https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGIbZaO2YUE
My “go-to” AR-15 upper is an Adams Arms piston piece, and not even one of their fancy ones. Just a Magpul MOE handguard and no other frills or add-ons of which to speak. I’ve had great success with the reliability and durability of the system — with good accuracy to boot — so I was happy to see them at Media Day to find out what’s new. The piston .308 felt great, and the kidney-shaped ejector is a novel idea. There’s one item I’m particularly interested in, but what’s this about GLOCK parts?. . .
VooDoo Innovations is closely related to Adams Arms (not sure if they’re the same company, if VI is a subsidiary of AA, etc), so I’m including the following here:
What you see above is also all of the information I have about what might be happening here. I’m thinking VooDoo is planning to release its own GLOCK slide like PWS recently did? Maybe barrels?
Getting back to black guns, the ejector in Adams Arms’ .308 bolt is kidney-shaped to put a similar smile on the reloader’s face (it doesn’t dent your brass):
The product I may be picking up for myself is AA’s new XLP Gas Block & Selector, which is a low profile option that fits under most standard handguards. Not only does that mean I could easily swap out that MOE piece for whatever suits my fancy, but that I can now run an extended handguard since the gas selector is adjustable from the front and even comes with an extension tool to reach down under your handguard for doing so. Additionally, it’s 5-way adjustable (100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, and 0%) whereas the standard gas block is 3-way (standard, suppressed, off). Although, as mentioned, the current system has been serving me very well for a few years, that doesn’t mean it can’t get even better.
Interesting stuff.
As a happy Glock owner/user, I’ll be watching for more info on the slides. Glock’s new MOS models are similar, but I believe they have stated that they won’t be making the slide available for upgrading older pistols. If VDI can keep the price reasonable and the quality high on optic-ready Glock uppers, they’ll sell a lot of them.
In my (.223/5.56mm) experience, dented brass coming out of an AR-style firearm is caused by the brass deflector; is it dented rims on the brass that the new ejector will help prevent?
Yes, bent rims and/or dented case bases. Not always an issue, but the extra power of .308/7.62×51 and weight of the brass can lead the ejector to do minor damage. Increasing the surface area will prevent that possibility.
Cool gun porn! I could snap up one of their .308s, but I have a hankering for an 18″ stainless 1:10 barrel. They all look reliable.
Adams Arms makes good stuff.
I am not fond of Glocks, but even so I’m not sure why someone would wish to replace a barrel on one, looking down the bore is the prettiest thing I’ve seen on a gun, like a mirror. Diddling with perfection?
The most common reason to rebarrel a Glock is to get a conventionally-rifled barrel so lead bullet reloads can be used (the shallow polygonal rifling of factory barrels sometimes does not interact well with leading; conventional rifling gets you a higher margin of safety, in most cases).
Other folks are always chasing that last quarter-inch of accuracy improvement (often, these are the people shooting six-inch groups at 10 yards, even though the factory barrel is already capable of one-hole groups at this distance).
Still others have more money than good sense, and think they can buy better accuracy results instead of “spending” time practicing to improve their weak shooting fundamentals (separated from the above group by the fact that they plan to upgrade the pistol’s barrel BEFORE they ever fire it).
That and perhaps a better supported chamber.
I will not totally dismiss this possibility, but in my experience, if someone is still worried about this old “problem” (which was blown all out of proportion by competitors, and buoyed by dramatic photos of pistols blown-up by out-of-spec/insane reloads), they just buy something other than a Glock at the start.
The only horse that had been beaten deader than this urban legend that Glock’s unsupported chamber leads to KB, is that “more barrel length = more accuracy”
Seriously, no pistol has a fully supported chamber, not even a 1911. The Glock has a deaper relief for the feed ramp than others but that is not what causes KB’s just because that is where the case fails. Lots of things conspire to cause KB’s, the polygonal rifling and more importantly the chamber throat don’t handle lead buildup very well so if you shoot lead reloads and don’t keep lead deposits under control them your pressure goes up and the case head explodes, most often down the feed ramp since that is the path of least resistance, just like AR15’s blow out the extractor cut when the round fails. Pressure always takes the path of least resistance in a catastrophic failure.
