Adams Arms 556 Carbine Tactical Evo 115 Evolution Piston Upper Review

The AR-xv platform has indeed gotten a bit stale. Anybody and their illegitimate cousin twice removed makes a version of the gun these days, and for most manufacturers all they actually do is catch a butt from ane supplier, a receiver from another, slap their branding on it and call the thing "new." And for near consumers, that's skillful enough. But Adams Artillery has gone a few steps further. Not only take they completely re-designed the gas system to use a piston instead of direct impingement, but they go to the trouble of making their own parts — barrels included. While that's all very impressive, every bit always the proof is in how well the gun actually runs. And fifty-fifty on that stop, the company does things, well, differently . . .

Having reviewed few guns in my time, I'm used to companies putting atmospheric condition on my ability to test their guns. "You can have it, but it needs to be back in iii weeks." "Use simply brass ammo, and don't feed information technology subsequently midnight." "Use only the provided lube." So I wasn't surprised when I reached out to the guys at Adams Arms about testing out one of their piston-powered AR-xv rifles and they added a caveat of their own. But information technology wasn't something I was expecting. Hither'southward the direct quote from their email:

Would yous exist willing to beat out the crap out of our stuff and do your all-time to pause it under real earth awarding? If so were in.

I had never heard a firearms manufacturer say those words before and information technology was music to my ears. I was going to be given gratis reign to try and kill their gun, and given the design that appeared to be a pretty tall order. So I asked them to send me a SBR-length upper receiver as well, since the college pressures involved with that gas organisation length would do a lot of the stress testing for me.

Ane twenty-four hours a few weeks later, the whole package arrived on my doorstep. So naturally, the very first matter I did was take it all apart and notice out how it works.

The AR-15 was designed to use a "gas expansion" organization, where a gas tube feeds directly into a piston in the bolt carrier group. It'southward an effective design that works peachy most of the time. But when the gun gets muddy, it has a tendency to malfunction. Non that it takes long to get filthy — since the gas port empties straight into the sleeping accommodation, the bolt carrier group can go from a shiny nickel boron coating to a grungy, gritty black in but a few minutes.

Adams Arms, however, has designed their piston system to avoid that result. They go on the gas contained within a small-scale chamber, instead using a piston to transfer the energy needed to bicycle the activity to the bolt carrier group.

The impact of that design is obvious: the upper I've been shooting hasn't been cleaned once, and fifty-fifty after thousands of rounds downrange the bolt is withal clean. You might observe that at that place's one unclean office: the bedroom specifically designed to capture the gasses. The way the piston system works is that the operating rod has a small cup on the end into which the regulator is inserted. The organization uses that cup non only to align the operating rod and so it slides into the upper receiver properly, merely also to comprise the exhaust gasses that are bled off. The result is an immaculate gun.

The concept is well established — trying to mate the reliability of the AK-47 with the accuracy of an AR-15. But in this case, it seems like their design got a fiddling drunk one night and had a one night stand with an SKS instead.

The Adams Arms arrangement is a "short stroke" piston like to that used in the SKS and M1 Carbine, meaning that the commodities carrier is only existence acted upon for a very modest period of time before physics and momentum carry the reciprocating mass the balance of the manner through the reloading cycle. Information technology'due south the more than mutual format for a piston-based AR-15, just companies like PWS believe that a "long stroke" system (like that used in the AK-47) is improve. Either fashion, the Adams Arms system suffers from the aforementioned drawback equally all of the other systems, namely that it allows the chamber to open much earlier than with gas expansion (directly impingement) systems. The reason is that pistons force the bolt open immediately, but gas expansion needs fourth dimension to pressurize the piston before it starts unlocking the bolt. The result is more exhaust coming from the ejection port, which you can see in the video.

So, the gas system works. And I have to admit, it's great. I've done everything I could think of to become it to choke, including running without any lube, burial it in the Texas dirt for a bit, and running the piston without the jump attached (hey, what if you lose it?). In each case the gun continued to function without whatsoever issues. So long as the regulator was gear up to the "normal" setting and not "suppressed," that is.

The regulator is probably my simply complaint about the Adams gas arrangement. For serious shooters, the power to "tune" your gas system to where you lot want information technology is getting shut to mandatory. "Normal" and "suppressed" settings are prissy, only having a little more than granularity wouldn't be a bad thing. Thankfully Adams Artillery has fixed this with their latest gas system regulator pattern, which has a bunch of different settings and then y'all can tinker to your centre'south desire.

Out on the range, the ergonomics of the gun were right where you'd expect for a "run-and-gun" setup similar this. The rifle is very light, and the handguards extend past the gas block allowing you to get a better grip on information technology. Due to the operating mechanism the gas block needs to exist bigger than normal, only Adams decided to incorporate the top of the gas block into the picatinny rail instead of trying to make it disappear. It'll get hot when you're shooting so Magpul BUIS are right out, but a metal sight would piece of work just fine.

