Best High-End Piston-Driven Semi-Automatic Rifle

[titsonritz]

They have both a piston and DI version.

I could be wrong, but I think they dropped the piston version.

 

[titsonritz]

LMT Mars -L piston or any MARS has my vote hands down. I would take a good look at LMT lineup if you haven't. I believe it would fit your need for running whatever barrel later on down the road , swapping calibers as well, running suppressed if you choose, and for some reason you even wanted to swap to DI later you could.

I'm sure others will chime in but I see this isn't on your list and would take a look.

Edit : as I see your only looking on the list.

Out of the ones on your list the I have ran the HK, POF, and LWRC. and SCAR 16, 17 heavy. Out of those the LWRC just fits me better. I'm a little bit of an H&K fanboy but to be honest was a let down. SCARS impo wouldn't be on this list and are overrated but decent resell value. These are only my experiences as others may very.

I haven't had an opportunity to run an sword yet however, would be intrigued to. Hope this helps.

Not really a piston fan but I'd do the MARS-L Piston for the quick change barrel feature alone.

 

[Nosferatu]

I could be wrong, but I think they dropped the piston version.

Maybe, don't care anymore. Just figured I'd mention it for someone doing some research into piston rifles.

 

[BGP1776]

I want to badly to like the MCX, but then saw this

I am also a Sig fanboy.

I also appreciate your other thoughts.

 

[Kanji]

I want to badly to like the MCX, but then saw this

Yes I agree that was a concern but I'm pretty confident that Sig addressed the issue and seem to have provided a good fix.

Fast forward a several years, I haven't had any issues with my legacy (had since it was released) or the newest Virtus versions...knock on wood. I haven't seen anyone on the forums complaining about the same issue w the Virtus, so that's always good sign.

 

[Ura-Ki]

The Robinson XCR is a great option held back by lack of aftermarket support and factory options, otherwise, a very solid performer!
The Original SIG 550/551 would be an awesome option, kinda hard to get in the states, VERY solid performer
The CZ Bren gets me sweaty, I really like it, lots of potential, and good support with a slowly growing aftermarket
The AR-180, now that someone finally solved the major issues with interchangeability, what was once just a great rifle can now rightly become legend!
How about the O.G. of "Assault Rifles" the H&K Model 33/53, tons of aftermarket support and upgrade options, and a VERY solid and reliable carbine, Hands down, one of the slickest running and shooting Old School small bore fighting rifles ever made!

Any of this list would serve you very well, I would have zero problems with any of them!

 

[ORhutner]

Only going to speak to the ones I have first hand experience with:

Bren 1: Love it but considerably heavier then the Bren 2 and the aftermarket will be shrinking for it now that the Bren 2 is out. Have not shot suppressed.

Bren 2: Awesome platform that is a solid performer right out of the box. Welcome improvements over the Bren 1 along with going on a diet to reduce weight. Excellent and growing aftermarket. While considered the poor mans SCAR, I like it better and you don't void the warranty when you toss a suppressor on the Bren. Have not run suppressed yet but supposed to suppress well once having the adjustable gas block ported for your configuration and new spring, a service offered by HB industries.

PWS: Have shot multiple variations from 16" down to 11" in 5.56 and own a 300BO upper. I will be adding another PWS upper in 5.56 after my experience using friends and my enjoyment with the 300BO upper. My friends and I have found the PWS platform to be great and reliable with minimal gas to the face. We have found all of our PWS guns to have above average accuracy with your bulk ammo which is a great upside. Have shot suppressed and this was the quietest 5.56 ar15 piston platform.

POF: I don't have any experience with their 5.56 piston guns but do have trigger time with the POF Revolution 308. Great gun, super light for a piston 308, good trigger, hard on brass, takes tweaking with running suppressed but great once dialed in. As expected the 308 was not quiet shooting suppressed, not sure how it does in their 5.56 piston rifles.

Galil Ace Gen 2: Shot the 7.62x39 and 5.56, aftermarket parts are out there but frequently out of stock, almost no trigger upgrade options, you better like it how it comes or be ready to search far and wide to upgrade. It is a very nicely refined AK though but wouldn't be my choice based on your use case. Running suppressed you will need to get one of the KNS adjustable pistons and mess with getting adjusted and then you are locked into that ammo and running suppressed 100% or risk malfunctions. That or you will have to make changes every time you run suppressed or unsuppressed depending on your primary configuration. Have not shot suppressed.

