buffer tube question

NoDanger

NoDanger

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I have a Norc 10.5" AR. I was looking at swapping out the butt stock and noticed that the buffer tube is longer than the standard length. Any thoughts as to why and what would happen if I put a standard tube in its place?
 
Buffer tubes comes in either commercial or mil spec, Norinco tube is commercial spec'ed, one can only assume by "standard" you mean mil spec.
there are no issues with keeping the stock tube or swap it out with mil spec, nor will it be any benefits.
 
I thought commercial vs mil spec had to do with diameter, not length....all of my other buffer tubes are the same length, my confusion is that the Norc tube is longer and I am not sure what the consequences are in swapping the longer one our for a shorter one
 
What is the difference in length? anything less than 1/2 inch will not make any significant difference.

Unless you are troubleshooting a FTF/FTE problem, I would just upgrade the stock and leave the tube as is.
 
Just buy the stock appropriate to your tube. Changing it doesn't give any benefit other than you can tell your friends it's mil spec
 
I have attached a couple of pics to illustrate my situation..I purchased a MagPul UBR stock for a precision project. It turns out that the gap at the rear of the stock grabs my hearing protection once I fire a shot. Decided to go with the MDT stock (should have done that first) and as always, I am very satisfied with MDT and their products. Now I am sitting on that UBR stock and thinking, hey, put it on the Norc (I really don't want to go through the hassle of selling it) except when I take the Norc buffer tube off, it is about 3/4" longer than the spare buffer tube I have and the one that comes with the UBR. I have had zero issues with the Norc and want to keep it that way.


I apologize that I didn't disassemble the Norc buffer from the lower, but I have placed the other two tubes in as close to where they would be, just to illustrate the length difference.
 
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Milspec vs Commercial strictly refers to the OUTSIDE DIAMETER of the buffer tube:

Milspec = 1.14" o.d.
Commercial = 1.17" o.d.

The reason for this difference is that Milspec tubes are machined from a solid billet of aluminum and Commercial tubes are made from an extrusion which require a thicker sidewall to yeild the same strength as the Milspec tube.

Also:
A Milspec stock will not fit onto a Commercial tube.
A Commercial stock will fit a Milspec tube but will rattle.
 
It looks longer but the inside is the same length. The commercial tube has more material at the end of it. I swapped out the old tube for a milspec one and used original buffer and spring with no problems.
 
Cold Cuts said:
It looks longer but the inside is the same length. The commercial tube has more material at the end of it. I swapped out the old tube for a milspec one and used original buffer and spring with no problems.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, I didn't even think of measuring the inside length...
 


mystery solved, the internal dimension of the Norc buffer tube is 7", the same as the after market tube and the tube that is provided with the MagPul stock. For reasons that I don't understand the outside dimension is over an inch longer.
 
There are no specs for commercial receiver extensions, that's why you see all kinds of weird #### on the market. They have to be thicker because they use a 6061-T6 aluminium instead of 7075-T6, which has almost double the strenght. Also, all mil-spec RE's are not created equal, many of them are made with 6061 instead of 7075, this is where you can spot a company that cuts corners and doesn't know WTF they are doing.
 
This is not some sort of attempt by Norinco to put an A5 length receiver extension (but retain carbine length springs/buffers) on their guns is it?

Does the RE has six or seven detents? How far apart are they?

Regards.

Mark
 
MWL said:
This is not some sort of attempt by Norinco to put an A5 length receiver extension (but retain carbine length springs/buffers) on their guns is it?

Does the RE has six or seven detents? How far apart are they?

Regards.

Mark
Click to expand...

Lol, I don't think Norinco has any knowledge (or the capacity to correctly replicate) of Vltor's A5 system.
 
I couldn't think of any other reason for it being that much longer.

I've worked on a few, but I don't recall the RE being longer than normal.

Still interested to know how many detents, and how far apart they are compared to normal.

Also, how it looks with a stock fully collapsed.

Regards.

Mark
 
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