Choosing the right AR Buffers & springs

Personally, I like “normal” buffer springs, with all the other moving components light (without getting into those hideous skeletonized hyperfenestrated doodads).

An adjustable gas block can address most of the other issues presented by the different - weighted parts...

H for the carbine, leave the 20” alone, and H2s for the short ones. Grab a few Sprinco Blues or try a flat wire spring from Tubb or Strike Industries. If you’re still in the build process, then an AGB makes great sense.

Likely you could use them for all, though I might stick to standard for the rifle length.

Does your 20 inch have a collapsible stock?

For the 16 inch I'd look at a H or H2. They are unlikely to negatively affect your reliability and likely will increase it.

For 223 Rem/5.56 NATO AR-15's, it should be fairly easy to pick the correct buffer and recoil spring. There has been lots of history that points to the correct ones to use.

When moving to other cartridges not main steam to the AR-15, there may be some "adjustments" that are required.

I've built two long barreled 204 Ruger AR-15's. It ended up that both were over gassed and the bolt would move too fast for the magazine spring to put the next cartridge in position for correct position for chambering. While an adjustable gas block could have corrected the problem, I made a heavy weight buffer to reduce the speed of the bolt under firing. Since the rifles were built, it was easier change to make than rebuilding the rifle in the gas block area. With the heavy buffer, the rifles have perform flawlessly on the prairie dog fields.

I have an AR-15 chambered in 22x6.8SPC with an adjustable gas block. Fiddling with the gas block is kind of pain in my opinion. I'll get it dialed in eventually but the project is low on the priority list at present.

I use H2’s in all of my personal AR’s. From 26” down to 7”, 204 Ruger to 458 Socom. Standard carbine springs. I do use AGB’s in almost all of them as well, but the two are not terribly dependent.

JMHO but if your not shooting full auto then heavier than normal buffers are almost always a bandaid to an over gassed gun. I use standard buffers in all my guns from 5-in to 22-inch, 300 BO subs to 450 BM. Standard springs too. The heavy buffers where primarily brought along to help deal with bolt bounce in high cyclic rate full auto guns.

For my normal 16" builds I use a combination of H buffers and standard springs combined with an AGB (SLR) and full auto BCG. IMHO the AGB negates the need for the H2. For a HD gun build I'd probably go with the standard spring, and H2 buffer and standard gas block. It's a combination that works and there's no need to mitigate recoil.

My 3Gun carbine has a LW adjustable buffer, LW BCG, LW spring, AGB and one hell of a muzzle brake.

Built a 16" 6.8 SPC with A1 stock, rifle buffer and tube. Ran like a champ. Converted to a carbine adjustable with buffer and spring and immediately had major malfunctions. Worked with it for quite a while and decided that bolt carrier speed was too high. About every other round the carrier would cycle, not eject the empty, then jam it against the new round trying to double feed it.

Added tungsten to make the buffer H3 and it immediately stopped and runs like a champ. It's pretty hard to screw up an action with too heavy a buffer, but most actions will go wrong with too light. CRANE specifies up to H4 on the 10.5" shipboarding models. High cyclic speeds don't let the mag column ride up in time to get a round stripped and it's been an issue since the M4gery days - 16" carbine gas is not the correct dwell and length. You measure gas port about 5" back from the muzzle, NOT from the chamber. This is why midlength for 16" became the civilian spec - it was never military - and it's what works on that length barrel.

If the goal is to tune to elminate recoil and approve second shot accuracy keep in mind you are finessing a combat design with no adjustability. It was originally meant for full power NATO ammo, from a fixed port, under specific conditions of use. It's not a Chinese menu of one from Column A and two from B, each change has both positive and negative attributes. You don't change something specific, you move a window of dynamic operation toward or away from a specific goal and hopefully it doesn't move to far and introduce a completely new area of negative response. Like I find out.

My 6.8 has returned to the favorite deer gun as it's now back to doing what it should, not jamming me up every other round. All I intended was to put a different "cool kid" stock on it. Carbine vs Rifle is a major difference and changing buffer weights can be critical.

Change one, 1, thing at a time, more than one item and the layers of complication trying to sort our what you did get exponenientially frustrating. I would ignore spring changes until you are absolutely sure the buffer weight change has succeeded. With a tungsten weight kit you aren't out $45 a buffer every time you want to change something. And most of the informed users are competing in 3Gun, not plinkers or hunters. Those specialty forums are where most of the "low recoil" users are at. In reality, a stock M16A1 held to your chin won't break your jaw - it was how the M16 was demonstrated to new soldiers in 1968. And AR15 is already low recoil intentionally as an improvement in combat marksmanship. Anyone who disagrees should fire a course of 500 rounds of .308 his next trip to the range. I see people blow away that much 5.56 and don't even break a sweat.

TacticalSpeed said:

I have a complete upper on the way

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Where from? After a long wait I just got this barrel twenty minutes ago. I still have one on order from Beyer.

TacticalSpeed said:

From BCA.

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Dang, lucky! I’ve been looking and waiting to pounce there and at a few other places that deal in rimfire.
You must have the shine on you.