Tuning a Rifle's Gas System

Range Talk: Practical Guns, Gear & Training

Generally speaking, a modern carbine that you pick up off the shelf and go shoot with will work just fine. Whether it’s a direct impingement AR-15 or one of the many piston-driven systems out there, anything built to spec by a reputable manufacturer should be able to fire, eject, and feed any factory ammo of the correct caliber without issue. But there are still reasons you might consider options to tune a rifle’s gas system: perhaps you have a custom build or a specific ammo type that isn’t running as reliably as you’d like, or you’d like to reduce felt recoil for faster follow-up shots. Let's go through the options and how to tune your setup for your specific needs.