Strike Industries Enhanced Low Profile Steel Gas Block
Strike Industries has announced that their new enhanced low profile AR-15 gas block is now available for purchase. The company advertises this gas block to be a robust, lightweight and affordable product. Let’s take a closer look.
As in the case of many other Strike Industries products, they managed to combine the useful features with the attractive appearance. According to Strike industries:
The faceted design not only is cosmetically attractive, but the geometry adds strength where it is the most critical, while the skeletonized form factor saves weight.
Strike Industries enhanced gas block weighs 1.61 oz. It is made of steel and features a black nitride finish. Being a low profile one this gas block will fit inside the majority of free floated AR-15 handguards. The height of this gas block is 1.4″ and it is 1.18″ long. It is designed for standard AR-15 barrels that have .750 diameter at the gas block mounting portion. The installation is accomplished via two set screws located on the bottom portion of this gas block. The vertical line marking in front of the gas block is designed to aid its alignment to the proper vertical orientation. The manufacturer recommends using thread locking compound of the following properties:
Note: High temperature, medium strength thread-locking compound such as Flexbar Rocksett is recommended (not included).
Strike Industries Enhanced Steel Gas Block is available through the company’s website at an MSRP of $29.95. It comes with a gas tube roll pin and two set screws.
Strike Industries also has a similar but non-skeletonized gas block which they’ve been making for several years. I suspect the next product in Strike Industries gas block product line will be an adjustable one. Considering their out of the box approach to product designing, I expect this company to design a unique adjustment mechanism.
Images from www.strikeindustries.com
Managing Editor Being a lifelong firearms enthusiast, Hrachya always enjoys studying the history and design of guns and ammunition. Should you need to contact him, feel free to shoot him a message at Hrachya@TheFirearmBlog.com
More by Hrachya H
Comments
Join the conversation
Setscrew-retained gas blocks get a big thumbs-down from any honest armorer. Repeated, extreme heating/cooling cycles on what is literally the hottest part in the system will loosen any "sooper thread goop" you put on the locking screws. The slightest misalignment of the gas block will then result in a non-working rifle.
Pinned gas blocks are still the gold standard for reliability and meet mil-specs.
With the way prices are going for gas blocks AND suppressors, I can't imagine building a rifle (that has the option for one) without an adjustable gas block.
IMHO, they should be the de facto gas block for any hand-built gun, or gun that costs more than $1000.