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Quote History Ideally, you would want to have the position of the smallest hole co-axially aligned with the center axis of the largest hole...BUT, functionally I have a hard time seeing that it would matter too much as long as the the smallest hole is within the circumference of the larger. The overlap area is still the same amount of area, it's position is just not true to the theoretical datum axis that we would like to have both features line up with.
In the end, the flow should be the same, though the dynamics might be just a bit different, the amount of area we are talking about is so small compared to the volume of gas, that I can hardly see that making a difference.
HOWEVER....if the gas block is set BACK toward the carrier, then the gas tube has set back by
that distance, and, in my case it was by a LOT. Remember, I was using a NON-standard gas tube pattern and matching block by Wilson Combat I have a feeling that if I had used a Wilson Combat barrel, I would have had no alignment issues to begin with and would not have milled the block to line up the holes. Nearly 40 thousandths is what I removed from the back of the block to get the positional alignment....which, no matter what I did, left me with an impingement upon the carrier key which was visibly discernible at the correct angle. So, let's say you have a small amount of impingement. My experience shows that you can re-radius the ball at the end of the gas tube ( the part that goes into the key ) by OVER 20 thousandths and, if you radius it correctly and shape the lead angle, you still have a system that will function....but if you have
any impingement that puts any amount of undo force on the gas tube it WILL affect cold shots AND groups as you have seen in my pictures.
I have more on this entire concept but I don't want to unduly hi-jac the OP's thread.
OP, forgive me for the hi-jack but DO read what Ranger and I are discussing because if you or your friends are into building AR-15 and AR-10 precision platforms, weird stuff like this comes up.
Ranger....we should start some kind of barrel "system" type thread where we get itno EVERYTHING about installing barrels nd blocks and the issues we have had. It would be a great thread. What do you think?