MikeD

We do have rail systems in the works...

First let me easy your concerns of damage... A couple years ago I designed a piston that would let a gun missing a gas port cycle low brass ammo. It worked so good in fact that out of a 4 port gun I could cycle low brass using a gunfixer plug that was sitting in a posistion equvielt to the 1 setting on the V-Plug. This is almost completely shut off! I quickly realized that this was not a good piston to release to the public. Not because it didn't have great potential to fixing certain peoples problems, but because it would put many pistons into circulation that if not properly used would d

It may look similar due to the dished ring but let me point something out. First the stainless one isn't advertised as a reliability increaser where as the other similar one from others are... Also our design intent is quite different. The KA puck is advertised that the dish is to increase the gas explosion in the chamber. I couldn't disagree more. The increase in gas chamber volume isn't a plus, it's a negative. It is also stated that the button in the middle is to help burn up fouling. It doesn't in my opinion to any measurable degree. We have a somewhat similar dished ring,

The profiles are exactly the same. I will explain the working difference of the 2 pistons in a following post.

The pics are huge on the site!!! I thought I took smaller ones. We'll resize them tomorrow. Stainless Booster

Yes, I guess it is so loaded everyone smells a rat. I was going to get some people together with cycling problems and send a few samples out. I guess all I have to do is read a few pages of thread titles and pick some canidates. That's what I'll do. In the mean time here is a new thread I started. Click Thread Link

I wanted to let everyone know that MD Arms is now offering 2 different piston designs for the Saiga shotguns. Stainless Saiga Piston, $10 Click here for details. Saiga Booster Piston, $16 Click here for details. Review and ask questions...

Who out there has trouble cycling the cheap bulk pack ammo from their 12, 20, or .410 Saiga?

They are a compliance part at best and gimmicky at worst To Mike and Mullet Man, he was referring to the puck, not the plug, and so was I when I said "true". Whoops... As far as making an exit through the threads... I can't say for sure but comparing to the many open piston designs we have tried while trying to make a stay clean piston I dont think you will see much improvement. The gas is like a liquid. Imagine filling you block up with water. It would easily find its way into the threads. Now imagine that water under pressure. Once the chamber fill to a certain point it wil

They are a compliance part at best and gimmicky at worst There are some gimmicky plugs out there but the V-Plug isn't one of them. It does exactly what we say and everything we say. The gunfixer is a very nice plug as well but in my opinion it shouldn't be advertised as a reliability increasor. As for the others, well...

Stan, A gas plug can't be done that will stay easy to turn due to lose factory tolerances or we would have done it. The factory threads aren't concertric to the gas chamber. This means the plug can't be exactly centered to the chamber. If it were we would have made a plug that would have sealed off in front or the threads preventing fouling from reaching them. We did put a ring on the v-plug to reduce it but it couldn't be too much thicker due to the nonconcentric threads... Oh well I guess... The same thing goes for completely shutting off the gas...

Correct! Jackal, please follow the advice to leave the jb weld in the drawer... There is no way it will last in 99% of gun applications and this one doesn't fall into that 1%. Even for that 1% there is probably 10 better CRAPPY fixes... Can you post or email me a side view of the rear mag catch?

Don't open the ports on the V-Plug! You will gain nothing from doing so. The V-Plug port for low brass is way bigger than the combined ports in the barrel... Opening the plug up is not going to let more gas out of your barrel... There are many possible reasons why the universal didn't work and I don't see the V-plug being one of them. Here are a few possibles... Your gun was cold and warmed up by the time you switched to factory. You gun was put away slighty dirty and the piston needed broken free. You gun was freshly cleaned and better sealed after firing a few rounds when you switche

There are much better surfaces for helping to stay clean and the best of them still don't help much at all with the molten plastic. The best there is is a teflon coating but telfon is only good to 600 degrees, really it starts breaking down around 500. We have never raised our gas block temp even close to 500 even from our full auto. But the intermitent gases... We tested 3 different teflon finishes alone... We have tested many, many different coatings and no matter what the piston design (open flowdesign included) none have made much a difference at all. We are still working on the righ

I just noticed that the rounds mentioned above aren't as hot as I thought. I thought the 13xx fps were buck rounds. You might could try starting at 3 instead... It still sounds a lot like an over working action. The low feed supports it. I bet the hotter the rounds the worse the problems, right?

