Such an easy decision. I’d do this in a second if I had an old AAC can.Originally Posted by Trigger
Such an easy decision. I’d do this in a second if I had an old AAC can.
#RESIST
The cost is quite close to the new cans - and that's the prohibitive aspect of this program. There's very little savings here and I do not think it makes much sense for the situation you propose. If you don't already have an AAC can it makes more sense just to buy one. I even think there's a free tax stamp promotion on the Ranger series right now. Or buy a different brand - the new AAC cans seem to be getting positive reviews but they're hardly the name they once were.
For me - I had a can that I had used for nearly a decade before recently discovering that the baffle and spacer was busted. The original AAC was sold by Kevin Brittingham, purchased by Remington/Freedom Group, went into bankruptcy, and is apparently now back under PSA ownership (to include making the M4-2000 for military customers again). This gets me an essentially new can (the Ranger with HUB mount), with a new warranty, and no new tax stamp or paperwork (which is a bit more onerous after 41F, so that's worth some additional cost to me).
I'm hopeful this will breathe new life into some older cans I had - but I'll hold off on recommending this course until they're back in my hands and I have sent some rounds downrange. I'll certainly post when I get them back (I'll have a Ranger 5 and Ranger 7 Mini).
A friend went with the Ecco option and is pleased, though he's sending a can to AAC as well under this restoration program as well. Note that the cost difference between the AAC restoration program and the Ecco Hub conversion significantly narrows if you also have Ecco recore the suppressor.
Last edited by JSGlock34; 10-29-2023 at 07:22 PM.
"When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage, killing a man."
Sorry my A-D-D won’t let read every word already posted so if this was already discussed, ignore me.
Is there a reason, other than price, that a piston based gun isn’t on the table?
I ran an 8” LWRC PSD w/AAC M4/2K for nearly 20k rounds and had but a handful of malfunctions, almost all of which can be attributed to shitty mags.
You can get much more of what you want with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone.
I can’t add much to this but I bought a Huxwrx flow 5.56k for my 11.5” Colt and just because, I bought an additional flash hider for my 16” Sionics pencil barrel gun.
I was worried at first that the free floated pencil barrel might not be as accurate with the can but so far I am pleased with the accuracy. What I also noticed was how the gun balanced very well with the SOPMOD stock on it and how easy the gun is to shoot. The only only time I’ve shot it at dusk, I did not notice any muzzle flash. It was also one of the lighter cans I looked at.
I am very pleased with the setup.
This is the first time a piston gun has been brought up in the thread. To be honest, it hadn't even crossed my mind.
This will be a learning exercise for me as much as anything, so I don't know if I should be considering a piston gun or not. Some things I've read make it sound like they are clearly superior, other things that say they aren't that much better than a DI gun. I don't know enough to answer the question. Does the piston make a big difference when shooting suppressed?
And yeah price enters into the equation for me. I'd like to do this for around $2K all in if I can, even if I have to start with irons and add a red dot sight later.
Send him to Ecco. Seriously.
https://www.eccomachine.net/
#RESIST
It costs $700 - so about the cost of a new can...which is effectively what you're getting, without the long NFA wait, and $200 stamp on top. As far as I know they'll upgrade the 556SD as well. If you go to the contact form on their page, they'll answer your questions; you're not locked into an RMA unless you agree with what you read.
I just sent my M4-2000 mod 8 in to be redone; the time quoted to me was 3-5 weeks. They're essentially cutting off the can above and below the serial number, and rebuilding it with newer tech. The mail I got from the tech service guy at AAC was that the baffles will be machined/welded vs the current stamped/welded, there's much less backpressure with the new baffles and configuration, but the tradeoff is it'll be a dB or two louder at the muzzle. Since that's a discernment most humans can't detect, I'm not worried about it. The tone will also change, but from what I'm hearing, it'll change for the better. I'll find out myself in another month or so.
The two big (other than the backpressure) things that really make the AAC rework attractive is that the baffles are sized for 6mm, so it'll be a lot more tolerant of SBR that may not fully stabilize the round before it exits (this is why the Surefire SOCOM-SB2 exists)...and it'll basically refresh AAC's warranty on the can - it'll now be covered by the new AAC if things go sideways. Plus it opens things up to allowing it to be used on .243, etc. It's still full-auto rated, so on so forth...things probably important to military customers, not so important to little old me.
You CAN do the Ecco thing - they do excellent work and I was considering that before AAC popped back up on the radar - but, you're not getting AAC's warranty with it (presumably Ecco's warrantying it however so that's kind of a wash), and unless you have the can totally redone with new baffles and etc to reduce blowback on it, you're not really "upgrading" the can beyond changing how it can attach. If you're going to send it off to be worked on...may as well go whole hog, you know? But that's just my opinion!
People think piston guns are somehow cleaner than DI guns...not with a can on, they aren't. The only argument you could possibly make would be the piston might keep going in all the fouling for a little bit longer, maybe. The rest of the gun will get sooty as shit, same as an AR. Since I've not yet gone past 300 rounds at the range with a gun that had a can on it, "long term fouling" really hasn't been a concern...of course, I clean things when I get home. It's just as much a pain to clean a piston gun as it is an AR, maybe even worse because there's more parts to lose, and you need to scrub out the piston area and piston as well as everything else - on the AR, the bolt carrier IS the piston, and you're already there as a part of maintenance anyway. This is with an AUG, BRN-180, and FN SCAR in 308. As much as I'd like to try one of the new Sig rifles, they're all pretty expensive and I don't think they'd do anything any better than my AUGs do.
With the new flow through cans I’d imagine both operating methods run cleaner. I know cyclic rate is much closer than it was ETA: without being suppressed.
Last edited by BWT; 10-30-2023 at 10:12 PM.
God Bless,
Brandon
Piston guns tend to be heavier (especially at the front which is the worst place for the weight), less modular, and more expensive. I was talked out of them early on and don’t feel like I’ve missed out at all.
Honestly the worst part about a can to me is rarely discussed - that mf’er gets super hot very fast. That’s the number one reason I don’t use it every time I shoot.
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