Hi All,

I am interested in local opinion(s) on the Ruger 223/ 556 AR. I am learning about the two different AR systems DI vs. Piston but more to the point I am interested in hearing from someone who owns, has shot or handled this Ruger.

Thanks

I haven't gotten my hands on the ruger, but have played with piston AR-15s. They are really a solution in search of a problem. You can feel the greater reciprocating mass on some of them when shooting which makes them torque a bit more. The design of the ruger doesn't use a big piston, so it shouldn't be too bad form that aspect. It also has carrier modifications that should reduce the carrier tilt problem that comes from striking the carrier so off center to cycle it. The early models did not. If you get one without it, I'd send it in to ruger to get that fixed.

 

That being said, with the round counts people are getting form a quality DI upper without failure, and the general availability of replacement parts, I don't see why you would go piston. For the price premium you pay for more complicated and smaller economies of scale, you can get a pretty nicely built DI rifle and not have to worry if the hack they engineered to the design works or not.