Ok gents this is a confirmation that carrier tilt does in fact exist . This is my buffer tube with over 10k worth of rounds through it with a piston conversion (LWRC with the enhanced BCG) keep in mind I run my guns hard while preforming the required maintenance. There are solutions from companies like PWS that offer a long-stroke piston upper and a tube for existing uppers. This could cause a world of fail in the right instances. The wear was significant enough to “eject” the whole buffer retaining detent and spring. Rob-s jinxed my shit for realz.
I wish I had pictures (I sold the rifle just before I found this site…) of the piston operated rifle that I had, but after about 500 rounds, the carrier had chewed a pretty good sized chunk out of the upper receiver (oddly enough, it didn’t do any damage to the buffer tube.)
Needless to say, I won’t be buying another piston gun…Ever…
Im kinda bummed out to see this, considering I just got a LMT MRP upper. I hope and pray I do not run into this issue, anyone see this in a LMT upper? To try and prevent this I also got a spikes solid buffer, any other suggestions
Thanks for posting this with a round count. Early on, before the “fixes”, carrier tilt seemed to be an issue. Now, with the “fixes”, some raved that carrier tilt was a non-issue. It appears, in at least this one example, that the “fixes” just prolong use a bit.
I was contemplating getting a piston kit to experiment with, but I think I will stick with DI on the ARs and pull the SCAR out for piston fun.
Have an AA in an upper. No extra decernable wear. Coming up to 6000 rounds. Standard wear marks. I really don’t understand the hype, positive or negative.
My experience is all I can go by. But the input from everyone here(who I think are most are extremely knowledgeable) say it’s a rabbit hole at best.
Only thing is though, the gun not designed around the operating system. Fail could be right around the corner.
Easy, convert your MRP to DI using LMT factory parts and sell the piston parts! (As someone already noted)
The MRP in DI runs fine with the stock carbine buffer - at least, mine does. It would probably run fine with an H or H2 as well, but I figure that I can trust LMT’s judgment given all the engineering in that model. (I run H or H2 in most other 16" midlengths.)
Can’t find a pic of my POF Gen.III buffer tube, but it was starting to erode after 500 rounds as well. I’d JUST put a PWS enhanced tube on it, and was ABOUT to order one of Seth’s enhanced buffers, when I ended up selling it to a boy who REALLY wanted it!
I am dis-inclined toward owning another 16" piston rifle, that’s for sure.
Wear on the receiver extension is insignificant. That is not what I would be concerned about. I would be more concerned that the carrier does in fact tilt AT ALL in an AR, regardless of whether or not it’s dragging or scraping on the receiver extension.
It’s not the receiver extension you should be worried about with a piston AR, it’s the bolt.
It’s for very good reasons that most, if not all, piston operated guns have rails in the receiver to guide the travel of the carrier and bolt, as well as guide rods to ensure they travel on that path. Take a look at an AR’s upper receiver on the other hand and you will notice that there is nothing like that present.
It baffles me that the idiots that call themselves “engineers” at any company that makes piston ARs can devise a different gas system for an AR, but not a single one of the monkeys has thought of something so simple as developing or altering an upper receiver with guide rails in it to completely eliminate this known and widespread problem of carrier tilt that shears bolt lugs and scrapes up receiver extensions.
Then again, I would not expect much intelligence or thought from the kinds of people who think developing pistons for ARs is a good idea to begin with.
I agree, at least it wore out the buffer tube and ejected the retainer insted of cracking the lower where the hole for retainer is. I have seen that happen 2 times on piston driven gun( I wish I would have snapped some pics of those lowers)
Amen. The problem with “converting” a DI system to a piston system is that the carrier and buffer were not designed to be attached to a piston. To truly have a good piston upper receiver, the entire carrier and buffer system must be re-engineered.
