One of the beauties of the AR-15 platform is the nearly endless variety of ways you can customize your rifle. From hand guards to rail covers, custom paint schemes, barrel lengths, and optics, you can create a rifle that is perfectly suited to your needs or is completely needlessly complicated in nearly every aspect.
But when you’re building a rifle that prioritizes function over form, it’s important to find parts and accessories that make your rifle more useful at the range for your next competition. Once you’ve replaced your handguard, butt stock, and other external parts it’s time to start examining ways you can improve the internal operations of your rifle. One of the ways you can do so is by adding an adjustable gas block system to your rifle. Here at Bootleg Inc., we sell these parts for your AR-15, so let’s take a look at some of the advantages the system has to offer your next build.
A Quick History of the Adjustable Gas Block
While the AR-15 is likely the most obvious user of a gas block system it was not the first. In fact, the adjustable gas block system has been in existence since the early 1930s. The M1 Garand, which served throughout the Second World War and the Korean War, was the first semi-automatic military rifle to make use of an adjustable gas system. The gas plug regulated the cycling of the bolt by letting out precise amounts of the gases produced by the exploding cartridge.
One of the most popular uses of the adjustable gas block system was in the FN-FAL battle rifle developed by the Belgians. On this rifle, the gas cylinder can be adjusted by hand to tune the cycling rate. To ensure that the rifle performed reliably, soldiers would tune the gas cylinder down until the rifle did not fund the cycle at all, then slowly turn the cylinder until it cycled reliably. This process ensured that the rifle could cycle reliably while also limiting recoil, and also allowed it to be tuned to certain kinds of ammunition.
Installing Your Own Adjustable Gas Block
Adding an adjustable gas block system to your AR-15 is easier than it sounds. You begin the process by removing the hand guard on your rifle, as well as the flash hider and muzzle break. The existing gas block can be underpinned and removed. You then install the new gas block using the included setscrews or clamps to lock in place. From there, reverse the process reinstalling your muzzle brake, flash hider, and handguard. If this process feels like something outside of your current skill set, you can take your rifle to a local gunsmith and have them do the work quickly.
Why Your Rifle Needs an Adjustable Gas Block
So, installing an adjustable gas block on your rifle is easy, but is that the only reason you should install one?
Yes, it is.
But if that’s not convincing enough, consider these three benefits.
- You can tune your rifle’s performance to meet your needs. This is especially valuable for those who do run-and-gun competitions where you need to minimize recoil to ensure rapid and accurate follow-up shots. By using adjustable gas block system, you’re ensuring that your bolt carrier group cycles only hard enough to extract and feed a new round into the chamber, but will not hammer back and forth within the receiver as it does so.
- Adjustable gas systems have also been reported to be a far cleaner way of running your rifle. By limiting the amount of gas going into the BCG, you’ll find less carbon buildup in on your bolt at the end of a range trip. A cleaner gun is a more reliable gun and one that is easy to clean at the end of the day.
- An adjustable gas block system puts less wear and tear on your parts. If you read our blog about the four AR parts that wear out first, you’ll know that your gas tube and bolt can quickly wear out if your rifle is not properly tuned to cycle.
Improve Your Rifle With An Adjustable Gas Block From Bootleg Inc.
Making use of an adjustable gas block system is one of the easiest ways to measurably increase the performance of your rifle. Improved reliability, accuracy, fatigue and recoil means you’ll spend more time at the range and less time resting a sore shoulder and cleaning dirty rifle parts.
When you’re looking to get the most out of your rifle’s performance, you need high-quality parts. Now you can fine-tune your AR’s gas system with our line of gas blocks. Our low-profile block can help your rifle cycle more effectively. Customize your AR-15 today with the parts and accessories offered by Bootleg Inc.