Enidine recoil buffer

[righty]

Has anyone tried out the Enidine or Olympic arms recoil buffers in the POF415 rifle. I have a POF coming to my house in two weeks, and I am interested in a buffer.

I have been waiting 21 weeks for my POF 415 rifle. I am dying to get the thing and head to the range. POF said that they are waiting for the Mag Pul stock to get in.

[Robb Jensen]

I've used Enidine and MGI Rate Reducing buffers in D.I., POF/Bushmaster piston, LWRC and ARES piston rifles. Both buffers soften and slow the cyclic rate of the piston guns pretty well, piston guns don't need to run slower but the Enidine/MGI do make them feel quite a bit smoother.

The Enidine is 4.34oz and reduces the rate even more than a H and H2 buffer, more because it's also hydraulic. I ran one in my 3gun rifle for a while, but as I get faster and faster I can 'feel' that the rifle is out of battery for a longer period of time and I've since switched to a standard H buffer. When I get even faster I'll be switching to a CAR buffer. With the H the muzzle just barely lifts because of my very efficient muzzle brake (Flatland Forge F2 Comp).

Here's some buffer weights that I've measured. I see some advertised as different but these are what my digital scale reads.

buffers
CAR buffer 2.96oz
Bushmaster H buffer 3.75oz
CMT H2 buffer 4.57oz
HK416 buffer 4.6oz (essentially an H2)
CMT H3 buffer 5.43oz
Enidine hydraulic CAR buffer 4.34oz (newest type, softer spring rate)
Enidine hydraulic rifle length buffer 5.84oz
Bushmaster rifle buffer 5.2oz
Colt 9mm buffer 5.6oz
MGI rate reducing buffer 7.1oz.

[militarymoron]

i've found that the combination of enidine buffer and the PWS DNTC brake makes for a noticeably soft shooting carbine with almost no muzzle rise. last time i was at the range, i had some of the other guys shoot my rifle, then theirs immediately after, and switch back and forth. every single one of them went 'wow - that's a big difference'. more than they'd have thought. i like the enidine, and i'm not fast enough to worry about a slower cycle rate. :)

two caveats - the DNTC brake works great, but can be unpleasant for those shooting beside you.
while i've never had my enidine buffer fail, i've heard from a trusted source of two enidine-buffered rifles going down during a class. replacing the buffers with H ones fixed them. just in case, i always have a spare H buffer in my kit no matter what i'm using.

[AR15barrels]

Here's my goldmine of buffer info:

http://ar15barrels.com/tech/buffer-construction.jpg

http://ar15barrels.com/tech/buffers.jpg

[Moose]

I've used enidines with varying degrees of success and once you get use to the fact that you need to pull the charging handle back about half inch once the initial resistance is felt (to get past the buffer head), it's fine.

I have seen the heads break on the buffers, usually during extreme usage.

[AR15barrels]

I think the piston uppers are more amenable to changing the spring rates than buffer weight.. you can get some ridiculous recoil impulses & reliability problems with heavy buffers. Admittedly, I haven't sorted out why.

I'll take a stab at it...

It's a combination of timing.

Look at a regular DI gun.
Look at the TIME from when the gas system begins to pressureize until the TIME that the bolt carrier begins moving.
There is a significant delay between these two events caused by the length of the gas tube and the quantity of gas necessary to fill that volume.
The gun BEGINS recoiling simply from bullet movement BEFORE the action movement ADDS recoil.
The TIMING of these two seperate impulses can allow them to run in series, one after another.

Now look at a piston gun.
The path from the gas port to the piston head is quite short.
Therefore it takes less TIME to fill the expansion chamber and begin the movement of the bolt carrier.
The timing of the secondary impulse may be shortened up enough that it overlaps with the initial recoil impulse.
I surmise that if the two seperate recoil impulses are in parallel for a short period that you would feel a harder and quicker hit to your shoulder.

What thinks ye?

[Heavy Metal]

I am partial to the MGI unit myself.

[AR15barrels]

What, no HK416 granular tungsten buffer on display... hah

I'm still waiting for the picture you were going to send me.

[Robb Jensen]

I'll see if I can get some pics when Mr. ? brings the HK416 and HK417 by for me to evaluate very soon.

[Robb Jensen]

I tried to post pics here before but the 6megapixel my be to much... maybe email.

I use a 8 megapixel Canon XT Rebel SLR camera for my pics. Just trim the pics down so they're 700 to about 850 pixels wide and they'll fit the screen. You can lower the quality as well with photo editing software. I use Photobucket for online storage/hosting.

[AR15barrels]

Buffer is unremarkable: small divet on front center of buffer with red paint in it to show it's the 416 one... & spring is stouter. However, I'm not gonna knock out the roll pin & pour out the granulated tungsten.

I wanted the picture of the granulated tungsten to add to my buffers picture...
Once you get around to knocking that pin out, you can email me the picture. :cool:

[wild_wild_wes]

I have an Enidine hydro buffer and I think it cuts down on recoil, but occasionally the bolt fails to lock after the last round.