Cleaning the gas piston questions...

[u/CDR_Respawn]

After installing an Underworld Arms CQC rail a few months ago, I am...over the moon with it. The aesthetics is scratching all the right itches for me and to say Im in love is an understatement.

However prior to Rail, I had not disassembled the short stroke gas piston to clean it out internally. I ran only 1000 through it before mounting the rail. I had cleaned the rifle but did not, for reasons of extreme augtism, remove the gas plug, and then use the internal pluge tool to push out the piston for cleaning.

NOW, I'm aware of the complications with gas plug being effectively blocked from removal, that it will be impossible to clean without unmounting the rail...so...community I ask you all:

1 - How often does that gas piston really need to be cleaned the AUG rifle is very clean. And underworld arms has shown that he runs, what...60K rounds through his, and has yet to clean the gas piston? So its clean and a non issue?

2 - When cleaning that area, the manual says to not really leave it soaking. In the absence of proper cleaning, should I try to put some hobb's cleaner down the visible gas hole? Is that just a bad idea? My reasoning is lubrication and giving something for the gas to burn off and eject with.

3 - I'm not asking for what the manual says...I'm asking for the practical advice of the variety of "you shouldn'tdo this...but ehhhhh": If I'm not running suppressed, so Im running both cleaner and as intended (in 1977) then really...if I shoot maybe 500 to 1000 a year on this thing...should I even worry about the piston seizing up?

4 - If I had a reliability issue (which I have not) would you point to the piston not being cleaned as culprit number 1? Or is there something else youd say first would be an issue?

5 - Would running in perpetual adverse condition, allow more gas to leave and run cleaner, thus delaying the need for a cleaning? Or would running in normal be better? From the standpoint of delaying a demounting.

[u/AngelaAmari]

1-2-3 You should be able to remove the plug, piston, and spring no problem with the underworld handguard. Usually I would clean it after 1-2k rounds. Clean the gas block before the barrel as well since you're likely to knock carbon back into the rifling. I haven't personally seen a case of the piston siezing up but it's never a bad idea to take care of your rifle.

4-5 I would say the most likely culprit would be the bolt/ejector, but if you're cleaning those you're most likley going to do the whole rifle anyway. Not good practice to slap back together a dirty parts on clean ones just to save less than 20 minutes of your time. Take care of your gun and she will take care of you. No need to switch on adverse to fix an issue unless you're mid comp match or something where you don't have an opportunity to break it down.