Short barreled ARs tuning

[Alan]

In your experience, what hardware changes have had the biggest effect on taming gas and keeping reliability high for builds between 10.5 and 12.5"?

 

[Bobcat]

I have used adjustable gas blocks, heavier buffers, different buffer spring weights and opened gas ports, all of these will have some effect. The best thing I’ve found so far to increase reliability is adding a suppressor, the trade off is the increased gas pressure, adding a can, in my experience almost necessitates an adjustable gas block and/or a heavier buffer. The additional gas also requires more frequent maintenance of the gun.