I have other things to add now that I have run my piston system past the 1,000 round mark;

1. Since there is no hot gas bombarding the bolt, bolt carrier, and upper receiver anymore, everything stays clean and doesn't wear as much. Have you ever replaced your gas rings on your bolt? With a piston system, you don't even use gas rings. There's no friction inside the bolt carrier, because there aren't any piston rings to scrape on the inside of it anymore!

2. Less heat means less wear. The M16/M4/AR-15 service rifle has a published useful service life of 30,000 rounds. Change it to the right $300 gas piston system, and the service life can be doubled. Yes. You read that correctly. Doubled. With some parts, that number can triple or quadruple. For instance, bolt life is usually stated to be anywhere from 5k to 10k rounds. Barrels typically hold up to 15k rounds or more, and I once broke a lug off a bolt after 12,500 rounds. I wore out a bolt carrier (because i couldn't get even the largest piston rings to seal in it, anymore) after 18,000 rounds. That wear - mind you - was all with D.I. rifles.

3. Over 1,000 rounds with no failures. When my rifle was direct gas impingement, occasionally it would fail to cycle fully (short stroke) when it was dirty. Since putting in the piston system, I have never encountered a problem, even now that I clean it less than I used to. All I clean now is the bore and the bolt face. Nothing else ever gets dirty. I don't even have to take the bolt out of the carrier anymore.

You can't do much about the life of the barrel (except by not heating it up very much) but the piston system will extend the life of everything else by factors of 2, 3, or 4. I have been watching it, and am amazed.

Yeah okay, I have drunk the kool-aid.

I currently offer local LEO & Military personnel, a free installation of the Osprey Defense OPS-416 system, because I believe that it is the best one out there. I think that you'll hear very soon that USSOCOM thinks so, as well.