to make a long story short, while i have been looking into a new 45 can, people keep talking about the obsidian piston being non-slotted which helps reduce blowback. but looking at pictures online between the 2 (supposed to be interchangeable), they look the same. what am i missing and/or not seeing?

EDIT TO ADD:
i currently have an osprey 45 and an octane9. i wouldn't mind staying with the silencerco brand because i have a bunch of pistons to swap out between calibers and thread pitches, which makes it easier on me to stay with commonality. wanna shoot the osprey45 on a 13.5LH? sure! wanna shoot it .5x28? sure! wanna shoot it 16LH? sure! etc, etc, etc, get the idea? i would hate to have to buy all new pistons for a new can. from what i have seen, the silencerco piston will work with the obsidian, but unsure of the reverse. it was stated in a post or 2 on another forum that i cannot think of because i have read quite a few forums and posts regarding the 2. and if you use the silencerco pistons in the obsidian, will you get the usual blowback associated with the octane?

so...to make my long story short long, what are people talking about with the non/slotted piston?

The slot

the slot on the pic or the slot in your avatar? lol

so the slot on the silencerco piston is the slot for the osprey spring retainer/indexing ring?

All this talk about "blow back" from those slots is pure bs. I have an octane 45 and I can tell you, no matter which platform I'm shooting on be it Glock 9MM or H&K 45 there is no perceivable blow back through those slots. There is however gas which escapes the slide as it ejects and chambers a new round. No piston design will stop that.

How do you know it's not caused by the slot?
I find the claim dubious but your analysis is not on target.

How is my analysis not "on target". That's one of the silliest things I've ever heard. My statement was "no perceivable blow back through those slots"

I know that there is no perceivable blowback because in all the houndreds and hundreds of rounds that I've shot, I've never perceived any blowback. My own experience is all the evidence that I need to support a claim related to my own perception.

I'm not saying that there is no blowback. I'm saying that if it exists, I don't detect it in the least and It sure as hell wouldn't factor into my purchase decision.

Aaron wrote:How is my analysis not "on target". That's one of the silliest things I've ever heard. My statement was "no perceivable blow back through those slots"

I know that there is no perceivable blowback because in all the houndreds and hundreds of rounds that I've shot, I've never perceived any blowback. My own experience is all the evidence that I need to support a claim related to my own perception.

I'm not saying that there is no blowback. I'm saying that if it exists, I don't detect it in the least and It sure as hell wouldn't factor into my purchase decision.

Compared to what?

No perceivable blowback from where, the slots?

You can tell that the blowback you are experiencing isn't coming from the slots?

How did you test this? Did you put your finger near the slots and didn't perceive any blowback?

Let's put this another way: you made a conclusory statement without any evidence to support your supposition.

According to a member of the design team for the osprey:

As a member of the design team for the Osprey, I can confirm that the slots in the piston were indeed added for a reason and that's for orientation of the can. You really could have saved yourself some time and money and not copied that feature. And yes, they absolutely do increase blow-back.

https://www.ar15.com/mobile/topic.html? ... 003&page=4

I was the one who brought up the topic in the Silencerco section: viewtopic.php?f=127&t=136591

Perhaps I shouldn't have used the term "blowback" since everyone associates that as gas in the face.

But gunk does come out through those slots, especially if you're running wet. So it's a fact that gasses are coming out also.
The piston housing O-ring does not seal off those 3 slots.

Well I didn't see how those slots could possibly contribute to blowback through the barrel / chamber.

You're explanation explains why there may be more residual gas exiting near the muzzle area-- but I'd surmise that would actually "lessen" chamber blowback since some of the pressure is released forward of the muzzle. Reasonable?

Yea the residual gas from the slots are external to the system. Not part of the traditional barrel/chamber blowback.

I was just bitching about always having to wipe down the front of the slide/barrel/piston after using my Octane.

I believe it lessens overall backpressure during cycling.
Which is not a good thing actually. I've experienced lockback failures every now and then on stock Glocks.

LawBob wrote:

Aaron wrote:How is my analysis not "on target". That's one of the silliest things I've ever heard. My statement was "no perceivable blow back through those slots"

I know that there is no perceivable blowback because in all the houndreds and hundreds of rounds that I've shot, I've never perceived any blowback. My own experience is all the evidence that I need to support a claim related to my own perception.

I'm not saying that there is no blowback. I'm saying that if it exists, I don't detect it in the least and It sure as hell wouldn't factor into my purchase decision.

Compared to what?

No perceivable blowback from where, the slots?

You can tell that the blowback you are experiencing isn't coming from the slots?

How did you test this? Did you put your finger near the slots and didn't perceive any blowback?

Let's put this another way: you made a conclusory statement without any evidence to support your supposition.

1) Yes, from the slots. I think that's clear based on the fact that I said "through those slots" twice.

2) The only gasses that I perceive escaping are coming from the chamber as it opens. That's mostly a matter of seeing gas escape though the open chamber between shots.

3) No, I did not put my finger near the slots, why the hell would I? I'm never going to shoot like that anyway so what would be the point?

4) I don't need any evidence to support my claim. I am commenting on my own perception. I can comment on that all that I want without a ton of empirical evidence.

I have never claimed that nothing exits those slots. I am only claiming that in my experience, if something is there it is undetectable to me through the course of normal shooting.

If you don't believe me, your welcome to come see me and we can go to an indoor range and spend all day trying to detect and measure escaping gasses. I'll even split the cost of the ammo with you because, why the hell not? I use any excuse to go shooting. But in the end, no matter what we discover it wont make a lick of difference because the only thing that matters is what is perceived by the shooter.

My point is even if there is gas escaping (which I've never said there is not), what difference does it make if you do not notice it while you are shooting?