Lefties and gas in the face

[spinmove_]

So, I’m right handed, but left eye dominant. As such, I shoot all long guns left handed. It works pretty well for me up until I go to shoot an AR. Then I eat clouds of gas with my eyes. Is there anything I can do to mitigate that at all or do I just have to deal with it as a price for being “wrong eyed”?


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[Nate Osborne]

Is this happening with multiple rifles, or a single gun? If one, what are the specs? Suppressed?

I'm also a lefty, and I have not noticed significant gas to the face unless I was shooting suppressed on a gun that was already overgassed. With the proper gas port sizes, etc. even a suppressed gun is not bad at all.

 

[spinmove_]

So, admittedly I haven’t really shot what would normally be considered “high quality rifles”, so it makes sense that this might be part of it now that I think of it.

It’s at least a couple guns. One would be my friend’s M&P15. Another would be a gun I cobbled together which is a Spikes lower that I put together and a PSA completed upper that I bought before I really knew better. Neither supporessed. Both 16” guns.


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[Nate Osborne]

I have never pin gauged a S&W barrel, but I have to plenty of PSA barrels, and they generally have massive gas ports (likely to prevent CS complaints from people who shoot either steel-cased ammo, low quality factory reman ammo, or their own lower pressure reloads). For one example, I had a 20" barrel from PSA chopped to 16" to build a dissipator-style upper. The gas port needed no opening and was actually still a bit overgassed even after taking 4" of barrel off. The easy answer is to at least replace the barrel, if not the entire upper or gun. If you don't/can't do that right now, some people have used heavier buffers as a bandaid, but is not really a solution to the problem. Another fix would be either the gas block inserts (cheaper but more time to install) or the gas tubes (more $$ but easier to replace) from Black River Tactical. You pick a gas size based on the barrel length, gas system, ammo, and suppressed/unsuppressed shooting. Both options offer a non-adjustable, permanent reduction in gas flow and will likely eliminate or at least greatly reduce your gas to the face problem.

The problem with adding buffer/inserts/etc. is you are adding money into a lower quality gun. At a certain point you are better off just selling what you have for what you can get out of it and starting over. If you are looking into the replacing solution, feel free to either PM me or just post here and I'm sure me or someone like Will Larsen could point you to several good options.

 

[spinmove_]

Given the PSA completed upper has few rounds through it total and the lower SEEMS to be of decent quality, I’m tempted to eventually get a new upper (BCM, SOLGW) and drive on. It’s still wearing only the stock Magpul plastic BUIS that it came with so it’s not like I’ve entirely poured a ton of cash into this thing.

Just going to be interesting to see what I can get out of it. I’ve got two “poor man’s stripped ponies” (Anderson lowers) that could go with them to a nice home to fund it.

It’s not a burning problem as of right now, but it’ll need to be done at some point and probably wouldn’t be a bad idea before a Dem President gets elected in 2020 to strip some rights away.


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[Erick Gelhaus]

Like Nate, as a left hander, I'm not recalling getting blasted, etc with gas. That's off of using Mil issued Colts, DRMO rifles, and several higher end manfs offerings as well as assembled uppers. The exception to not getting gas has been suppressed platforms.

 

[Chipw]

Im a lefty. Suppressed, i get gas in the face on any DI gun. Sionix makes a dedicated suppressed upper that greatly reduces the gas, however. You could get the same result from installing an adjustable gas block and dialing the gas way down. The upper won't function reliably without the can though.
I have found the SCAR16 to be gas to the face free when running a can. Its awesome for a lefty, unfortunately i like shooting AR's better. I just deal with the gas. Breathing the lead is probably not very healthy but what ever, i guess.

Unsuppressed, ive never noticed a problem.

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[shoobe01]

Been following this with interest as it's weird. Gas face with suppressors is well known, and there are sealed charging handles, or the homegrown RTV trick to alleviate it.

The only non-symmetrical gasface I can think of is the Colt 9mm. The plastic block behind the ejector port is a gas break (I think that's the wrong word though), because it's a straight blowback and lefties in service were getting pelted with gas from the ejector port.

But I hope a 5.56 gun doesn't have enough residual pressure to be noticable to the lefty; when I do weak-shoulder drills, I have never noticed it on anything I've shot.

Think we need Sully in here to see if he's run into anything. How do you tag people in this forum anyway?

 

[Yondering]

I was thinking about this one as well; I'm not a lefty but I do train with my ARs from both sides. I don't notice any gas in my face when shooting my rifles left handed, but I think there are two main reasons for that.

- Gas system tuning as mentioned above. Adjustable gas blocks or other methods of gas restriction are your friend here; besides reducing gas in the face, tuning the rifle correctly makes it run smoother and parts last longer, and you may even see accuracy improvement if it was severely overgassed.

- Shooter position, i.e. bladed or squared up behind the rifle. You guys experiencing gas face when shooting left handed, are you bladed at an angle to the gun, or are you squared up with the rifle pointing directly straight forward? (What I mean by squared up is like a modern pistol shooting stance, where you could fire the rifle straight ahead from either shoulder without moving body position.) If you're bladed with the rifle angling towards the right across your body, that puts the ejection port a lot closer to your face, increasing any potential gas issues.

Thoughts?

 

[dirtpro06]

Left handed, neither of my AR's have given me any issues - s&W M&P mid 16" and a cheap 12.5" pistol - thinking it's a PSA. Neither are suppressed or have fancy breaks, just simple non adjustable low profile gas blocks, stock BCGs etc. I have noticed slight variation between mine and others' platforms but nothing that would interfere with running the rifle or create a flinch. Only rifle I've had that issue with was a tavor in right handed mode because it ejected the brass into my face lol. I shoot squared up, not bladed but have still not noticed any issues when walking forward and engaging targets on my right side (closest thing I can think of to blading that would bring the reciever closer to my face). Hope that helps

 

[Sunshine_Shooter]

@spinmove_ I'm right handed and left-eye dominate as well. My AR is a Stag Arms left-side ejecting model. It's a 16" carbine gas system that probably overgassed, but I'm in the process of changing barrels and building another upper. I wish that Stag had a better reputation and/or that other companies made left-side ejecting uppers.