Torqued, Over gassing is definately a real thing to consider in any gas operated desing, not only guns. There is a very good chance that is what is now causing the ftf's. It sounds like you have a V-Plug as you refered to setting 5. You also said you had to use setting five for it all. Some of those rounds mentioned are way to hot for the 5 setting. What is likely happening is the action of the gun is operating so fast that the mags aren't keeping up. You will see it in the drum first. Does the drum get better the emptier it gets (down to stick mag capacities)? It sounds like you shou

I believe you are dead on. This is something we just stumbled upon ourselves resently. We have samples of guns that are varing by .050 or so in difference from one to the other. This doesn't sound like much but when you consider that the travel is just over .500" you are loosing roughly 10%. Now factor in that this 10% lose is at the front of the pressure which means you will be losing from the strongest end of the stroke. Continue to factor in that this also increase the size of the gas chamber as well as you mentioned if you are losing stroke. Before the gas chamber is pressurized the

I want to let everyone know we are going to add emergency food supply to our store likely this week. We have had it in stock for a few weeks but are nailing down boxes for shipping to the customer. It has a 25 year shelf life. The manufacture is Wise Food Storage. We will be able to offer it for less than MSRP. Don't quote me on this but I think it comes out to around $6 something a day for 3 serving per person. Tried a couple flavors, not horrible, not great. If your using it for what it's intended for it is probably going to be pretty damn tasty by then. I'll get some more details

Yes, there are so many factor and variables it could melt a brain. But sometimes I think new items get the blame sometimes when really it might be it was run hard and put away wet. The someone might get something new, strap it on and have some problems... The plastic fowling in these shotguns set when they cool. I can't see harmonics being much of a factor with the shotguns as a high power rifle. The shock wave is low pressure in comparison. Some of the hottest 12ga rounds are around 12,000 PSI in comparison to the rifle round above.

Regarding the 1903... Barrel length is 24", projectile starts around 2.3" in the barrel already... Projectile, PSI (roughly), feet per second (roughly) at 3" 45,000 775 3.5" 49,000(peak) 1050 7.5" 25,000 1825 10" 18,500 2125 17" 10,000 2475 20" 8,500 2625 24" 7,000 2700 From ignition to exit is 0.00098 seconds! You can see the velocity start

I am diggin it up now. I'll post solid number (correct myself above) including the velocities in a bit.

I couldn't agree more. I don't consider a gun reliable if I have to watch how I hold it.

The over all weight of the gun will have an effect. The only way it wouldn't is if the gun was mounted in a way that zero movement of the receiver occured when firing. Also lightening the carrier... It might help up to a point to lighten. But there is going to be a point that if it is too light it won't have the stored kenetic energy to complete the action. In theory, if the bolt carrier weighed zero (impossible) as soon as it lost the pressure it's rearward movement would stop and the springs would close it back up. Also the saiga-12 is different than AK rifles. The piston on a

100% without a doubt... The heavier weight would mean the kick would be less and would cancel out less of the carrier motion.

The increased pressure of the MD-20 is why you are seeing a higher rate of FTE's with it. If you loaded it with the same rounds as the stick mag you would likely have the same ratio. You should be able to resolve your issues witha little polishing. As far as the KA piston... There really isn't a piston on the market that increases the cycling power much at all and in my opinion they shouldn't be advertised as such. We have finished our production run on a new piston design that will though. It has multiple times the increase of the KA piston and will be A LOT cheaper as well. It