Quick Thoughts on the Adams Arms Piston Conversion Kit and Installation

So a week ago I installed the Adams Arms piston conversion kit on my AR-15 and I wanted to write down some thoughts on the installation and my experience with it.

First off the directions are very good, there have been plenty of times where I have received a kit and the instructions left me even more confused.This wasn't the case with the Adams Arms conversion kit, the DVD that was included was very clear on what I needed to do to install the kit. 

One of the biggest things that I had trouble with was installing the bushing into the upper, even after cleaning it and putting a decent amount of lubricant/grease it still took a big hammer and some hard hits to get it installed. The good thing about that is I will never have to worry about the bushing backing out over time. 

One of the other things to really watch for is your gas block, you need to make sure that it is straight and in the middle, otherwise you will have trouble getting the piston out of the gas block. This will also cause issues with the system when firing it, and would more than likely cause malfunction and failure of the system.

The one thing that I really liked about the Adams Arms gas block was the fact that it uses hex head bolts to tighten it down on the barrel. With the sheer amount of force bouncing it around it needs a great mounting system and they provided it.

Two of the weirdest things to me when doing the conversion were the bushing and then the removal of the gas rings and installation of the spring on the bolt. While it's easy to understand why there is no need for the gas rings once a piston system is installed, it is just odd to pull the rings off and install a spring on the tail end of the bolt.

Instead of using the supplied hand guards I opted to use the Magpul MOE set, and it matches up perfectly with the piston system. I am sure at some point I will change over to a free float rail system but for now the MOE set will do the job.

Overall the installation was rather easy, and took no longer than 30 minutes to complete. I am looking forward to running the piston system as hard as I can and seeing just how well it will do. I will continue to post periodic updates so make sure to subscribe to the blog to receive them.

Breakthrough Clean Initial Thoughts

Yesterday I received a sample of Breakthrough Clean so I could do a review on it and share my thoughts on it with everyone. 

This morning I used Breakthrough Clean on the piston setup from my Adams Arms upper, which last week had over 150 rounds of Tula .223 run through it and you could see just how dirty the outside of the gas block was (the AA logo was completely covered). I also used FIREClean on the bolt from the same gun. Both parts showed a good amount of grime covering them because as we all know Tula is dirty and it likes to get everything covered. I didn't scrub with brushes or use picks to clean anything today, this was just a quick run of the cleaner to see how well it does.

As you can see in the above picture the Breakthrough Clean did an awesome job of doing what it is advertised to do. It stripped away all of the dirty ammo grime off of the piston setup with ease, and you can see just how dirty the paper towel is that was used to wipe the grime off.  It is great that there is no chemical smell to the product, and the fact that it is in a spray bottle is awesome also since it makes it easy to apply to either a paper towel or directly to the part being cleaned evenly. 

It took very little effort to clean the piston, all it took was a quick spray down and then I wrapped the paper towel around it and wiped it off. Easy.

The picture above shows the paper towel that was used to clean the bolt from the same gun using just a couple drops of FIREClean. It too was very easy to use to clean the grime off of the bolt, it did take a little more finesse only because of the lugs on the bolt and cleaning between them. 

(The piston looked dried out after cleaning and the Bolt was slick)

Here is the point that I wanted to get to since I know there are some people reading this and shaking their heads saying "These are 2 completely different products! One is a degreaser and the other is a lube!" I hear you and I know what you are saying, however here is the reason why I did this. There are lots of items out there that can do multiple things and do them well, while other things focus on one aspect and excel at it; FIREClean both cleans and lubricates while Breakthrough Clean strips and cleans.

Yes Breakthrough Clean is a degreaser, and it does that job top notch; but as you can see in the picture above it does not lubricate the part that it is cleaning. This means that after you finish cleaning your gun and gun parts you will have to go back through and use a lubricant before putting your gun back together. Don't get me wrong Breakthrough Clean has it's place in my workbench now because it does such a great job of degreasing and cleaning dirty parts. However with my time being limited because I would rather spend time with my wife and kids, I don't always want to take the time to run a 2 step process for cleaning and lubricating my guns.

If you are looking for a degreaser that will strip away all of the dirt and grime I would highly suggest checking out Breakthrough Clean. As I said a few times above, it does an excellent job cleaning off gun parts that are dirty, and also does a great job of stripping off old lubricants that have been applied to your gun before.

I will be posting more on Breakthrough Clean in the future once I have some more time with it but like I said, it has it's place in my workbench because I have seen how well it works.

GhostGun Pistol Build

When Aero Precision announced they would be doing the Ghost Gun lower after CA Senator DeLeon's hilarious display of ignorance I decided I was going to get one to build an AR pistol on. So when I ordered the PewPewPew lower I grabbed a ghost gun lower also and began looking for the right parts and upper to put into this build.

I had contemplated building an upper but everywhere I looked the shorter barrels were sold out or way out of my price range. Finally I came across the Adams Arms 11.5" Basic Carbine complete piston upper on GrabAGun.com and the price was well within my budget. Even though it came with the standard hand guards installed I wasn't too bothered by that since the Magpul MOE hand guard will work with a piston system and drops right in. 

I know there will be some people that will ask why I did not go with the 7.5" upper, I will answer simply with I like the 11.5" barrel length and the fact that it is a carbine length gas system not a pistol gas length.

In the picture above you can see almost all of the parts that were used in this build, from the PWS Pistol EBT to the Troy fixed sights this build has had a good chunk of time and thought put into it. Sure there were a ton of other options out there but I am very pleased with how well this all came together.