LWRC IC-A5: This is my go to rig, SBR'd at 12.7" with YHM T2/cherry bomb/plan b, if I remember measurements right, it came out only 1" longer than the original 16" rifle. I love the gun and it is has been 100% reliable right out of the box, post barrel cut/thread and running suppressed. It functions 100% on both gas settings whether suppressed or unsuppressed running standard bulk brass (never run anything else). Accurate, factory trigger is good enough I haven't wanted to swap it out, almost as little port pop as the PWS' and very little gas to the face. Not saying this is the best platform on your list or you should go with this because this is what I have. I ran with this setup because I had the gun and it fit the build I wanted to do vs. having to go out and start from scratch.

If I was starting from scratch, with your requirements I would strongly consider the PWS, Bren 2 and LWRC. I personally if I had been starting from scratch and had the knowledge I do now, would give very strong consideration to going with a PWS build instead of the LWRC.

My ramblings on the ones I don't have any first hand experience with:

HK MR556: No experience but your paying a premium especially in today's market. I am confident it would meet your needs but would rather save a grand or more and put that money towards killer optics (Nightforce LPVO, Kahles LPVO, MRO HD, etc...) and a suppressor (YHM T2, YHM Turbo K, Rex MG7, etc...), SBR tax stamp.

Only heard good things about LMT but no personal experience. I have philosophical issues with SIG's business practices so I am not a fan of supporting them regardless of the merits of their platform. I got bit by their issues on the MPX platform.

B&T APC223: Love B&T but don't have trigger time on their APC223. Swiss quality but I remember watching a youtube video review on it and there were some features you would expect on a $3k plus gun that were missing. Been a year or more since I watched and don't recall exactly what it was that turned me off.

Feel free to start up a conversation, your close enough we might be able to schedule a meet up and get you some hands on experience with some of these platforms.

 

[BGP1776]

If I was starting from scratch, with your requirements I would strongly consider the PWS, Bren 2 and LWRC. I personally if I had been starting from scratch and had the knowledge I do now, would give very strong consideration to going with a PWS build instead of the LWRC.

That was a tremendous knowledge dump! Thank you!

If you have time, could you expand on your thoughts regarding the PWS versus the LWRC? I have shot both but neither supressed. Both are the bee's knees but I shot them like a year or more apart so I don't have the back-to-back experience.

Weight is a little bit of a consideration for me right now at least as I have an injured weak-side shoulder. It looks like the PWS is half a pound lighter but I don't want that to be a limiting factor as I've been told I will get my arm strength back.

 

[Knute]

That was a tremendous knowledge dump! Thank you!

If you have time, could you expand on your thoughts regarding the PWS versus the LWRC? I have shot both but neither supressed. Both are the bee's knees but I shot them like a year or more apart so I don't have the back-to-back experience.

Weight is a little bit of a consideration for me right now at least as I have an injured weak-side shoulder. It looks like the PWS is half a pound lighter but I don't want that to be a limiting factor as I've been told I will get my arm strength back.

Oh...lighter is better but for what it's worth,the Galil ACE gen II in 16 inch is a real beast at eight pounds 12.6 oz, plus add optics and ammo, etc...in the neighborhood of 11 pounds.

If you can hoist it, this one's a real peach to shoot in 5.56 NATO but I'd hate to have to walk it too much

 

[3MTA3]

Oh...lighter is better but for what it's worth,the Galil ACE gen II in 16 inch is a real beast at eight pounds 12.6 oz, plus add optics and ammo, etc...in the neighborhood of 11 pounds.

If you can hoist it, this one's a real peach to shoot in 5.56 NATO but I'd hate to have to walk it too much

Weight and cost is why Israel moved on.

 

[ORhutner]

That was a tremendous knowledge dump! Thank you!

If you have time, could you expand on your thoughts regarding the PWS versus the LWRC? I have shot both but neither supressed. Both are the bee's knees but I shot them like a year or more apart so I don't have the back-to-back experience.

Weight is a little bit of a consideration for me right now at least as I have an injured weak-side shoulder. It looks like the PWS is half a pound lighter but I don't want that to be a limiting factor as I've been told I will get my arm strength back.

Since you mention weight, I would shy away from the Galil. As mentioned by Knute, they are a bit of a pig.

LWRC 12.7" vs. PWS 16"
- Weight: Honestly hasn't been a consideration as I am on the bigger side, one might say husky and the two setups are light enough and balance great in their current configurations I never thought about it. I run the LWRC and my primary shooting buddy runs the PWS. Mine is lighter but that is the product of barrel length, optics setup and suppressor choice.

- Accuracy: Coin toss, both our guns print similar average groups with bulk brass cased ammo. The PWS loves cheap Frontier 55gr and prints sub 1-inch groups at 100 yards. I normally run American Eagle XM193 which is giving me sub 1-inch groups at 100 yards when I do my part. So both guns have more than adequate accuracy.

