That might be the first time I've heard the AR called mediocre lol.

I respectfully disagree. I'm not about to call the most reliable, and widespread design mediocre. I basically run my ARs exclusively suppressed and maybe clean them every few hundred rounds if I'm bored. If the bolt feels a little sticky to close I'll toss a few drops of oil on there.

I think people sometimes mistake a gun being dirty with being unreliable. You should see the gunk that I clean out from my competition guns sometimes. A good design will prevent or move the carbon out of the areas where it can have an impact, or will be appropriately clearanced to deal with it. The AR is a great example of this, and will continue operating well beyond what might look dirty.

Due to malfunctioning firearms during qualifications, most large police departments have disallowed the use of silencers on AR-15 patrol rifles.

I remember bringing this up a few years ago and folks on here were in complete denial about it. Silencers and gas guns are a bad combination for a defense rifle. There are things you can do to limp them along but they will never be as trustworthy as a gun without one on it. I’m referring to trusting your life to it rather than shooting pigs or paper.

That might be the first time I've heard the AR called mediocre lol.

I respectfully disagree. I'm not about to call the most reliable, and widespread design mediocre. I basically run my ARs exclusively suppressed and maybe clean them every few hundred rounds if I'm bored. If the bolt feels a little sticky to close I'll toss a few drops of oil on there.

I think people sometimes mistake a gun being dirty with being unreliable. You should see the gunk that I clean out from my competition guns sometimes. A good design will prevent or move the carbon out of the areas where it can have an impact, or will be appropriately clearanced to deal with it. The AR is a great example of this, and will continue operating well beyond what might look dirty.

The AK-47 might have something to say about the "most reliable" statement.

As well as the "widespread" statement, when we are talking about the globe.

That might be the first time I've heard the AR called mediocre lol.

I respectfully disagree. I'm not about to call the most reliable, and widespread design mediocre. I basically run my ARs exclusively suppressed and maybe clean them every few hundred rounds if I'm bored. If the bolt feels a little sticky to close I'll toss a few drops of oil on there.

I think people sometimes mistake a gun being dirty with being unreliable. You should see the gunk that I clean out from my competition guns sometimes. A good design will prevent or move the carbon out of the areas where it can have an impact, or will be appropriately clearanced to deal with it. The AR is a great example of this, and will continue operating well beyond what might look dirty.

I have a PSA AR15 that my thermal is on that I converted to piston with a Superlative Arms piston kit for this exact reason - DI was dang dirty running suppressed. I ran it about 100 rounds and thought “man, I bet it’s really dirty, better clean it”. I took it apart and was actually a little shocked at how clean it was. It was just 100 rounds, but I literally was able to clean the bolt/BCG and everything else with one paper towel and a little bit of CLR.

Several have said it, the cleanest running thing suppressed is a bolt rifle. ARs are by nature dirtier suppressed, but the SA piston kit made mine much cleaner and has been super reliable.