I used the PWS Pistol Enhanced Buffer Tube for the build, I was impressed with how well it mounts up to the receiver and not having to to tighten down a castle nut was a huge plus! The overall quality of the EBT is awesome, you can tell that there is a ton of care put into making them and there is a ton of pride taken by the people at PWS. Installing the EBT showed me just how much better it was over the rest of the tubes that I have used before. Instead of guessing how many turns it would take to hold the detent correctly there is a notch in the tube that sits around the detent while allowing the tube to sit just a bit further in the threads. One of the other things that I really like about the EBT is there are QD sling mounts built right into it, just one more added bonuses to an already well made buffer tube.

The lower parts kit that is installed came from JoeBobOutfitters.com, it is actually sold under the JBO brand name which is great to see. I swapped out the stock mag release with the ODINWorks XMR (zombie green) this is one part that I have used on a couple rifles now and have had the pleasure to run before they were released, it's a quality part from a great company. 

The sights are Troy Fixed Battlesights, the front is the traditional M4 style and the rear is the Dioptic style (which I have come to like after using a few times.) While I would have preferred to use the folding sights I am very happy with how these fixed sights look and fit on the pistol. 

When you take the upper off the first thing you will notice is the Hiperfire Hipertouch 24, with the heavier of the toggle springs installed. I have been using the Hiperfire triggers since December and have run around 500-600 rounds through the 24 and 24C, both have been great performers. I decided to use the 24 in this build because there is no real reason to run the faster of the two triggers in a pistol. The reset is very positive, and the trigger pull is very light with a nice crisp break which makes this a great piece of the overall build. 

Overall I had a lot of fun planning this build while waiting on the lower to get to my FFL, it of course was even more fun to build the pistol and then take it out to the range and shoot it. I am looking forward to getting my hands on a Sig Sauer SB15 to install while I wait for the SBR tax stamp paperwork to process.

One thing that I will say is that when building a pistol or buying a pistol, look into a quality compensator. The A2 flash hider that came on the Adams Arms upper just doesn't cut it for the muzzle flip that the shorter barrel creates, which on top of not having a stock to shoulder can be a bit uncomfortable but not uncontrollable. Having a quality compensator would help smooth everything out and make it more controllable overall.

Shot Show from a green horn

Let's start with media day at the range. We took a bus out to the Boulder city pistol and rifle club range from the sands convention center. Upon arrival I didn't think the range was all the big....boy was I wrong! We kept driving down the dirt road and more and more tents kept popping up. Eventually we unloaded from the bus and walked. After we got our media passes we entered about 1/2 between both ends. We decided to start on the far end with TacCon and got to shoot their 3MR trigger (There will be more on that from me in a later post). As much as I wanted to go to every tent, we just couldn't. Between the amount of people waiting in line and the sheer number of companies, we knew we had to hit the ones you guys wanted to see. We have lots of video from what we got at the range which you can find on our YouTube channel. After hours of walking and shooting the latest and greatest, we were beat.

        Eric from the YouTube channel     IraqVeteran8888

                   Gunny sighting!

           Shooting the new Glock 41

As for the main convention, all I could say is WOW. I had heard stories from friends and local companies about the pure size of the show. I wasn't necessarily skeptical but at the same time I didn't quite believe them when they said how massive it actually was. Walking into the front doors of the Sands convention center I was already in shock. The lobby itself was bigger than any convention I had been to back home. 

            1 of many lobby entrances

Once we made our way to the floor, well, let's just say my jaw stubbed my toe. The amount of guns and gear in that single (and utterly gargantuan) room was mind blowing. I didn't know which way to turn. Had I not known about the SHOTShow app I would have been in survival mode because I'd be lost in some part of the building. Even with that app and after I thought I knew where everything was; on our last day in the convention center we found a huge room I never even knew existed. I was like a kid in a candy store. After walking for miles on day one my whole lower body ached like no other. We skipped around on the first and second floor on that day. 

             Kat from Adams Arms

The remainder of our time at Shot show we prioritized and met up with as many companies as we could that we could potentially work with in the future; A lot of which I was unfamiliar with. Luckily Travis knew what was up and helped me out a ton. We talked to and interview SWORD international, Legion firearms, tuff products, AM-TAC, and Gallow Tech just to name a few that we talked with. By the end of everyday I was ready to just collapse. I never thought I would walk so much in such a short period of time. Overall I think we walked a good 30 miles during the entire trip. 

                 Colion Noir and Lane

    Tavis and I at the Tuff products booth

My favorite booths were all on the first floor and off in the side rooms on both floors. A majority of which were somewhat smaller companies that were genuine when you talked to them. We also got to meet many of our sponsors for our giveaways we have done. It was excellent to know the people who make the magic happen.

    Desert tech MDR (my favorite rifle  of the show) 

Stay tuned for more reviews and follow ups from Shot show. There is too much to cover in one review. 

-ShipLane 

    Glenn Fleming previously of Sons of     Guns. 

Make sure to subscribe to our email list to receive up to date posts and information.
Also make sure to follow @shiplane and @spartan_tc on Instagram for pictures and info of new gear we have coming in.

Adams Arms Booth at SHOT Show 2014

One of the first booths that we stopped at was Adams Arms, where we had the opportunity to talk shop with Kat. She is extremely knowledgeable and she can shoot too, as has been proven by some of the Instagram videos I have seen.

We also had the opportunity to check out the Kryptek patterned rifles that they brought with them, drooled a bit over them, and were impressed at just how clean the pattern was done on the rifles.

This is one company that I am hoping to work with this year to get up some reviews and information about their products for you all to see.

Make sure to subscribe to our email list to receive up to date posts and information.
Also make sure to follow @shiplane and @spartan_tc on Instagram for pictures and info of new gear we have coming in.