- Handguard/Rail: The PWS wins, it has both m-lok and pic rails, the LWRC just has the top pic rail and their proprietary mounting system. Finding ways to attach items to the handguard in the manner you want is difficult if it is even possible. Probably my biggest gripe on the LWRC.

- Lower: Both are equal in my mind with their ambi controls. Not much to say here.

- Recoil impulse suppressed: Again, this is a coin toss for me, long stroke vs. short stroke piston systems, both guns stay on target equally to me. If pressed, I would say the PWS shoots slightly smoother.

- BUIS Sights: None on the PWS from the factory and I don't care for the LWRC BUIS and pulled mine off. If I put irons back on my LWRC it will either be Troy's or KAC. Both guns are running LPVO's, Nightforce NX8 on the LWRC and Trijicon Credo on the PWS.

- Options available to order: An LWRC upper is almost as much as a complete rifle. I don't believe you can order an LWRC piston gun in a pistol configuration, only SBR and Rifle formats. So you either have to cut down a rifle to make an SBR or start with an SBR/tax stamp. Not sure how easy LWRC lowers are to come by if you wanted to get the lower first and SBR then order an upper. I cut down a 16" to 12.7" for my SBR. If I knew I was going to end up with an SBR I would have just ordered it as an SBR, paid the $200 tax stamp and waited for my form-4 approval.

With PWS you can go to Primary Arms right now, put in the coupon code for 12% off and order the PWS complete lower. Once you get the lower, submit your form-1 via efile and get your tax stamp back in a couple weeks most likely. Then you can go pick the upper that suits your needs. PWS offers a lot more options to get to your desired end results. You could also get a pistol configuration with PWS unlike LWRC.

In the end, I am happy with my LWRC. I think I would be equally happy with a PWS and it would have been a much easier journey and slightly cheaper.

 

[BGP1776]

Since you mention weight, I would shy away from the Galil. As mentioned by Knute, they are a bit of a pig.

LWRC 12.7" vs. PWS 16"
- Options available to order: An LWRC upper is almost as much as a complete rifle. I don't believe you can order an LWRC piston gun in a pistol configuration, only SBR and Rifle formats. So you either have to cut down a rifle to make an SBR or start with an SBR/tax stamp. Not sure how easy LWRC lowers are to come by if you wanted to get the lower first and SBR then order an upper. I cut down a 16" to 12.7" for my SBR. If I knew I was going to end up with an SBR I would have just ordered it as an SBR, paid the $200 tax stamp and waited for my form-4 approval.

With PWS you can go to Primary Arms right now, put in the coupon code for 12% off and order the PWS complete lower. Once you get the lower, submit your form-1 via efile and get your tax stamp back in a couple weeks most likely. Then you can go pick the upper that suits your needs. PWS offers a lot more options to get to your desired end results. You could also get a pistol configuration with PWS unlike LWRC.

In the end, I am happy with my LWRC. I think I would be equally happy with a PWS and it would have been a much easier journey and slightly cheaper.

Yeah when going to their website, it looks like the only Pistol version of the piston-driven is the IC-PSD but only in the 8.x" barrel. So that would still put me in a position where I was ordering a full 12.7" upper on top of that...if you can even order that. I am gonna look into getting a Form 4 SBR with the new eForms it might not be as long a wait.

I'm OK with just going with a Pistol build rather than a SBR, I have an extra SBA4 sitting here and they are very solid / good cheek weld for me.

However, right now, I am leaning towards that PWS setup that you can just straight order the way you want it and maybe thinking about the Sword since you can also do some custom ordering there too.

 

[oldandbroken]

No experience with anything other than HK, which I have 2. One is just the upper bought separately sitting on a LMT MARS-L ambidextrous lower. I really like that combo. I also like the fact a few companies other than HK make parts for them.

 

[osprey]

Easy choice FAL!

Edit; I see you specified 5.56/223 so Sar 4800 FAL!
Or skip the mouse cartridge and step up to a real battle rifle in a more versatile chambering (see original answer)

 

[Porter]

I own both LWRC and PWS rifles and have been bery happy with both. IMO the PWS is the better value, both are accurate as long as I do my part

 

[BlackTemplar]

LMT MARS specifically the New Zealand contract rifle is the finest combat AR ever made.

 

[The Heretic]

 

[User 1234]

Daewoo.

 

[fstdraw]

Snobs.

 

[coop44]

Bula m14, no plastic, aluminum, or sheet metal. Capable of doing anything you want.

22" M21DMR - Bula Defense Systems

buladefense.com