There are many ways to manage recoil, keep muzzle jump to a minimum and improve cycling time. Among the least acknowledged of these are buffer tube replacements and buffer tube accessories. Most credit goes to BCG upgrades with permanent dry lubricity, muzzle brakes, and stock pads.
But the lowly buffer, tube, an essential internal component of your rifle, can (and does) have a very real effect on felt recoil, as well as on the overall handling and balance of your rifle. Bolts and muzzle brakes don’t.
Here’s why it matters.
The Buffer Tube: Its Function
Essentially, a rifle’s buffer tube is just a hollow tube that attaches to the lower receiver. The buffer tube outwardly serves as an attachment point for the rifle’s stock – and that’s one of its central purposes, but it’s what’s inside that matters.
Within the buffer tube are buffer tube weights and the buffer spring. When you fire the rifle, the BCG will travel rearward before stopping and cycling forward to chamber another round. The buffer spring helps to decelerate the BCG and then stores energy that is rebounded back into the BCG so that it can travel rearward and reset. In this manner, the buffer tube and its components help to ensure fluid, fast cycling.
Buffer Tube Accessories: How They Help Manage Recoil
However, the buffer spring and weights aren’t only there to enable the BCG to return forward and reset. Some of that energy carried by the bolt carrier group gets absorbed by the spring; the spring itself helps to diminish the effects of felt recoil without adversely impacting the operation of the action.
In addition, the buffer weights contained in the tube also have a very real impact on the effects of felt recoil. The more mass a firearm contains, the less energy will be transferred from the firearm into you in the form of recoil. In other words, mass absorbs recoil.
The weights in the buffer tube add mass to the rifle, absorbing some of the recoil, giving the buffer spring some mass to recoil against before redirecting the energy forward. That energy travels into the recoil spring and is partly absorbed by the buffer weights, rather than by your shoulder.
The buffer weights also add weight to the rifle. By switching out your buffer weights for heavier ones, you can cut back on the effects of felt recoil without adversely affecting cycling time; if anything, you might speed cycling time up and diminish recoil in one swoop.
Also, by adding weight to the rifle, the buffer weights shift the balance of the platform rearward. This can potentially improve handling and can make it easier to maneuver the rifle more deftly. With more of the mass situated against your shoulder and behind the receiver, the rifle will feel lighter toward the muzzle, making it more nimble.
Contact MCS Gearup
For a full collection of buffer tube accessories and buffer tube kits, visit MCS Gearup online at MCSGearup.com. They offer a wide range of shooting accessories and firearm parts; check their website or contact them at 239-848-6757 or at sales@mcsgearup.com today.
