Question about AR pistols

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TonyAngel

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Hey guys,

I'm getting busy on my computer getting ready for an AR pistol build and something just popped into my head.

What sort of buffer setup is it on an AR pistol? Is it a standard carbine setup or is there a "pistol" setup that I need to be looking at? The plan is to put a Shockwave Blade brace on it. Is there one tube that is preferable over another? What about adjustability?

Also, for you guys running 10.5s, what weight buffer are you using? I usually shoot Federal or Winchester 5.56, but also shoot the cheap steel cased stuff.
 
An AR pistol can use any RE- pistol, carbine, A5 or rifle.

Pistol & Carbine RE: H or H2 with the H2 being the preferred choice. Use a standard carbine spring or Sprinco blue
A5 RE: A5H2. Standard rifle spring or Sprinco green
Rifle RE: Rifle. Standard rifle spring or Sprinco green

I make this recommendation after playing with a variety of buffers & springs with 10.5" & 11.5" barrels, correct/corrected gas ports and full power 5.56 ammo.

Although more expensive, I would choose the SBA3 and Split Fix strap over the Shockwave Blade. The SBA3 is more comfortable to use and fits carbine and A5 REs. My suppressed shorty AR with the SBA3, 10 position A5 style RE and A5H2 buffer is a reliable, soft shooter.
 
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MistWolf said:
An AR pistol can use any RE- pistol, carbine, A5 or rifle.

Pistol & Carbine RE: H or H2 with the H2 being the preferred choice. Use a standard carbine spring or Sprinco blue
A5 RE: A5H2. Standard rifle spring or Sprinco green
Rifle RE: Rifle. Standard rifle spring or Sprinco green

I make this recommendation after playing with a variety of buffers & springs with 10.5" & 11.5" barrels, correct/corrected gas ports and full power 5.56 ammo.

Although more expensive, I would choose the SBA3 and Split Fix strap over the Shockwave Blade. The SBA3 is more comfortable to use and can fits carbine and A5 REs. My suppressed shorty AR with the SBA3, 10 position A5 style RE and A5H2 buffer is a reliable, soft shooter.
Click to expand...


+1 on all this. Especially the SBA3
 
I use H2 buffers in almost all of my builds, but it’s more critical in carbine and especially Pistol length gas systems than in those longer. I wouldn’t personally build a pistol length upper without an adjustable gas block, and recommend it even for a carbine length barrel. I like the 10.5” length quite a bit; my current 5.56, 6.8, and 458 are all 10.5”.

Honestly, I hate braces. Well worth the $200 to me to stamp it as an SBR. Ain’t for everybody though. The SBA3 is a lot more comfortable to shoulder when desired than the Shockwave.
 
I'm with varminterror. I like the SBR a lot less than the brace. Personally, short barrel AR's are just miserable to shoot. The concussive blast is unreal. Unless you have a suppressor.
But of the braces, I like the sba4 best, followed by the a3. And a $35 adjustable gas block is a must.
 
whatever brace you use, get the tube with it. Order as a kit. I use a standard buffer on my 10.5. While its pretty reliable, I get a missfeed every few hundred rounds when it gets hot/dirty. A heavier buffer would probably help, but I'm not worried enough. On a 16" 300 AAC I had to go H2 to get brass back in the same county, but it helped with the balance anyway.
 
This one is a minimalist build. I'm trying to stick with compact and light. I'm going with the Blade for now. I have a New Frontiers pistol lower coming in. It has the Blade and buffer tube attached. I figured for the price tag, if the lower takes dump on me, at least I'll have the innards of the Blade and associated equipment.
 
I used a "pistol" reciever extension, which was a carbine reciever extension without the provisions for a stock essentially.

I ran a H2 buffer with no issues from wolf to XM855 in a 10.5" upper.
 
"Lower takes a dump"? Have you had bad luck with lowers? In my experience, the lower is less prone to failure than the upper, whether we are talking about rifle, carbine, or pistol. Unless you are talking about polymer or something out of the ordinary, you shouldn't have any problems.
 
This should be interesting. I can't wait to get it all together.

So, the parts list...

Ballistic Advantage 10.5" barrel
Muzzle device is some sort of short flashcan. We'll see how loud it is. Gotta get a suppressor.
Slick side upper of whatever manufacture MAS Defense uses
Standard barrel nut and handguard cap
MagPul SL slim handguards
Yankee Hill flip up front sight/gas block
Magpul MOE grip
Aero LPK, less FCG and grip
Geissele SSA-E FCG - I wanted this because it's what's in my main rifle and I'm used to it.
Shockwave Blade and buffer tube
Spike's H buffer. These are pretty neat, it's filled with tungsten powder.

I think I'm also going to look into a gun trust. If I go through the trouble of getting a suppressor, might as well go SBR too. Besides, no telling how long that lower will last.
 
I use H2 buffers in all my builds and have both the shockwave and an SB Tactical. Do yourself a favor, get the SB Tactical or SBR it. The shockwave isn't bad but I like shooting the SB Tactical a lot more.
 
Skip the Spikes powdered tungsten buffer. They don't work very well. Slow motion video shows they do nothing to prevent carrier bounce.

If your going to SBR it, don't use a polymer lower. They aren't durable and people have had them break just from shooting.
 
