isptroop38 wrote:Thanks Hoot, I know you have great knowledge in this stuff. It's not a factory Bushy, it's a Radical Firearms. The gas system is rifle gas length.
That's not the best news to hear as again, I struggled getting my rifle length system to run reliably. It originally came with a .078 port diameter which told me the manufacturer didn't think it through. Too bad as it was machined with great attention to detail otherwise, with a nice black nitrided finish. Using a set of
sharp numerical bits, I walked it up one bit increment at a time (very time consuming) pausing to run to the range and test it. I'm fortunate to have a rifle range less than 10 minutes away that I'm the manager of. Even then, it got real old and
(don't cringe) I finally broke down and took the numerical bit set, cutting oil, drill alignment jig and a variable speed hand drill to the range and proceeded to drill, clean, shoot, repeat. I used my 200gr FTX over Lil Gun load recipe as that's as light as I go, to determine success approaching. When I got to what I thought was a decisive
almost there point. I went back home, set up my press for a clean cut and performed the final port enlargement. I followed that with a bore lap procedure to remove any burrs that might be present as at that time, I did not have a bore scope to examine it. That port diameter wound up being .1065 and
This is Important: I was in direct contact with Tim LeGendre (Wildcatter) at the time as he was pushing his
Corvette concept. He confided that he had to go as high as .120 depending upon how well the barrel and action was broken in. My barrel was new at the time though my test action was well broken in and lubricated as previously mentioned.The Point Being:
There is no one size fits all for this process. Too many variables. At least if you don't want to overshoot the port size appropriate for your setup and then having to resort to an adjustable gas block. I'm a firm believer in K.I.S.S.
That .1065, combined with my broken in action, reliably cycled all my loads without the perception of being over-gassed. The bad news is, at that point, I was disgruntled at having to put in so much work just getting that barrel to work and was sick of looking at it.
I sold it to get it out of my sight.
Hoot