MacCool

AFAIK, mixed reviews. It's a pretty well-designed rifle, some components designed from the ground up for gas piston, but others conventional DI. They are prone to carrier tilt, like most piston guns, and that does cause more wear on the buffer/tube. Of more concern would be the reports of malfunctions in various positions. I keep hearing of failure to feed, for example, when the gun rests on the magazine butt (as in prone shooting). Also, failure to eject in rollover prone. My general impression, never having fired one, is that they're "OK" as far as piston guns go. At that price, if I were going to buy a piston gun I would definitely go with a Huldra. That gun is made for that private label by Adams Arms. Huldra did mandate several modifications and upgrades. They put over 4000 rounds of 5.45 through one of their rifles without any cleaning nor any lube...no maintenance of any kind..without any malfunctions. They used 5.45 because they had a large stock of cheap surplus ammo.

The problem I have with piston guns is largely that you're paying about an extra $400 for the gas system, but certainly aren't getting $400 worth of advantage over a DI...some would say no advantage.

It's hard to separate fact from rumor when it comes to Ruger, and this is probably more true in the AR15 crowd. People that shoot those rifles have a little more of a tendency to be rabid Second Amendment fans and those folks have a tendency to believe that Bill Ruger tried to sell them down the river to Congress in order to keep the Mini-14 out of the Assault Weapons Ban. I always take Ruger criticisms with a grain of salt.