I know the idea of buffer weights has been thrown around for YEARS and most people have hashed this out to a certain extent, but I notice  most people are saying "I like to run M855, or M193" etc.... most of my builds I'll use whatever .223 or 5.56 I can get so I also use steel cased Tula and Wolf a lot of the time. shooting lower grade stuff like that what buffers should I START to play with (I know it will be dependent on gun, but didn't know if I should stick with a common starting weight). I run carbine in all my lowers I've built s o far, and I run PSA middy's and a single psa carbine and Aero Precision carbine (all with 16 inch barrels)....

so to break it down...

2x carbine with 16 inch barrels
3x middy's with 16 inch barrrels
1x middy with 11.5 inch barrels

I WAS THINKING of grabbing an H1 and H2 buffer from Tomstactical or DSA and seeing how those go, or should I grab an H2 and an H3 ??? especially for the Aero and PSA carbine. Keep in mind I shoot anything from Tula to M855, to .223 federal from wally world

I am by no means an expert and others will surely chime in, but from all the reading I have done on ARFCOM most have said to get your weapon set up for the weakest ammo you would use. If I am reading correctly, in your case that would probably be the wolf steel case,so if your rifle shot reliably with that ammo and your setup, than in theory all better ammo will work as well. Hope that helps and enjoy shootin your weapons.

I run H buffers in all of mine, 10.5, 14.7 and 16 inch barrels with the exception of my one A1 stock set for obvious reasons.

You can buy the weights al a carte or just get yourself an H3.  Take it and your standard carbine buffer apart.  Then you have all the weights required to configure one of them as an H or H2 if you wanted to experiment and see what winds up working best for you.

Good luck.

great. I'll grab an H and H2 and start testing my rifles one by one. I have MOSTLY middies (including my 11.5 inch pistol) but 2 carbines, so I guess I'll use my Tula ammo an god from there

Seems like all factory builds are overgassed so they will be reliable with all Ammo, although it beats the rifle harder and that is probably why a heavier buffer is often helpful.

If you can put an adjustable gas block on then it would be a better solution to the problem than a heavy buffer though I believe. Tune the gas to the minimum required to function with the carbine buffer. Better yet, put a lightweight carrier in it, and see if you can use a buffer that’s lighter than Carbine. You can buy buffer kits that include aluminum, steel and tungsten weights (I think they include three of each, so you can make a few H1 buffers).

https://www.kakindustry.com/shockwave/ar15-buffer-system

IMO - if they're running fine, save your money. Not gonna see much, if any difference.

aren't AR's strained by running too light of a buffer? I'd heard that under long term use the use of a light buffer with an overgassed gun would wear the extractor etc, and to run the heaviest buffer that will reliably cycle your weakest ammo

also , where is a good place to pick up buffers? and is any brand really better than the other? the best shipped I've seen is Tom's Tactical, but never ordered from them before

H Buffer

H2 Buffer

If the gun is over gassed, then a better option, I think, is to get an adjustable gas block or gas key.

If your set on trying a heavier buffer, then buy 3 tungsten buffer weights on Amazon. That way you can try H, H2 or H3 by mixing up the weights.

I don't think there's a 16" carbine gas system alive that isn't overgassed lol.

I've just heard that the carbine buffer really shouldn't exist in modern AR's. rule of thumb was, h2 or h3 for a carbine and H or H2 for a middy

General rule is the heaviest that it will cycle correctly and lock back on last round.

KAK is cheaper. $15 for the carbine and $25 for an H2. If you want a whole set (Carbine, H, H2, and H3) buy a carbine buffer and three H2 buffers then swap one steel weight and one tungsten weight between two of the H2's. The set of four costs $90 that way. An extra $2 gets you an additional red and an orange bumper so you can tell them apart easily.

In general, run the heaviest buffer that cycles reliably.

It reduces wear on the BCG and other components.

ahh, I saw the H and H2 there... the ONLY reason I didn't immediately go with the KAK was because that's prior to shipping, while the Tom's Tactical is WITH Shipping ... just didn't know if it really MATTERED who I went with for a buffer, or just going with the cheapest would be fine.

as for getting a set. I was going to get an H, H2 and maybe H3 to test out as I already have a bazillian carbine buffers that came with my buffer tube kits. The H and H2 were the most important as I'm guessing that's what I'll end up using in MOOOOOST builds since I will be using lower powered ammo like PMC bronze and Wolf/Tula mixed in with AE223, M193 and M855 (I buy whatever is on sale and run it as my AR's are 99% range toys except for my 11.5" AR pistol, that's my bedside gun). I like my guns to eat everything. The H3 is what I'm grabbing just in case for my 11.5 inch carbine, as 11.5's seem to run best with even H6 and 9mm buffers due to the low dwell time of a carbine in such a short barrrel (at least from what I was reading).

my my middie's I'm not horribly worried, as they seem to like Carbine buffers more than 16" carbine gas systems do, so it's kind of an experiment. But I just built two carbines (one from PSA and one from Aero) and I hear they're NOTORIOUSLY hot on the gas which is where the H and H2 concept came from

If you plenty of buffers bodies on hand just buy the tungsten weights $7.50ea and build your own.

kak