accuwedge?

Is this a serious-use gun, or a range toy?

If it is a serious-use gun (basically, a weapon), remove it. It will eventually come apart and when it does, pieces of it can fall into the trigger group and cause you some major probems. Murphy will ensure that this happens at a bad time.

If it is a range toy (something used to target shoot, plink, or for gun games), no problems. personally, as long as the slop between the uppe rand lower is not excessive, it should have almost no effect on accuracy. The front sight, rear sight, barrel and chamber are all on the upper unit. Movement between upper and lower will move them as a unit, and you can see if it has, because the sight picture will have changed.

I put them down as more of a gimmick as far as accuracy is conerned, but they do make the rifle "feel" better if it is a little loose, which some people like.

Mike

They do tighten it a bit, depending on how "loose" is 'loose' to begin with.
Is it worth the money?
Sure. Why not. For $6.50, you can't go wrong.

I also installed in my Bushmaster an Expandable Tensioning Pin for AR15 Type Rifles, from Bushmaster which is essentially a wedge-shaped two-piece collar that replaces the rear pin. You then tighten this down with an allen head wrench. It effectively snugs the upper to the lower and does a great job at that. Was it worth $36.95? I don't think so, as it is hanging in the original bag over my reloading bench where it isn't making the gun any tighter!
Pictures from this Bushmaster page

The downside is that it is a pain to assemble, then every time I need to disassemble my gun, it is a pain to disassemble, then to reassemble. I didn't really see any improvement in my groups of handloads I have for my gun that are the most accurate I could work up. For my purposes, i.e., anything 100 yards or less, the gun is just fine without the gimmicks. If you are placing an order somewhere anyway, go ahead and get the rubber wedge.

Another thing I did to make the gun sound a bit tighter is put a bit of Tetra (expensive) gun grease on the main spring located in the adjustible stock tube. I think that helped, as anything is better than nothing.

I notice the OP stated:

a friend recently installed one... with some fitting....

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I don't understand what "The Fitting" comment is all about!

There is NO FITTING this rubber piece! You just set it in the back bottom corner of the lower (just under and behind where the main rear pin goes) and then you have to press the upper to the lower a bit harder than before - in order to line up the upper and lower pin holes in order to get the rear pin back in place!

The rubber wedge effectively LIFTS UP on the rear of the upper just a tad to remove some looseness between upper and lower. When you press (SQUEEZE) hard to get the upper back tight to the lower, you are essentially squeezing this rubber wedge.

I have found that that wedge does, in time, get a bit looser than when it was new, as I found at first I really had to squeeze the upper to the lower to assemble the rear pin, now I don't need to squeeze them together nearly as hard. Not only that, but I am sure this rubber material has not been "tested" against every chemical and lube that people may put in their AR's which may eventually "eat," deteriorate, and/or harden the rubber wedge thereby reducing its effectiveness.

That brings up another point. I hadn't thought about the fact Mike brought up about the rubber eventually disintegrating and bits and pieces possibly getting caught in the trigger assembly! I do have a Drop-In Timney Trigger Assembly ($200) factory set at 3# with a crisp-clean break. In thinking about this, I think I am going to take that red rubber wedge out. I think it has lived its useful life expectancy.

I usually wonder at the need to parse each word or grammar on the part of some posters. Me, I see "fit" and I'm perfectly willing to read "put".

But in the case of these rubber doodads - sometimes they DO need fitting. When someone wants one I won't argue with them, but if their rifle has a decent fit already I might need to shave a little rubber off of the damned thingy so there's room above it to allow easy push of the pin. So I "fit" it.

Hope that doesn't throw you into another coniption fit, Inspector.

I attempted to put one in a friends gun I built for him, like I said ATTEMPTED. A Stag lower and Bushmaster upper were such a nice tight fit that it would not close enough to align the pin. It didn't need any tightening but he had purchased it so I tried. I don't think it would have helped accuracy as that little wiggle is built into every AR anyway. I guess it is just an oppinion thing on the solidarity of the rifle.

I use the AccuWedge on my .458 SOCOM and I am not worried in the least about any part of it migrating, disintegrating or somehow getting into the trigger group.

The odds of that happening are on par with me being struck by an asteroid when I go to the mailbox later today.

The AccuWedge is securely captured by the pin lug in two places (it's not going anywhere).

As concerns the notion it might “break down” over time, I can only offer the following:

CHECK IT! You are looking right at it every time you clean your weapon. IF it needs replacement….do so.

==================================

Yes, it can be argued whether or not the AccuWedge lends any accuracy to your rifle, but I can’t see how it could hurt. The real reason I use one is to avoid any battering that might occur in the pin holes of my lower.

My upper and lower actually fit pretty well to begin with, but have I seen some that had a considerable amount of slop. If you have “slop”, you have movement. If you have movement, you have wear.

Also, any movement between the upper and lower creates a “variable” (even if slight).

Of course, "variables" are what you want to eliminate if you are chasing after accuracy.

Just my thoughts on it.

Flint.

CHECK IT! You are looking right at it every time you clean your weapon. IF it needs replacement….do so.

