Seeking guidance on choosing barrels, gas sys, buffer, etc.

[oldtexan]

I was looking through the various threads here the other day and it dawned on me that despite owning and shooting various ARs for a couple of decades, I am woefully ignorant about the interrelationships of how barrel length, gas system length, buffer type, gas port size, and ammo type interact to influence reliability, durability, and other qualities.

As an example, let say we have a shooter who is going to buy an upper and a lower. Our hypothetical rifleman wants a 16" barrel and will be shooting primarily 5.56mm ammo instead of .223, and he splits his time between Alaska in the winter and south Texas in the summer. It would be useful IMO for him to be able to consult a chart, spreadsheet, or guide that would help him make choices about other parts. He could enter his desired barrel length, ammo type, and maybe environmental conditions, and the guide would tell him what combination of gas system length, buffer type, etc, would work best for him. Maybe more importantly, the guide could tell him which combinations to avoid.

I have looked for such a guide and can't find any such thing. I used the search function here but failed to find what I seek. Can anyone here point me toward such a guide?

Thanks in advance.

[Iraqgunz]

Not really. But it would be safe to say that a mid length build with an H buffer from a quality manufacturer will run all day long with good ammo.

[MistWolf]

...and you won't know for certain until you shoot it under the conditions it needs to function under

[TehLlama]

Not really. But it would be safe to say that a mid length build with an H buffer from a quality manufacturer will run all day long with good ammo.

Ding ding. While not Alaska cold, my wife's in that exact configuration ran as well at 100 degrees as 0 degrees. Use the correct lubricant, an H buffer, definitely quality ammunition, and that's the best shot you'll have.

[ZRH]

Temperature shouldn't affect the gas system before it affects the material the rifle is made of. Powder has an oxidizer in it so altitude shouldnt matter [much]. It might kill your lubricant though.

Theoretically if it functions at room temperature it will function over the entire temperature range that aluminum keeps its strength (don't have reference on hand but it's smaller than the range at which steel operates).

[oldtexan]

Guys, thanks for the responses. The example I cited in the original post was just a hypothetical example of a guy who I thought could benefit from having a guide that would help him make informed choices instead of uninformed ones. I'm not that hypothetical rifleman; he is truly hypothetical. I didn't mean to focus on that specific example as if he was a real guy who needed answers to his specific questions.

The point I was trying to make is that the guide could help out folks with holes in their understanding of the AR platform make better acquisition decisions. There is a huge amount of knowledge and insight here in this forum; I was just looking for a way to make it more accessible.

It's becoming clear to me that no such guide/chart/spreadsheet currently exists.