See  my 7/9/03 post

I installed an entry stock on my AR.
It came with buffer tube ,carbine buffer, and spring.
The rifle functioned fine ( shot about 90 rds ),but when I disassembled for cleaning ,I saw that the buffer had small gouges in it,
in a circular pattern.
( NOT just scratches )
There is no visible damage on any other parts.

Is this buffer too soft? , or is my buffer detent pin sitting up too high ?

Not a pic - but here is an "artists rendering"

The bolt/carrier prevents the buffer from touching the detent with the receivers closed.  The wear is from the end of the carrier.  My buffers show the same wear pattern.  I estimate 10k rounds through mine.  At the rate of wear it will last longer than my son's son's son will survive.

I tried softening the sharp edges on the end of the slot along the bottom of the carrier but was not convinced it made any difference.

I understand what you are saying , but this is
not what I call "wear".
The gouges are like a chisel was used on the
buffer.

(you can feel the burrs with your finger)

When I was in the service , we had well used
M16s during training , and at my Duty station.
We cleaned them after each use , and I never
saw damage to the Buffer like this [:(]

I have a home built rifle with mostly Bushmaster parts and am seeing the same kind of wear.  I have a 20" inch barrel and a standard receiver extention.

The wear is normal, just means that the end of the carrier is a little rough. The wear should eventually stabalize.  If you want, you could polish the end of your carrier, but I don't think it will really matter since the buffer will never wear to the point it would fail.

AKs

If those pencil marks on your pic reference dents then for whatever reason your buffer is hitting the buffer detent during firing. Light cosmetic wear is normal in this area for a lot of ARs. A radial pattern of dents is a sign something isn't right, failure to correct it can lead to malfs.

Lots of reasons for that. Shotgun the upper and see if the rear of the carrier is even with the rear of the upper. As you close the gun up make sure you can feel the tension increase (you can hear the spring compress too) as the buffer contacts the rear of the carrier as OG said.

I'm assuming that you didn't have these dents prior to installing the entry stock?

Thanks Tweak- I examined everything , and
compared the short buffer with the original
long buffer(which was only dry fired) ,
and also with the buffer on my other(factory
stock) AR.

BOTH other buffers showed SOME similar wear ,
but not like the car buffer.

I think it may just be a cheap NON milspec
part [:o](softer than it should be)

In any event , I don't think it will cause
any malfs , the buffer will just wear a little
more.
(Keep in mind I bumpfired 90 rounds through
the thing with the new buffer, LOL).

I had a similar even happen to my superlight bushmaster (all BM parts).  The first openings and closings really gouged out the buffer face.  Turned out that the cutout on the bottom of the bolt carrier had a tiny flare.  Filed it down and corrected the problem.  ALL my ARs have always had slight dents in a radial pattern on the buffers.  All with Armalite or Bushmaster parts.  There is no way to prevent them.  Steel rubbing against aluminum is going to cause wear and the radial pattern is probably caused by slight turning of the buffer on every cycle as the spring compresses and turns ever so slightly.  Visit a gun show and look at the buffers on used rifles.

Happy Shooting

I had the same thing on my 16" Car, and thanks to the info in this forum, it was indeed the notch in the carrier with a raised edge around it causing these indentations. I used a fine cratex pollishing wheel in a dremal to pollish it out and putting a slight bevel around this notch. I haven't noticed any more indenting as yet, but have only fired 120 rounds since. Hope this helps.