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Totally agree !!! I have been useing Shok Buffs in all my 1911 style guns in action competitons for years --- NEVER had one fall apart and jam up my handguns. That said , I do replace them every 2000/5000 rds. -- at about $1.00 each , I can afford it !!!

Well, you guys talked me into leaving mine be.

Forget what the moderator said. I'm leaving mine in.

Koniption fit?

Not at all. The entire thread was about this little red rubber. I followed suit.

It got named wrong.

It surely takes up the slack in an AR that rattles. That's for sure.

But accuracy is solely in the upper receiver.
That's where the sights align with the chamber and bore.
The bullet leaves the muzzle before the bolt begins movement.
So fit between the receivers does not affect accuracy.

But if the rattle bugs the shooter so badly that he flinches constantly, a tighter fit will help him focus on his job.

ants said:

It surely takes up the slack in an AR that rattles. That's for sure.

But accuracy is solely in the upper receiver.
That's where the sights align with the chamber and bore.
The bullet leaves the muzzle before the bolt begins movement.
So fit between the receivers does not affect accuracy.

But if the rattle bugs the shooter so badly that he flinches constantly, a tighter fit will help him focus on his job.

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Good one!

The odds of that happening are on par with me being struck by an asteroid when I go to the mailbox later today.

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This just in: Man checking mail struck by space rock hurtling from sky.

Apparently there have been some asteroid strikes: http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=3409734&postcount=5

Ask someone who sees more rounds go downrange in a month than most of us will dream about shooting in a lifetime, a carbine course instructor. I won't claim to know what all of them think about wedges and buffers, but I have heard many of them say that such devices are bad ideas because they cause malfunctions, and I can't say that I can remember one endorsing such a device.

Your gun, your choice. Again, for a non-defensive gun, this is a non-issue.

Mike

Its not going in any of my AR's, range gun or otherwise. The chance of it happening, likely or not, are enough for me not to risk it. Murphy shows up when you don't want him to. We spend enough money and time mitigating the risk of our firearms failing. We clean them, lube them, inspect them, test fire them, buy better guns, and better parts. I'm not going to risk wasting this on a $6.50 novelty item...

If it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside using the wedge save your $6.50 and use a old foam earplug instead

I have one in my Century Arms refurbed A2 rifle. It came with one installed. The Del-Ton A2 carbine I bought new didn't have one, and is reasonably tight anyhow.

I took the 'Accu-Wedge' out of the Century gun, and it's a bit loose and rattely without it. Not too bad, but I liked it better with the wedge installed.

Fulton Armorey's info site on the AR rifles discusses the wedge to an extent. And state they install one in the match grade AR's they turn out.

So use one or not, believe they accurize the rifle or not, Fulton Armory believes they do help.

I can understand a Century build being a rattlebox but doesnt say much for Fulton does it? They recommend a accu wedge for their own NM built rifle?

Buy a Rock River, they fit tight without any little piece of plastic

I myself believe that the accuwedge is a gimmick but if someone wants to use it properly then let them go for it.

As far as it sticking in a trigger group in one training course that does not mean that these things are unreliable. You cannot convince me that every person going to a training course is a rifle expert and has his accuwedge perfectly installed before it moved to his trigger group. This reference did not say if the instructor checked every weapon before he allowed it on his course either, that should have been required.

One poorly referenced failure does not a product failure make.

Jeff White said:

The accuwedge is right up there with titanium firing pins and chromed but not phosphated bolts and carriers as useless gimmicks that people have developed to separate AR owners from their money.

No one has ever been able to show me where an accuwedge made any improvement in mechanical accuracy. I had one in one of my carbines for a while and I was unable to tell any difference between that carbine and an identical one I didn't have an accuwedge in. Shooting both from a sandbagged rest to take out as much human error as possible, they shot the same size group to the same point of aim with and without the accuwedge. You accuwedge users should try it sometime. Sandbag your rifle or carbine in and see how it shoots both with and without the accuwedge. I doubt you'll see any difference.

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I got the titanium firing pin and it marks the CCI 41 Mil-Spec primers just like the OEM firing pin.

Go figure.

I got the titanium firing pin and it marks the CCI 41 Mil-Spec primers just like the OEM firing pin.

Go figure.

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But it's lighter and thereby faster, you see, improving the lock time. You'll get more improvement from the "SuperTac Titactanium" firing pin that I'll be happy to sell to you Inspector live one.





fish on!!

the slightly wobbly fit was bothering me and now its gone, so yeah, I'd say it was worth the $2.99 i paid for it.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=698479

I'll weigh in on this since a few as said that making AR upper and lowers homogeneous is a waste of time.

So far as rifles go that are used for fairly inaccurate fire otherwise known as spray and pray one might not care if that there is a bit of movement between the upper and lower.

Precision shooters such as NRA high power competitors need to get as much accuracy as possible from their rifles. If there is movement between the upper and lower a constant hold is impossible. What if your bolt gun had 1/16" play between the action and the stock? Do you really think that optimum accuracy is possible?

For precision shooting there needs to be no movement between the upper and lower or action and stock. I use leather under the back upper pin to take up the slack between the two. Some like the 9 time winner of the national championships at Camp Perry Carl Barnousky (sp) actually glass beds his upper and lower for a perfect fit.