a lot of research and I'm shooting more and more these days. I'm working on weapons manipulation to make sure that I'm a competent handler with this platform. I had been thinking that the Aero Precision would be my "go to" rifle since it was a bit lighter overall (much to do with the stocks I'm running on them) than the LWRC, but with today's result, that had got me rethinking that idea. You see, even though it weighs about 1.5 pounds more in it's current configuration (knowing that I could shave 1 pound of that weight with a different stock), and that is a lot, it still went BANG when the lighter DI gun wouldn't. Hopefully if those guns meant the difference between me living and dying, I'd keep both of them running as clean as possible, but what if situations wouldn't allow it? What if I wasn't able to keep them lubed and clean? What if I had to put 500 rounds of PMC ammo through them in one or two days to stay alive? Would the DI gun fail while the piston gun keeps shooting?
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| The LWRC M6 IC-SPR action runs smooth as butter |
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| The M6 IC-SPR in all it's glory |
Upon returning home, I cleaned both guns really well. The DI gun was filthy and black inside the upper. The DI bolt and bolt carrier were very dirty and black. They turned an entire shop rag black by the time I was finished scrubbing them down with solvent and a nylon brush. The DI firing pin was black and had carbon built up on it. What a mess! The piston gun was completely different. The bolt and bolt carrier were ALMOST as clean as when it had 0 rounds through the gun. The firing pin was still bright and shiny. I can honestly say that the bolt and carrier on the Piston gun was cleaner after 400 rounds (I know it got significantly more rounds than the DI gun in this test) than I've seen my DI guns after 5 rounds or less. Of course the carbon and dirty stuff just exits the gun up by the hand guard on a piston rifle, which I attempted to clean a bit today.
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| Carbon deposits build up on the sides and on the top rail where the piston actuates under the hand guard on this piston gun |
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| The Griffin Armament M4SD Tactical Compensator |
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| This is a recent paint job on the Vortex PST 1-4 scope |
I love the light weight feel of the Aero, but I have to say that if my life depended on it, I would have to trust the LWRC piston gun over the Aero Precision DI gun after today's outing. I supposed if they were both clean, it wouldn't be an issue, but how long will they stay clean?
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