Buffer Damage > Troubleshooting

Posted: 4/24/2006 11:55:43 AM EDT

While cleaning my wife's Bushmaster M4 yesterday, I noticed some very bad wear on the buffer. This rifle has about 4k rounds through it. I haven't cleaned it in quite a while as the wife was has been doing it after shooting.

And the carrier

Carrier may have a very small burr, but could it have caused this much damage. And should I replace the buffer and file off the burr?

Posted: 4/24/2006 12:05:04 PM EDT

[#1]

I would definitely smooth the tail of the bolt carrier and possibly replace the buffer and use the chewed up one as a spare. If it were mine I would take some fine sandpaper or a fine stone and clean up the sharp edges on the tail of the carrier.

Posted: 4/24/2006 12:35:00 PM EDT

[#2]

Yup, your buffer was not dehorned by the folks who made it (shame on them). A fine tooth file/fine stone and some emery cloth should take care of the offending areas around the bottom of the carrier (you can see the aluminum on them). You can lightly emery cloth the face of the buffer and then use it for another 20,000 rounds or so. The metal is thick where the scratches are so think of it as csmetic only and of no significance. I have seen buffers running with a groove almost 1/2 the thickness of the buffer head!

Posted: 4/24/2006 12:49:35 PM EDT

[#3]

Most of my buffers look like that. No need to replace. Did you drop your bolt carrier?

Posted: 4/24/2006 12:56:37 PM EDT

[#4]

Thanks guys, I was surprised by the amount of damage. The burr seems so small.

Posted: 4/28/2006 11:54:54 PM EDT

[#5]

Took my AR out for the first time today and my buffer looks just like yours. It's not scored badly, so i'm not going to worry about it. They're cheap enough anyways. I have the same verticle marks because us Cali folk have to break it open more than normal to load it up do to fixing our mags.

Posted: 4/29/2006 2:08:14 PM EDT

[#6]

Clean the back of the carrier up (read remove the burs). Sooner or later, all the crap being scraped off the face of the buffer is just going to build up in the lower or receiver extension; leading to problems down the line.

Posted: 4/29/2006 3:09:02 PM EDT

[#7]

Yep! I had the same thing happen to the buffer in my new Bushmaster. It worried me a bit so I called up Bushmaster and they said to look for a burr on the back of the carrier. I took it out and sure enough there was a small burr on it right where your's appears to be. I took a rat tailed file to it and replaced the buffer and problem solved.

Posted: 4/29/2006 5:37:31 PM EDT

[#8]

Funny...found a burr on mine also. I still don't see any suffice to replace the buffer if the burrs aren't all that deep. My buffer looks exactly like the picture up top.

Posted: 4/29/2006 9:30:13 PM EDT

[#9]

I don't think I will replace the buffer, just remove the small burr on the back of the carrier.

Posted: 5/2/2006 4:28:30 PM EDT

[#10]

I saw an add a while back that sold buffer pads that sticks to the face of the buffer and stops wear on it like this , don't know where I saw them right now but would probably prevent wear.

Posted: 5/6/2006 1:41:55 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
I saw an add a while back that sold buffer pads that sticks to the face of the buffer and stops wear on it like this , don't know where I saw them right now but would probably prevent wear.

Hmmm. I wonder how long it would stick on there ? If you get one, share your results. I'm thinking it's a fix for a non-problem.

Posted: 5/6/2006 2:13:16 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
Quoted:
I saw an add a while back that sold buffer pads that sticks to the face of the buffer and stops wear on it like this , don't know where I saw them right now but would probably prevent wear.

Hmmm. I wonder how long it would stick on there ? If you get one, share your results. I'm thinking it's a fix for a non-problem.

Brownells has them... I have put them on each of my three buffers. No problems yet, but I don't do enough shooting.

No Expert

Posted: 5/6/2006 4:28:06 PM EDT

[#13]

Oh, I'm not too worried about the wear on the buffer. I was just surprised at the amount of damage on this one compared to my others. So I decided to post and see if it was okay. I'm going to remove the small burr and keep shooting it, patina is a sign of use, no safe queen here.

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