If your suppressed AR-15 or AR10 isn’t running reliably — and you don’t have an adjustable gas system — feat not. There are other things you can do to tune it. Changing the mass of your buffer or even the strength of the recoil spring can do the trick.
Adding an adjustable gas block is the first and best method of tuning your AR for the change in backpressure caused by adding a silencer. But if you can’t do that or if you’ve done that and you find that you still need some more fine tuning, a heavier buffer weight or spring may be the answer.
Check out our latest Silencer 101 video above.
SNW shoots and reviews guns and gear at Copperhead Creek Shooting Club in beautiful Marble Falls, Texas, deep in the heart of hill country. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, it’s worth your time to check them out.
• Carbine Buffer (Standard/Mil-Spec): Weighs approximately 3.0 ounces. Often referred to as a “standard” or “mil-spec” buffer, it’s the most common and typically comes standard in many AR-15 rifles.
• H Buffer (Heavy): Weighs approximately 3.8 ounces. Contains one tungsten weight and is used to slow down the bolt carrier group (BCG) and reduce felt recoil compared to a standard carbine buffer.
• H2 Buffer (Heavy 2): Weighs approximately 4.6 ounces. Contains two tungsten weights, offering even more recoil reduction and further slowing down the BCG cycling. It’s a popular choice for short-barreled rifles (SBRs) and suppressed AR-15s.
• H3 Buffer (Heavy 3): Weighs approximately 5.4 ounces. Contains three tungsten weights and offers the most significant recoil reduction among the standard buffer weights. It’s often recommended for highly over-gassed systems or for shooters prioritizing the smoothest possible recoil impulse.
• 9mm Buffer (for you 9mm AR platform folks) : Weighs approximately 5.5 to 8.5 ounces. Due to the direct blowback operation of 9mm ARs, these require much heavier buffers to properly function and manage recoil. They often employ steel or other dense materials.