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Posted: 9/18/2013 10:06:00 AM EDT
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I've heard conflicting statements on the effect of increasing the the weight of a buffer.
Some say a heavier buffer will help short stroking while others say a light buffer will help. It makes sense ithat heavier will slow down the action. Does this also allow greater pressure to build against the gas key pushing the carrier back further? Or, does it just create greater mass for the carrier to overcome and cause short stroking? |
| First you have to determine if your rifle is indeed short stroking. Check the gas key to make sure it is tight. If there is not an issue with the gas system preventing good gas flow, go on to other troubleshooting. Your rifle could also be overgassed and the bolt carrier group cycles faster than the magazine can produce the next round. I that case a heavier buffer will slow things down a bit. Also, if your rifle is having a hard time extracting fired casings, the heavier buffer will slow the action down enough to help some as well. A heavier buffer just slows down the bolt group. depending on your specific issue, a heavier buffer can indeed solve your problem. If you are truly short stroking, a heavier buffer likely will just make matters worse, it just depends on the cause of the short stroke. A good clean and lube is in order before troubleshooting anything! (if you haven't do so already) |
| As stated clean really well and see what's going on. If you get into trying different buffers and since you already have a standard buffer I would suggest this: Purchase a H3 buffer, open up your H3 and your standard, swap one weight between the two. The H3 comes with 3 tungsten weights, and the standard comes with 3 steel weights. By swapping 1 in each you have just built an H buffer and a H2 buffer. Then you could always swap back to get your original H3. |
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Quoted:
As stated clean really well and see what's going on. If you get into trying different buffers and since you already have a standard buffer I would suggest this: Purchase a H3 buffer, open up your H3 and your standard, swap one weight between the two. The H3 comes with 3 tungsten weights, and the standard comes with 3 steel weights. By swapping 1 in each you have just built an H buffer and a H2 buffer. Then you could always swap back to get your original H3. Haven't been able to do this without destroying the plastic bumper. Is there a trick yo removing it? |
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Quoted:
Haven't been able to do this without destroying the plastic bumper. Is there a trick yo removing it? This may be the problem is you have a plastic bumper on the buffer that has been glued in. The standard buffer bumper is made out of a more rubber type material, and is retained in the buffer tube via the slot cross pin alone. Once the cross pin has been driven out, then you should be able to pull the bumper, and drop out the insert shim pack. |
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As for back to begin,
Short stroking can be cause by not enough gas to cycle the action correctly. In causes like this, it could be due to too heavy of the a buffer being used, such as a H-3 when a standard buffer is needed instead. Or, Too much gas going to B/C, and since the bore pressure has not dropped down far enough for the spent case to be extracted cleanly as the bolt is being driven back too soon, too much force is lost on trying to pull the pressure bound spent case out of the chamber. In causes like this, could be that heavy bullet ammo is being used, while uses a slower burning powder that put the pike of the burn closer to the gas port to increase gas port pressure, and installing a heaver buffer will slow the unlock back down to normal speeds; to allow the barrel bore pressure to drop to the correct levels before the bolt goes to unlock to cleanly pull the spent case out of the chamber. |
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I had to use a bit of penetrating oil and a big wrench to get the bumpers out. I was afraid I was going to mar the bumper with the wrench but I hardly made a scratch.
Here is the donor H3, now an H2 
Here is a carbine buffer turned H1 
And a regular carbine buffer 
Now I'm off to test things out to see what I should convert my other buffers to. ETA - This is a good place to source buffer bumpers - http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/197440A.htm |
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