While this might sound like a dumb question, I’ll ask anyway.
Previous rifle: armalite m15 carbine midlegnth.
Current rifle: pws mk116 mod 1.
My armalite would just get smoking hot around the barrel. It had the standard hand guard. This pws doesn’t seem to get hot at all compared to the other rifle.
Is it the vented hand guard? Isonite barrel? Profile? Gas system? Combination?
My guess is hand guard, but would like to know more. Does the type of barrel change how fast it can cool?
I don’t know anything about what a pws Mk116 is… but my initial thought is that the old gun had a Tight bore or a tight spot in the bore.
I’ve heard stories of this type of thing happening on bad button rifle factory barrels where the issue was caught after gauging the bore. A tight spot in the bore causes tremendous heat and pressure.
Isn’t that a piston gun? I don’t have any experience with them, but they are supposed to stay cooler than a DI gun due to the gas exiting near the muzzle as opposed to into the action.
The barrel temp shouldn’t be noticeably different though.
The heat he’s referring to could be coming from the gas tube. I know that sucker gets pretty dang hot and I doubt the piston transfers anywhere near as much heat.
I’d say Piston vs. DI? Im sort of a newb so dont take my word for it but thats my guess. I’m sure the substantially more knowledgeable people here can nail it down precisely.
This right here. The PWS is a piston rifle instead of DI. The amount of hot gas coming back into the receiver is reduced with the piston system. There is some heat on the barrel but most of the heat you notice is from the gas tube.
Yeah… the tube will get toasty. But heat in the receiver is negligible. There was a thermal cam video of this somewhere. It used to boil my ass when these Apes would pull a Piston Bolt out and hold it in their hand as though you couldn’t do the exact same with a DI gun.
Id say has to do with handguards. A good vented handguard is going to dissipate the heat from the barrel better and faster. With a decently quick firing schedule your barrel gets super hot.
Yeah, I’ve done that before… hell, one of my friends wants some LWRCi monstrosity for this reason. If he buys one, we’re not friends anymore.
I agree with you that the heat in the receiver is negligible.
Are the hard guards not acting as a huge heat sink?
Difference in handguards. The M15 comes with standard double heat shielded polymer handguards…They trap in heat and hold it there.
The PWS has a unique handguard design that is basically just 4 rails attached at 2 seperate points allowing for a ton of air cooling to happen.
Mod 1’s have free float key mod rails. Somebody already mentioned the gas tube thing. That’s basically it in that you don’t have heat radiating from the gas tube. Be wary however that the gas block on PWS rifles, especially at the gas port adjustment cut-out, will burn the shit out of your hand.
What is the difference between the barrel profiles? What is the difference in barrel alloys? Was the same ammo used? What are the differences in mass and alloy between the two gas blocks?
On the tight barrel theory, that gun had incredible accuracy with 50gr federal hp. Like .5 moa. It would out shoot a bushy varmiter. Walked a red bull can over the at 200 berm. It hated lots of other ammo. Like 3-4 moa on red box black hills about 10 yrs ago.
Could the tight barrel have made potential for better accuracy?
I should have clarified on heat. From say barrel nut forward. That is where the heat was pronounced
The m15 was an hbar if I remember right. The pws seems thinner next to a m4 profile.
I’m willing to bet the heat was radiating off the gas tube under the handguard. Now that you have a piston instead of a gas tube, the heat is less pronounced.
PWS is long stroke, it has a gas tube just like the AK has a gas tube…and yes it gets hot.