As is unremarkably the case, the Evo's trigger is the standard "meh" trigger you'll get on nearly factory AR-xv rifles. Information technology'due south a bit squishy and not really conducive to shooting tight groups. Again, that's par for the course for run-and-gun rifles. For most higher level shooters, the very first matter they'll want to do is slap their trigger of option in there. So while it'south not actually a major concern for those with more feel, we test guns in their "stock" configuration and the trigger is office of that.

The burglarize (initially the 14.5″ with a pinned and welded flash hider) works as advertised, merely at that place was one variable left to test: accurateness. And that proved to be a bit of a sticking point.

This isn't adept. I shot this at the standard 100-yard distance using a bipod, sandbags, and the aforementioned scope I had merely used to exam a Ruger SR-762, so I was pretty sure that I wasn't the cause of the inaccuracy. And while the horizontal variation in the bullet impacts isn't very much, that's near a 3-inch spread vertically. It looked to me like there was a problem with the gas system causing the shots to wander. Naturally my first call was to the guys at Adams Arms, letting them know about the trouble, and once I shipped back the 14.5″ gun they shipped me out a new 16″ burglarize

Equally this was a new gun, I had to commencement from scratch. Some malfunction testing, a little light torture and a few hundred rounds later on I was satisfied that the rifle performed besides as the previous 1 in the basic battery of tests. The only question left to answer was whether the burglarize performed better than its predecessor.

Using some 77gr "match" grade rounds (Federal Premium in this instance) I was able to go this roughly 2 MoA group out of the gun at 100 yards using the verbal aforementioned scope and setup as before. Only to test the barrel, I tried the upper on my competition lower receiver (with a Geissele trigger) and I was able to get right effectually a one-inch group. But since that was with a dissimilar lower, it doesn't really count.

So the Evo'southward accuracy was par for the course for a "gunfighter" rifle, but it's good to know that you tin can significantly improve it just by swapping out the trigger.

The Adams Arms rifle is skilful, but it has a lot of potential being wasted in the electric current configuration. A more adjustable gas block, a better trigger and probably a better stock, too would put this gun into the running to be one of the meliorate guns I've tested recently. And – what do you know? – they released a gun at the SHOT Testify that fixes exactly those issues. So if yous want a proficient gun to "run and gun" and mayhap upgrade later, this is a pretty expert investment. But with the 3-Gun version correct around the corner I'd wait for that instead.

Specifications:

Caliber: 5.56 NATO
Barrel Length: 16 inches, 14.5 inches (pinned & welded)
Weight: 7 lbs (sixteen″), 6.9 lbs (14.five″)
Capacity:Ships with one Magpul 30-round magazine
MSRP: $one,690 ($1,360 street)

Ratings (Out of Five Stars):
All ratings are relative compared to the other weapons in the gun's category. Overall rating is not mathematically derived from the previous component ratings and encompasses all aspects of the firearm including those not discussed.

Accurateness: * * * *
The gun is capable of much better accuracy if yous swap out the trigger, but as-is, it's not bad.

Ergonomics: * * * *
The gun fits me very well and everything on it works great. If I could nit-selection I'd put a bigger latch on the charging handle, and the exposed gas block can give you a rude surprise if yous're being too aggressive in your grip.

Ergonomics Firing: * * *
Information technology might but be me, only information technology feels snappier than a normal AR-15. And that trigger is only meh.

Ease of Maintenance: * * * * *
The gas organization keeps the gun clean, and among the piston systems I've seen this one is amidst the easiest to disassemble and re-assemble. Works like a amuse.

Reliability: * * * *
The gun runs 100% perfectly every fourth dimension. I'g removing i star due to the accuracy issues on the starting time gun, since there might be some additional variation in the quality that I'm not seeing. Only if your gun doesn't piece of work right, the guys at Adams Arms seem to exist more than happy to work with y'all to make it right.

Customization: * * * *
The only difference between this gun and the standard AR-15 is the gas organisation. Everything else is interchangeable, except the bolt carrier group.

Overall Rating: * * * *
It'south a great offset, but the gun is capable of much better things than the current configuration allows. Based on features lone the gun would exist near a iii.5, but since the rifle'southward MSRP is well below the asking price of other common piston-powered AR-15s such as the Ruger SR-556 (and the street price is even improve) it gets knocked upwardly a half star. But slap a better trigger in at that place and perhaps a ameliorate charging handle and nosotros'll encounter near giving it a meliorate rating.

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Source: https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/gun-review-adams-arms-tactical-evo-rifle/

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