I'm looking at the Accurate Armory LE Light Midlength, and am wondering if the Vltor A5 will be too much buffer assembly for that gas system.  Who has run the A5 on their middy and will Federal 55gr .223 be enough to cycle the reciprocating assembly or should I stick with a CAR or H buffer?

It will be run with a Troy Vtac 11 over the factory FSB becoming a low profile gas block, and a YHM 556 QD brake for the 762 Titanium suppressor I'm about to Form 4. I might have the gun before I get the can, but not really rushing toward currently.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

What's the barrel length ?

I run a 20" rifle length system with the A5 and wolf ammo so you should be fine

16" barrel––-Thanks SS.

A 20" rifle with a fixed stock provides the gold standard as far as reliability is concerned.  
And a 20" rifle with a collapsible A5 may well be a very close second.

But neither of those two necessarily translate directly to how well other / various barrel length & gas system combinations will perform.

That said, a 16" midlength is an outstanding combination, and (as long as it's a quality upper) will most likely run quite well with an A5 on it.

The answer is. . . it depends.  Your gas port size will be a big factor in how it cycles (in addition to gas flow / alignment at the block, tube and at the carrier).  This varies from barrel mfg to mfg in my experience with mid-lengths (16 and 14.5 that I have experience with).  If you like the concept of the A5, you may need to tune your buffer weights for proper cycling with lower power ammo.  This is pretty easy to do and will require an extra standard carbine buffer to use for parts (lowering weights in your A5 buffer and increasing until you get to the reliability point).  I've seen barrels from the same mfg have a variance in how reliable the lower pressure ammo functioned in their AR's. If you go this route, below are some reference points using a postal scale:

A5 Buffer:  5.3oz  (2 steel + 2 tungsten)
A5 Mod1: 4.5 oz(3 steel + 1 tungsten)
A5 Mod2: 3.6 oz  (4 steel)

As a reference:
ST-T2 from spikes (Carbine):  3.9 oz
Carbine (standard): 2.9 oz(3 steel)

My 16 mid length (BCM) likes the Mod 1 above, it has proved to be a good balance between managed recoil & consistent reliability with Silver Bear ammo (on the low end).  Others that post here, and other sites, have BCM mids that function fine with a standard A5 weight, so your mileage may vary. With all of the above said, if you shoot 5.56 ammo, it should work fine out of the box, everything above is about tuning for lower power stuff.   Good luck.

There is no difference between the weight, spring weight or cycling of the A5 and a rifle buffer. It's as reliable as a rifle buffer system.

That's basically been my understanding of the A5 system.  

Very comparable, if not equal to, a rifle buffer.

However, I've not used one personally (though I'd like to ) and didn't want to stretch the truth in any way.

But for someone to flatly suggest that "it should be fine", on a setup with a given gas system ... but with no knowledge of the bbl length ... as was mentioned above, doesn't make much sense.

Vltor took the spacer off the Rifle buffer, measured it and took that off the rifle buffer tube and mad it collapsable, it ven uses the A2 spring.

So its actually the same thing as a rifle stock.

That aside i have used a 14.5" M4 upper on the A5 and it worked good with wolf

That's great.

And I'm genuinely glad that Vltor created the A5 system.  Really, I am.

But, you missed the point ...

... again.

Ok, if a 14.5" carbine and a 20" rifle can run on crappy underpowered wolf ammo why cant a 16" middy run on AE.223?

R.I.F.


I didn't say that it couldn't ... just the opposite.

In fact, what I actually DID say was that that particular combination of 16"/mid/A5 should work quite well.

Whole lot of bickering going on here...

I have a black whole weaponry 16" middy barrel, been running the a5 on it for a while now with no issues. Shoots all ammo great, even silver bear.  You milage may varry.

I hear the only rifles that have had a problem with the A5 tube are 14.5" middy's. Don't have a source though, read it a couple months ago.

It will work.

14.5's have had the most challenges with the A5.  

@LMTrocks, I'd recommend you call VLTOR directly, they can fill you in on their recommendations for the A5 for your rifle configuration.  They've helped me in the past when the A5 first came out. They are knowledgeable and very straight forward on the best config / supported configs for their A5.

Thanks everybody on their useful replies. The same question was posted on another forum and it has had less than a third of the responses. It will not be a 14.5" gun for sure since I do not like pinned muzzle devices and won't be running this as a SBR upper.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile