Direct Impingement vs Piston AR

Obviously much debate has been had on AR vs AK and Glock vs 1911. You also get the usual 9mm vs .40 vs .45 and 5.56 vs 7.62. The list of the classic firearm debates is welcoming a new subject, which is the traditional Direct Impingement system vs the newer Piston system for the AR models.

Stag has some good basic info for you here.

My feeling is that both systems have been around in their respective markets for long enough that any serious problems have already been discovered and addressed.

The DI system has it's "flaws", but my own experience with the DI system is that of firing it on multiple continents in varying weather and terrain, including rainy Korea and dusty Afghanistan, cleanliness and age of the weapon. I've used DI systems in practice, training, recreation and combat, and have never had a malfunction that wasn't due to the magazine (old GI mags usually) or bad ammo (by "bad ammo", I just mean blanks during training).

I'm not saying the DI can't malfunction from being too dirty, I'm just saying that the modern built ARs can go thousands of rounds between cleaning and still operate.

The new piston system avoids the fouling and heating of the BCG, which sounds great to me. Even if the DI system doesn't require the constant cleaning it did in the 1960's, a cleaner rifle is better. The piston system is definitely cleaner. However, like the link states, you've got some more moving parts and the recoil is a bit more. One of the hallmarks that set the AR above many other weapons is the light recoil and light weight. The piston system gives a little bit of that back in exchange for that cleaner and cooler system.

Personally, I'll stick with my DI. Why? Because that's what I have and that's what I've used, and it works perfectly well.

Caveat: I'd love to also have a piston AR and would never turn down that system. It just comes down to what trade off you would like to make. My opinion is that both systems have gotten over that hill of "is it proven?" milestone. The DI did it in the 1980's and the piston more recently.