It all depends in the individual rifle. I think an adjustable gas block is the smart route. It addresses the gas directly instead of the surrounding parts.

Sorry what do you mean by non-buffering? I have just read good things about it, that's why I chose it.

The powder filled buffers do not buffer the same is the metal disc buffers. Google is your friend.

My collapsible stock builds are either a Vltor A5 or I start with a H buffer. I used Springco stuff and I didn't see any difference really, maybe in my pistol RE.

Unless you are building something out of the ordinary the standard parts get it done.

It really all depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your rifle build.

Competition rifle, range toy, benchrest/precision rifle, hunting rifle, defensive/LE patrol rifle, etc.

What barrel and gas system lengths are you looking at?

In a word, yes. A heavy buffers main purpose is to slow down an over gassed rifle. In a perfect world, you will want a low mass bolt carrier and a lighter buffer to really take advantage of an adjustable gas system (if your looking for recoil management). As for the buffer spring, I wouldn't get too crazy with some of the over/under power springs options out there. Over power springs will cancel most of the benefits of adjustable gas, and the under power springs could give you feeding issues. Hope this helps.

It's really only going to reduce perceived recoil if the bolt velocity is high to begin with.

The trap that many fall into is the idea that some kind of "enhanced" part will always be better, higher reliability, or whatever than standard parts. This is categorically untrue.

There's a continuum from excessive energy down to insufficient energy for reliable operation. Those who build and tune rifles for action competition generally try for the lowest energy possible to minimize "recoil", which is really the sight disruption and firearm movement from the function of the action. This is counter productive to high reliability for defensive use, especially if you also figure in a margin for extreme cold environment operation. At the opposite end of the spectrum are parts which are designed to counteract various problems/symptoms from excessive energy, which are often counterproductive if you try to use them in a rifle without excessive energy.... when the better solution is to just fix the timing and energy issues to start with.

My advice would be that you're overthinking it if you're looking for a general use, range toy rifle which may be pressed into service for SHTF or the like. If you're building with a carbine length buffer tube, just get yourself an H or H2 buffer and a standard spring and shoot it. If you have a reasonable gas system/barrel configuration to begin with, adding up a bunch of nonstandard parts just seems like a waste of money and maybe a recipe for failure. Your 16" ARP barrel setup should be fine unless they're running a really oddball gas port diameter. I wouldn't try to apply a bunch of fixes to something that isn't broken, or at least until you know it's broken and how.

if a range toy for plinking every once in awhile, you don't need to put much thought into it. 5.56 and mid lenght gas system is not kickin that hard to being with!
adjustable gas block is nice if you find a round that you like or reload yourself. but if you find yourself jumping from round to round you may end up adjusting it at every shooting session as your round choice changes.
for just a range toy, just build it stock and work on your body position. it would matter what you put on the gun if your body position is wrong. after that you can start to tune it out.

Why not use totally stock parts? They work just fine. Tens of thousands of rifles in the world are working just fine without expensive add-on crap.

What is your definition of totally stock?
There is an incredible variation of production ARs produced on the commercial market.
Even the military currently uses a number of variations.

If you're buying from AR15Performance I would ask them what buffer/spring combo works best for their barrel.

I have a 16" midlength that was overgassed - port was 0.085" and shoud've been closer to 0.076-0.080" ideally. The other middy I have with a 0.076" port shoots like a dream. An adjustable gas block worked wonders for me - I was surprised how far I had to turn it down. I'm also using a Sprinco enhanced 'blue' spring and ST-T2 buffer, auto-BCG.

THIS!!!!!!!


only the uniformed will tell you to buy the ninja parts

Well thanks for the help everyone but I got the standard spring, buffer and a Syrac Ordnance adjustable gas block, so we'll see if it's worth it.