The second and more common cause of KB’s in any firearm is usually 1 of the following (or a combination of several) factors
– Shooting poorly reloaded or cheap/poor quality factory ammo that is just too hot either by deliberate design or by a careless oversight/bad QC when measuring powder charges
– poorly reloaded or cheap/ poor quality factory ammo that has high runout on bullet seating depth especially for the 40S&W as case capacity is limited and SAAMI max pressure is higher than 9mm and 45acp so a .01 difference in bullet seating depth can cause a massive pressure spike
– poorly reloaded or cheap/poor quality factory ammo where case mouth crimp/neck tension isn’t sufficient to prevent bullet setback caused by recoil or repeated chambering and ejecting.
The overarching theme here is sloppy reloads or cheap factory ammo with poor QC. The end result is a blown out case head, which in the case of the Glock means a blow out immediately above the feed ramp relief. Poor quality/ sloppy reloads and junk factory ammo will destroy any gun they are fired in if done so repeatedly, chamber support has nothing to do with it other than on guns with a deeper relief in the chamber where the feed ramp comes in that is where the failure manifests.
So, here I am, kicking that poor lifeless horse one more time… wont change the massive amounts of misinformation floating around spread by people who read something on the internet or know a guy who knows a guy who they think might own a glock that blew up under completely normal circumstances, but so be it.
Lots of people on the interwebs also claim to shoot lead from Glocks with no problems, so be that also. Just pointing out another reason people might choose to buy an aftermarket barrel.
One of the things these VDI slides have done right over the Glock MOS pistols is having tall sights to co-witness the red dot. Looks like they’re using an XS Big Dot type of sight, which I’m not too crazy about.
Agree with your opinion of the Big Dot sights; tried them once (came on a used Glock I bought), and was not impressed enough to keep them.
However, I don’t want towering back-up iron sights blocking a lot of the view through that little window. Once of the nice things about a dot sight is it DOESN’T block a lot of the target or target area; it just shows you your impact point. Having big, blocky BUIS in the way ALL the time, not just when you want/need them, seems counterproductive. In my view, they should be as low as possible, bottom edge of the window, and barely visible unless you are looking for them, with only enough of the sights protruding to allow a usable emergency sight picture, should the dot disappear. YMMV.
Definitely agree with you there. On my setup, the irons extend 1/8″ above the back edge of the RMR. Makes for about a lower 1/4 co-witness. The iron sights I use don’t even clear the top of my suppressor. Still plenty of viewable area through the RMR.
On that VDI pistol, those chunky sights look like they’re at least 1/4″ above the back of the RMR. I do like that there doesn’t seem to be an adapter plate to add unnecessary height to the optic. Just buy the slide that’s cut right for your particular optic.
1/8″ visible sounds just about perfect to me. High enough to see clearly, but out of the way until needed. If you don’t mind saying, what brand/type/model of sights are you using?
My pre-ordered AA 308 is in production, might get it as soon as next week!
let us know how she runs ,id like one myself ,adams looks like an excellent product
It’s worth noting that the adams xlp system will only work with rails that use the factory barrel nut, and even then some rails are too tight to allow you to adjust the gas flow.
Hmmm no mention of their new 300 BLK Evo line at SHOT, huh? Was really eyeing up their 12.5 XLP for a SBR. Can’t get any data on it though. The only person that ‘reviewed’ it noticed the glaring issue with the adjustable gas block being inaccessible without taking off the handguard.
Anyway, thanks for the vids. Man, that .308 looked tame – and the 5.56 looked like a .22 (recoil-wise). I’ll be keeping an eye on how they develop their 300 BLK line… Their short stroke piston/low mass carrier, adjustable gas block design has promise.
Well at least with the new XLP gas block design it’s adjustable even if the gas block is recessed back underneath the handguard. So that’s good. Other than a gas system that can compensate for and run with both supersonic and subsonic loads and, obviously, a barrel made for .300 BLK, there isn’t anything else that makes a .300 BLK AR unique from a 5.56 AR.
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