short stroke piston vs. DI

[uncle money bags]

You should be able to accurately shoot anything from 69 gr. on down from a 1-9 twist gun. POI will change will be insignificant based on bullet weight alone out to 200-250 yards. Beyond that you may find the heavier projos better suited to buck the wind.
As always, each individual gun will have its own characteristics so ymmv.

You will have to decide if you want a fragmenting or expanding type of bullet based on your anticipated threat. Better yet, some of both. With that in mind i keep mk262 and hand loaded 45 gr tsx rounds in mags ready to go. Why 45? Only because i could not find any 50-62 gr bullets at the time and i wanted as much velocity as possible for an sbr.

 

[aestus]

I don't have a lot of experience with the drop-in piston conversions. I know a few people who have had success with the Adams Arms kits and PWS system.

I personally own both piston and DI rifles. My piston rifle is an LWRC. The downside is that with an LWRC, you're pretty much paying boutique prices. It's basically paying for a Noveske rifle in price. LWRC's have all the "boutique" features like nickle boron BCG's, custom ACB bolt and extractor, Nitrided barrels, Polygonal rifling, spiral fluted barrels (on some models) and newer rifles have ambi mag releases / bolt releases, ect. The LWRC M6A2 SPR's are amazing shooting rifles and one of the lightest piston rifles available. I love the skinny, full length modular handguards. I'm considering selling off my older M6A3 for their newer SPR's.

A lot of the complaints about piston rifles being heavy are mainly from people who have only shot conversions or 1st gen piston rifles. If this is your first rifle, I would probably recommend that you buy the best DI rifle you can afford first. Mainly because you'll be able to fix/repair anything that breaks.