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mtnbkr:clean the gas tube in your AR and tell us what it is like
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I didn't clean it (more on that later), but I just pulled it out and took a look at it. It's actually cleaner than I expected (I'm an AR newbie). The visible internal walls of the tube are black, but there isn't any accumulation. A puff of air in one end results in a corresponding puff out of the other end's hole (no, I didn't put my lips on the tube).
I also took a look at the bolt and chamber as best I could without a scope or magnifying glass. Everything looked good. I didn't see any abnormal wear or accumulation, just the normal soot that any semiauto would develop (and surprisingly little for 400 rounds).
I built this gun for three reasons: First, I wanted an EBR with all the scary features (collapsible stock, flashider, and hicap mags). Second, I wanted to see what the AR hype was about. Third, I wanted to see if the AR was as unreliable as some folks say. To puruse the final reason, I've decided to not clean the gun until it hits 1000 rounds or starts jamming, whatever comes first. At first, I wasn't going to use Wolf because of what I've read on the Internet (which isn't real, remember). However, affordable brass cased ammo is getting harder to find around here. It gets expensive to feed this rifle when you can blast through 6mags worth in a single session. I tried Wolf and found it acceptable for my purposes. While I had the gun apart, I did wipe some of the soot from the bolt in order to inspect it, but I did no deep cleaning or scrubbing. The sort of wipedown I gave it could be accomplished in the field by a soldier using his shirttail or a rag.
To compare the use of Wolf in an AR to Wolf in a boltrifle is like comparing apples and oranges. At least for me, the two rifles have completely different uses. My bolt rifle gets fired 20-30 times during a range session and all of the brass is collected for handloading (I load maybe 200 rounds a year). My handloads are crafted for accuracy and terminal effect on deer. My AR is a range blaster, no more, no less. I go through as much as 180 rounds in a session. I don't load for it and don't plan to either. The ammo costs add up for the AR.
I have no particular attachment to Wolf Ammo. If Wal-Mart still carried the WWB 223 (7.76 for 40 rounds), I'd never would have touched Wolf.
Good grief, this post got long...
Chris