Hey guys. Just finished testing out my first pistol build. Put a couple hundred rounds through her and it has a noticeably more violent recoil then my other ar's. The build is an 11.5" bcm and a phase 5 hex 2 tube. The phase 5 came with a spring and buffer wich I think is carbine. The pistol shot everything I fed it...Tula, pmc bronze, fiochi 223, and pmc xtac. The pistol was ejecting brass at 2-3 o'clock position and the brass deflector looks like it's gone through 1000 rounds.

Is this ejection pattern ok? I'm thinkin. A heavier buffer is a solution but don't know where to start. This is a personal defense pistol so reliability is the most important. Should I even bother swapping and testing buffers?  If it ain't broke don't fix it?  I'm just worried that this ejection pattern means higher pressures and more wear n tear on the pistol.

Pistols can feel more violent, little less weight(typically) and the buffer tube isn't exactly comfy without a cheek rest or SB15. 2-3 O'clock ejection might be a little over gassed BUT I never rely on ejection pattern alone, what does the brass look like? heavy extractor marks? any ejector marks? LOTs of black soot on the case neck/shoulder? these are signs the bolt is trying to rip the spent case out too soon.  

If the brass looks good I'd leave it alone. If not, then the best fix IMHO is an adjustable gas block, if you don't want that, I wouldn't on a SD gun, then try an H buffer and extra power spring.

I had the same issue with my carbine. I switched my carbine buffer to a h2 buffer. Loaded a bullet in the mag and fired off a round. Bolt catch stayed open indicating that the new buffer was not over weight to cause jam in the upper. Hope that helps.

So there is carbine buffer, h1,2,&3 buffers

I should jump right to an h2?  The brass was in really good shape. Dirty after the first magazine but that's from the chamber getting dirty.   I undersand the pistol isn't gonna run as soft as my rifle length. But I remember my over gassed bushy wasn't this violent.

If you have a standard buffer and buy an h2 or h3 you can swap out weights to adjust your buffer. The carbine has 3 steel weights, H has two steel one tungsten, H2 has two tungsten one steel, H3 is all tungsten. You can knock the pin out and adjust accordingly.

Buy an H3 and you get the ability to make all four weights of buffers...
 

Ok cool that is a great idea. Any suggestions on which brand to buy an h3?  I will be buying through brownells

The cheapest no name ones I've bought off eBay have held up fine.

- OS

You can also go with an adjustable gas block to cut back on the overgassing.  That will actually lighten the recoil rather than just weighing it down to slow it.

I like my f marked front sight base and do not wish to use any other sort of gas block. Not that I use iron all that much, just that I like the looks of the fixed fsb on ar's

I'll use the heaviest buffer that consistently locks the bolt back with steel cased TulAmmo or Wolf.

Set up thusly,  my 10.5 is just as smooth as my 16" rifle and has been perfectly reliable.

That's quite reasonable way to go, though the puniest round I've found so far is the Federal bulk .223, somewhat weaker than any of the various Russian steel rounds.

I'm running H2 in both my pistols, though they ran fine with standard carbine buffers too. Changed ejection angle a little, otherwise no difference. Slight diff in internal "snappishness" (I think), but no diff in actual "recoil" as far as I can tell.

- OS

As I'm running extension tubes with rubber covers, the difference has been quite noticeable and dramatic.  My pistols went from bruisers to fun.

I guess you mean just buffer tube into shoulder, something I've never really done but a time or two and hated it period.

I've only fired my two originally with buffer tube alongside cheek, and didn't notice any diff in how far they wanted to jump backwards (which isn't much with either buffer, otherwise I'd have a black eye,  more up than back). Just noticed the internal action seemed smoother. I've added SIG brace to one since, but was after switching to H2 on that one also, haven't compared with carbine buffer.

I guess "YMMV" may be pertinent.

- OS

use a more effective muzzle brake to vector recoil to the sides of the weapon instead of to the rear.

Any proper muzzle brake will have excessive noise and blast in such short barrels...and that still won't help a gun with signs of being overgassed. In fact,  it would likely make things worse in that respect due to more back pressure.

Yes a muzzle break is not an option since this is a defense rifle. I will order an h3 buffer from brownells and start tinkering.

Fwiw. The recoil isn't bad, it being a .223/5.56, it's just noticeably snappier than my rifle and carbines I've shot and want the smoothest system I can obtain wth sacrificing reliability