I wouldn't stamp a lower that is of questionable durability. It breaks. Then what?
Another lower and another $200 stamp.

My shoulders are undoubtedly more durable than most, and while the new braces most likely are more comfortable, I find my Shockwave brace to be neither uncomfortable not painful.
Would I pistol a Bushmaster with it? NO!:D

My ten and a half.
index.php
 
Well crap. I knew I didn’t want the bulk of the sb3, but I didn’t realize that sb tactical had other models. Too much shopping and buying in too little time. I think the mini hex is just what I’m looking for.
 
greyling22 said:
I like the sba4 best, followed by the a3. And a $35 adjustable gas block is a must.
Click to expand...

i agree, The A3 and A4 are my favorite followed by the Shockwave, however, if you go with a A3, A4 Strike's Industries or the upcoming Magpul Braces they all use a Standard buffer tube. Now, the adjustable gas block is NOT required, a regular Gas block is perfectly fine.

NOTE: my favorite pistol length is 11.5 followed by 10.5 and 10.3
 
I don't think I'd SBR the polymer lower. I used it because it was cheap and I was curious. I have a couple of lowers laying around that I could use that I think are pretty nice or I might get something else. I can't believe what happened to the price of lowers since I last had to buy one. The last time I bought them, I picked up four Spike's for $49 each. Now they're almost triple that. Apparently, Aero is what I need to be checking out.

I'm really trying to keep this as a minimalist build. As light as possible. I got the flip up front sight/gas block because it's gonna serve a purpose and I'm unaware of there being one with an adjustable block. Whatever tuning I need to do is going to have to be limited to switching buffers.

I looked at SB's stuff and the Mini with the hex tube looks like it would have filled my needs as well. To bad I didn't see that two days ago. Oh, well. At least the Blade is adjustable.
 
DustyGmt said:
The shockwave has its merits, but the SBA3 or SBA4 are hands down worth the extra few bucks. I like the shockwave, I just like the fact that the others take a standard carbine buffer tube and are adjustable. The shockwave is only adjustable via setscrew
Click to expand...

I told a buddy about the SBA4. He had a SBA3 on order. After researching the 4 and handling my pistol he set the 3 back and ordered a 4. It's a much better brace IMHO.
 
I'm currently running H2s on my 10.3/11.5", started with H buffer. Brownells CS carbine spring. Works extremely well with all common M193 type loads, M855 and 77gr reloads. May switch in the future when my CS spring supply runs out and go to a Tubb spring. I am not running suppressed so a H3 buffer may be needed, depends on your barrel gas port, ammo and suppressor combo. Best to have an H, H2 H3 on hand for "dialing in" your firearm.
 
I have a $299 kit from PSA with blade brace. Has been 100% reliable. The short sight radius makes it way less accurate than a 20” rifle.

Other than that its my favorite AR. Don’t overcomplicate things.
 
TonyAngel said:
This should be interesting. I can't wait to get it all together.

So, the parts list...

Ballistic Advantage 10.5" barrel
Muzzle device is some sort of short flashcan. We'll see how loud it is. Gotta get a suppressor.
Slick side upper of whatever manufacture MAS Defense uses
Click to expand...

If you go with the shockwave blade (which I do like for something with such little recoil as 5.56, 300 B.O. etc) go ahead and add one of their flash cans to the cart. They work well in my experience compared to a regular birdcage or most brakes and are reasonably priced, as are the blade and tubes on their site. Getting all of this with one shipping fee will help if you are looking at costs, and you could probably get the blade/tube kit and the flash can all shipped for less than one of the SBA braces depending on which one you are looking at.
 
I already have the blade. I ordered stuff from like five different vendors. It’s amazing how much is out of stock right now. My lpk and upper parts are “out for delivery.” Woohoo.

The muzzle device I got is a slim mini flashcan. Just trying to keep it as light and small as possible.

Oh, and on the matter of the carbon fiber lower, it seems solid and is pretty nice, but I won’t be doing that again. I’m gonna try it out as it is because I already have it together, but I’m gonna swap that lower. I haven’t even shot it yet and I’ve already seen one issue that makes it less than reliable to me. Or maybe not, but it still rubs me wrong.

When I dropped in the Geissele trigger, it seemed fine at first, but I noticed that when you move the safety to the fire position I’d had some slip in it and if the selector isn’t strait he up and down, it throws the triggers overtravel stop off and the trigger won’t break. If I remove all of the stop it works fine, but I can foresee a day when wear might prevent the trigger from working altogether unless the selector is constantly managed.
 
I felt bad once, I met a guy from armslist to pick up a bushmaster XM15 and when I arrived at the place we arranged to meet I discovered it was a polymer lower. I immediately declined and told him had he saw fit to mention it neither of us would have wasted our time. He started haggling down with me, then he went way down. I got a funny feeling from it so I just beat feet.

I wont mess with any non mil spec, non aluminum lowers. They are designed the way they are for a reason....
 
Well, I’m gonna wring it out and see. Or I might just build a .22 around it. I’m sitting here waiting for a client and surfing for lowers. I’m either gonna use one of the spikes I have laying around or get an Aero. Might as well because that lower coming out isn’t a matter of if, but when.
 
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